I take it you're one of the nice friendly chaps that sometimes pops into the shed for a chat about systems engineering then
Chesty?
I must admit that in four decades I've only been seriously insulted (to my face) on three occasions. One was an RAF VC10 skipper who refused to speak to me personally and addressed me through his Flight Engineer. Another was a Belfast skipper who was offended at getting a mere Corporal to attend to his problem instead of the Jengo. His tirade involved the use of the words monkey and grease but not in that order. The third was a helicopter pilot who pointedly wiped down a Whirlwind's 'mounting handles' with a tissue when I vacated the cockpit to let him in and then handed me the tissue for disposal.
I can't remember how many times I've heard groundcrew referred to indirectly by obnoxious names, but we do have our own names for aircrew too... At squadron parties 103 Squadron groundcrew would sing a song based on the Jungle Book - "Oobi Doo! I wanna be aircrew-oo-ooh! I wanna fly like you, in da sky like you, oo-oo-ooh.... etc." that wasn't very complimentary.
A memorable incident sticks out - one Sunday evening I was taking the Schermulies off the CDS's Gazelle on overtime, before it flew down the river to Battersea. The CDS noticed we were the same crew who had shipped him out early that morning. He told his helicopter pilot to take the groundcrew to the squadron bar and set them up with a pint when he got back. Guess who the helicopter pilot was.
