Jeapes Tours
Anyone remember ‘Jeapes tours’
Back in 1975 Flt Lt John Jeapes from LATCC Mil (God Bless Him) arranged many fam flights for RAF ATCOs.
One which he arranged at very short notice for me was a ‘Tradeswinds’ cargo 707 flight out of Gatwick going East for about 12 days – was I interested ? Of course John.
So I turned up at Gatwick at 0400 on a Sunday morning after a fantastic party in London and was poured onto the aircraft. Thanks Capt.
I woke up with a headache and stumbled into the cockpit to make my apologies and to find out where I was heading. As I looked out of the cockpit all I could see was sand and mortar emplacements as we were on final approach to some airfield. I asked where were we going and was told ‘Benghazi’. Now I was a Flight Lieutenant RAF ATCO (the crew thought that I was a Civil Aviation Authority ATCO from LATCC) and this was a Libyan Airbase with Russian MiGs. (Gulp). After landing a Russian Air Force Officer entered the cockpit and asked the Tradeswind crew, who were all wearing company uniforms ‘ Who is this’ pointing his gun at me. (My life flashed before me – the headlines in the Daily Mirror “ RAF spy captured on Russian airbase). They replied nonchalantly ‘ he’s only an ATCO on a fam flight.
The crew then went walkabout to look at all the MiGs on the flight line whilst the aircraft was refuelled for cash at bargain fuel prices. I hid in the cabin.
Next stop was Mogadishu where the aircraft was stopped from departing to Bombay due to red tape. I offered to go to the control tower to see if I could help. The Colonel in charge of ATC was a fellow student on my RAF Shawbury course so after swapping tales the aircraft was up and away within minutes. This returned my credibility no end.
We landed in Bombay in a storm and then flew to Hong Kong and Taipei. Karachi was next and then to Liverpool where I caught a train back to Gatwick.
Now that was a fam flight to remember.
Gisajob