Originally Posted by
treadigraph
GeeRam, he just says it was ferried out earlier to act as a spare. I don't know if Andy Jones was HSA at the time or perhaps still with the RAF and 1 Sqn (I was only 5 in '69 and blissfully unaware of The Great Race!).
I would guess he was HSA, as at the time of the race the only 3 RAF Harrier pilots cleared to fly the aircraft were Sdn.Ldr Mike Adams who was seconded to HSA Test Team as OPLO, and Tom Lecky-Thompson & Graham Williams who were TP's at A&AEE. Mike Adams was supposed to fly the east-west flight and Lecky-Thompson the west-east flight with Williams as reserve, as he had the fewest hrs on type of the 3, but Adams injured his back when the nose wheel of the Harrier he was taxiing collasped at Dunsfold, so Lecky-Thompson took the east-west flight and Williams the west-east flight.