Originally Posted by
CharlieJuliet
Hi d d - was at Manby Sep 64 till Nov 64 as a co on the Varsity and then was on the last Meteor AFTS course at Strubby Nov 64 till Apr 65. In Apr 65 we flew the Meteors down to Kemble for storage/disposal. Were you there at that time? I think that John Scambler was the boss of the Meteor Squadron at that time. We lived in the Nissan huts at Strubby. Great times!!
I was on No20 Course at RAF Oakington from Aug 1962 - Vampire & Varsity. We got going on the Vampire T11 and I managed 34 Hrs on it before the' great snow' of Late '62 - Mar '63, which brought 5 FTS to a standstill... We became 'snow clearers' with Bass Brooms etc, until Feb '63 when all courses were summoned to the Officers Mess, and Wg Cdr Flying announced that something had to give, as courses had built up, so No 20 Course was sent to RAF Manby to fly the Varsity. As fate would have it, Manby was not the destination, but RAF Strubby was; and had Meteors as well. I was thrilled because at 6' 3" the JP 3/4 had been a squeeze and at Oakington, the Vampire T11 was a nightmare!! The Meteor T7/F8 were fabulous machines, and I loved it, passing out in July 1963 and posted to the then 'new' Argosy, even though we all wanted to fly Hunters by then, but that's another story. I had always imagined that we were a rarity in doing our AFTS on the Meteor, so it is good to hear that Charlie Juliet was fortunate to do his AFTS course in late 1964 - Apr '65!! Are there any folk out there who also did their AFTS at RAF Strubby, or on Meteors elsewhere?