I do recall a really pissed off Boss on one of our trips to Akrotiri. Besides being the CO of the squadron, he was an AWI and a bit of a punchy/stroppy bugger who (understandably) thought of nothing but guns and bombs and stuff. He'd spent a fair bit of time organising Dark Blue in Light Blue territory and, so, really had the bit between his teeth.
899 had gone down there to do the air-to-air gunnery phase of the training syllabus and all the students were keen to get their scores on the doors. Now, on this particular detachment, rather than the much-loved banners, Flight Refuelling had brought some new, fandangled, acoustical contraptions. It looked a bit like a fat torpedo and got towed on a bit of string attached to one of their Falcons. The idea was to shoot behind this gizmo, where the flag would normally be and this thingy could measure where the bullets went. It even had some sort of radar reflector in it so we could lock it up and get all the good gen in the HUD.
First wave got airborne consisting of a bunch of instructors and, possibly, one stude. The steely brigade had to test this new machine and prove what experts we all were (ahem). After a few dry runs in comes number one to go hot. Locks up the target, death cross about where it's about to be and rat-a-tat-tat (Adens). Splash one f*%$ing expensive acoustical target, which takes leave of its bit of string and plunges into the Med, never to be seen again.
Boss is spitting feathers and calling into question the parentage of all gathered, even those who weren't on the sortie. Lots and lots of threats made to all and sundry and woe betide anyone who does something nasty again to the one and only spare that FR have......not in Cyprus but in total.
You know what's coming but off goes wave two, this time with a high stude to instructor ratio. Same scenario with the dry runs and then comes Stude 1. Rat-a-tat-tat (still Adens) and then a scream from the FR guy, roughly translated as 'cease fire'. Left wobbling on its cable with all the aerodynamics of a not very aerodynamical thing was the torpedo with a bunch of holes in it and the FR guys wondering if they're going to be able to jettison it near the base since they can't recover it, thanks to Stude 1's peppering of the target AND buggering the towing system.
Well, the old and bolds of FR did manage to get it back to Akrotiri and, even more amazingly, Crab Air got it back to Yeovilton. And there it hung in 899's crewroom for a goodly amount of time and oft used as a conversation starter for visitors.
The Boss, needless to say, was apoplectic and stomped around in a hissy fit for days. Luckily we'd brought a couple of 2-seaters, so managed to keep ourselves 'current' by taking the Army nurses flying and enjoying the pay-backs. I think we managed to tick off a few other syllabus trips but not really what we went there for. You'll be stunned to know that we didn't get to shoot at those gizmos again
Now, about the RN who not only smashed the other students at Chivenor on the flag but toasted their instructors too
Yeah, you were there Courtney
(on the other squadron)