I was once tasked to take a Gazelle helicopter from the home of RAF Air Traffic excellence to be a static display at Shrewsbury Country Show, on a Saturday. I arranged the OOH movements via Station Ops. No problem leaving in the morning. However, on the way back in, I couldn't make ATC contact. I eventually decided to make blind calls and land anyway. The ground crew met me and we put the aircraft away in the hangar.
After landing I rang Stn ops to ask what had happened. I eventually got a very angry ATCO on the phone telling me that he
had actually responded to my calls and I had answered him, so as far as he was concerned, I was making it all up!
I asked him what time he had logged my arrival. It was about half an hour before I had called him..... I was still on the ground at Shrewsbury then.
On my way back to my MQ I noticed a civilian Jet Ranger parked in the farmer's field next to the married patch. I made certain enquiries with a mate who was know to do "moonlighters" with that particular aircraft (Teeteringhead will probably know who I mean). I asked him what time he had landed - it tied in exactly with the time in the ATC log for
my arrival!
So the dopey ATCO had spoken to a Jet Ranger on a civilian registration, couldn't tell the difference between that and a military Gazelle from his own station as it flew past the tower at low level, right past the airfield itself, and landed outside the boundary. He just assumed it was me, locked up and went home before I even took off!
