Although only groundcrew on South Line in the '90's, the missus & I loved our time at ISK & miss it a lot. We had some great times & some really gut wrenching ones, knowing many of the aircrew lost on both the recent accidents that have probably led to the premature demise of the most versatile Nimmy. I had some fantastic & memorable trips with you guys, being in the cockpit while the pilots seemingly effortlessly prodded into a VC-10 & then a Timmy while tanking non-stop to Ascension, then having to hitch a ride home on a Timmy after we had to abandon the aircraft on the pan there after it got hit by a flock of Gannets while doing a training sortie, I subsequently tried tanking in the sim, managed to connect once for about 30 secs but would have wiped out the tankers or "my crew" many other times - respect to you guys! I was lucky to get a 6 week stretch in Jax with all the local (& not so local) flying that I could afford from the Navy club there. So many more sights, sounds, even the more mundane deployments such as a week at Yeovilton were always hard work but hugely enjoyable, & then theres the unforgetable smell & taste of Honkers Stew - life is so dull in comparison.
Thanks guys & gals of Kipper fleet everywhere
God Speed
R2