43(F) Sqdn 1974 - 1976... J/T / Cpl...L Fitt AC
Mixed feelings about my time at Leuchars,
4th July Barbies on the beach by the Eden estuary in the company of the crews and engineers of a 4 aircraft det from Bitburg (I think)... their aircraft fitted with Sargeant Fletcher tanks especially modified to carry Golf Clubs and mucho Budweiser... Watched in amazement when said USAF engineers completed an engine change on of their mounts in about two hours... Changing a Spey took two days as I recall...
A detachment to Leeuwarden sponsored by 323Sqdn KLu.with a side trip to Amsterdam the high point of which had to be one of our number (a member of Leuchars MRT) shinning up a very tall flag pole outside the Royal Palace, intent on having a flag away as a souvenir and having to be coaxed down by the Amsterdam Police; full marks to our JEngO for convincing the police that no further action was required and that the RAF would show him the error of his ways...
Tacevals and Minivals and all sorts of other -vals that invariably were called at 3am... the cascade phone system that was used to bring me and other groundcrew in from Glenrothes... why the hell the airforce put Squadron personnel 25 miles from base Lord knows...
Of me feigning death from radiation poisoning when during one such exercise we were all kitted out in NBC kit doing Op Turn rounds. Exposure time 12 minutes laddie... after 30 minutes with no sign of a replacement, I 'retired and sat under the wing and stripped off gas mask and gloves totally pissed off with the whole stupid game.
Dutch Major as referee came rushing over shouting at me to put my mask and gloves back on... "I'm dead" I said... "Exposure time is 12 minutes I've been out here for half an hour... By your rules I'm dead..." Dutch major looked at me then said totally deadpan ... "you are your replacement and your replacement's replacement... You still have six minutes...."
The line and hangar on our shift was run by a very capable Flight Sergeant and a Chief Tech both of whom like me were fairies. The Flight Sergeant was probably the best and quickest aircraft parker I have ever met, spinning our aircraft into 43's hangar as if they were toys, absolute genius. He could clear the line of 8 aircraft in a matter of minutes... This was in the days before HASes came into existence.
QRA... oh what fun... my favourite time... good company, good food, and lots of it. One particular session coincided with the station's AOCs parade and Q was a good way to avoid the nause but on this particular occasion Ivan decided to have a real probe at the UK defences *must have known it was AOC;s!) First launch came at about 3am with our second aircraft being launched about 30 minutes later. We dragged another a/c out of the hangar and got it armed up then it too was launched... By 7am we had every available aircraft either in the air or recovering, Our brothers on 23 with Lightnings were on standby and had their available aircraft armed and hot to trot... Victor tankers by the dozen or so it seemed.
Needless to say the AOC's parade was a joke; all of the two squadrons eng personnel were far too busy to participate...
Lots of gotchas with the FG1... the LOX bottle door for instance... In 1993 I was put on a course of chemotherapy (Non Hodgkins Lymphoma) which meant I lost all my hair and the damage to my skull was exposed for the first time; multiple gouges in my scalp incurred during Before or After flight inspections when I would inadvertently collide with a semi dropped LOX door panel *(A semi dropped door was an indication to other groundcrew that a replacement LOX bottle was required,)
The dreaded PTR374A V/UHF radio... what a stupid place to put it... floor level left hand side Nav's compartment... Seat pan out for every radio change and that involved just about every aircraft trade... 2 hours plus to do a radio change... or hanging upside down, suspended by the ankles, with a mirror and a torch while trying to repair the soldered connections on the radio mounting tray...
Or down on hands and knees trying to repair Rad Alt cables in the pouring rain or sleet...
Or exploding GTS starters...spitting out bits from Door 19...
Of spectacular wet starts... not so much a problem on The FG1 because we always needed ground power for starts but an FGR2 with a dodgy battery was always good show of pyrotechnics!
Does anyone remember a certain Nav who managed to unlock his canopy at 400Knots... nature took its course of course and whisked it away, leaving one very draughty and nigh-on frozen to death Nav... if memory serves correctly it couldn't have happened to a more deserving chap... Full marks to the QRA team back at Leuchars who had the ice skating Score Cards out waiting for his return... perfect 6's all round...
By the way and in possible answer to a point raised earlier about the non use of the No.7 tank... isn't that where the FGR2's HF Radio was installed; our FG1's weren't fitted with HF.
Lots of memories...