Originally Posted by
shaky
Adrian Mole's memory serves him well. I just dragged out my old logbook and see that I flew XV184 on Ruby Signet on 16/18th Oct '72.
My memory may not be as accurate as his but I seem to recollect that when the full formation was assembled it was nearer to 60 than 36 strong.
We only had 66 Hercules in total to start with. From memory, there were 37 aircraft, with five manned spares with engines running. When we started up, 42 number three engines all started simultaneously, upon which inside fifteen minutes Lyneham disappeared in smoke. One of the MSP a/c went u/s and the two MSP's were transferred to one of the spares inside about fifteen minutes. Once they were secured, all the checks were done on the way to the DZ. Stand by for some useless information : Ruby Signet Phase One we dropped 478999lbs of stores, and on Phase Two we dropped 560423lbs, total 464 tons in old money.Those were the days!
