Log book shows that XJ823 was on 27 Sqn's inventory from April 1977 - I have it's first sortie as a 10 min delivery flight from Waddo to Scampers (captain - Wg Cdr Willis). It was still with 27 in December 1980, just before I was posted; 2.10 co-pilot check, captain - Wg Cdr Pearson.
The blanking plate may be where the Loran C was fitted (memory weak on this as I did not spend much time looking over the plotter's shoulder, mostly head was resting on the radar camera). I don't think the bombers had Loran; it was fitted to 27 'frames to provide the plotter withy something to do while we were out of range of most other navaids/land on all those long interesting MRR sorties (not to mention the other role).
Last edited by HTB; 16th Dec 2006 at 15:12.
Reason: forgot to add the second paragraph