Dam* right Spock.
So many great memories.
Like when you and I were students on the OCU and helped educate the staff (younger than us) at Akrotiri?
Then the day we got bounced by a Phantom and got into his six! Now that was a crew effort. The sensor operators and the beam lookouts called the shots. Relying on them, I turned into the bogey, decelerating, reversed the turn, full chat and forced the fly through. I could not see the aggressor until he flew past. That was CRM at its best, long before it became fashionable elsewhere!
Taking a huge gull down the throat of #1 just before V1 at Gibraltar, and Mr Spey, despite damaged blades, delivering full reverse.
Being ordered by 'Bog H' to wire Ascension on departure, then dropping down to 'serve' HMS Invincible before spotting and chasing the Bear Delta.
Dropping Lindholme Gear on a stricken freighter in the Atlantic from 200 feet, in 90 knots of wind with the radalt showing 80 foot seas.
Landing back at St Mawgan with a crosswind above the limit, to find that the Boss, who was in the tower, told ATC not to tell us the true wind.
Flying round Bermuda at 200 feet with HE the Governor (ex WWII Spitfire pilot) in the Right Hand Seat, growing horns. Teed off the resident USN Orion squadron, but we had top cover.
I could go on, but the main point is that we were fortunate to fly a wonderful aircraft in an era when men were men with great crews and good leaders.
But that was a quarter of a century ago. Spooky, eh?
Last edited by Neptunus Rex; 31st Mar 2010 at 20:39.