Hi Longer Ron,
love those stories, and was definitely chuckling on that last one at the 'see you in my office' line. I can imagine the tension on the last nut was pretty damn tight holding that weight. Lucky it did not drop as I have heard from another good contributor on this thread.
Regarding the ejection story, if anyone here can provide rough dates for that incident or even crew names, I'd be grateful. Very interesting about the damage to the nav cabin floor. One question related to SARBE, can you give me a bit of a run down on this kit? Specifically where this was carried, i.e. on the seat itself, then detached to come down with the nav, or remains on the seat and is activated later. I am very curious to know about the range of these beacons and roughly when they were introduced into service.
I remember 231 OCU tail fins well from my days spotting as a kid (the 80s, after your days) from the crash gate at Wyton. Hanging on the fence with a pair of binos trying to make out what was in that little white circle on the fin, eventually seeing the leopard (cheetah?) on a chain.
No doubt I will have some more questions and am sending PM to you now with my address.
Steve