Blimey Beags,
A real one straight out of the annals of "I learned about flying from that", or not in this case. Have to say, some days even with the best will in the world, sh1t happens. But what a comedy of errors, thank goodness you didn't get aloft.
I do remember whilst a Cpl at Abingdon signing a Chippy out to a very nice, elderly chap, who was to give experience to the young ATC cadets. He signed the form 705 (Flight Servicing Certificate) and checked the F700 for reds and greens etc. all things I'm sure you are familiar with. Having signed the form I detailed a tradesman to do the see off with the Squadron Leader. I put the F700 for (lets call it) WP805 back in its slot and carried on sorting out the rest of the Chippies, and both ULAS and OUAS Buldog details for the rest of the mornings flying program. I was surprised to see the Squadron leader appear back in the control room some 40 minutes later. He had had to curtail his flying plans due to lack of fuel in the aircraft, and was not too pleased about it, add to that the engine was certainly not very happy during his one sortie made me wonder what was going on. I asked him to accompany me to the aircraft so that we could go through the problems, one of my lads was going to be in big trouble.
Standing to the side of WP815, I listened carefully do the flight debrief. We then returned to the control room. It was only when I picked up the 705 and F700 for WP805 that I realised what had happened. I asked the Squadron Leader if he would be happy with the aircraft he had signed out and left him to ponder his mistake. I too was at fault, I should have ensured that the tradesman detailed to see him off was aware which aircraft it would be, I ratted on myself to the Flt Sgt and we changed the procedures. Out of interest, WP815 had been awaiting our sumpy tradesmen to investigate some engine snags reported from an earlier flight, it had not been refuelled as the debrief indicated fuel contamination could have caused the problems. I learned about managing aircraft from that. Sorry for the diatribe, I do think though that Beags experience and mine both show that mistakes were never the exclusive property of a particular trade.
Smudge