The last couple of "Ripping Yarn" topics seemed to be well received by many ... so I thought it might be about time to start another yarn topic
Now I can't offer personal stories of high speed/altitude daring dos ... but here's something to start us off ...
On one early morning in December 1976, I was airborne in a Chipmunk (WZ845) with S/L John Shelton doing a weather check out of RAF Manston ... more to do with checking the X-Wind than the cloud base as I remember. We had just departed the circuit and were working the Approach Frequency in readiness for a PAR recovery. All of a sudden the Approach Controller called us on the vhf ... "Alpha Three Zero from Manston Approach ... we have a request from London Civil Air Traffic Control to "intercept" a dirigible heading towards north Kent". The Boss responded requesting the characteristics of the target for possible visual ID purposes ... "Err ... Roger ... Alpha Three Zero be advised you are looking for an inflated Pink Pig, I say again Pink Pig ... acknowledge".
I think John thought it was a wind up at first ... but responded positively and requested Radar Vectoring on the the "blip" that, by then, had appeared on Manston's Search Radar. This was well before RAF Ash came in to existence, so we had no Air Defence Radar help with altitude on the target. So off we trundled at 90 Kts towards Chatham Dockyard to try and find the flying Pink Pig. A Police helicopter had also given chase. John had decided that given various "unknowns" (like was a tether rope still attached) that it wouldn't be wise to get too close ... in any case shooting it down wasn't an option (mores the pity)
Fortunately the viz was good below cloud at 1500 feet ... when we arrived within the target area we couldn't find the bloody thing for love nor money. After about 10/15 mins John advised the Approach Controller that nothing found and that we were returning to base.
Later that day we were told that the target was in fact the inflatable Pink Pig being used on the photo shoot up at Battersea Power Station for the cover of the Pink Floyd album "Animals". Apparently it had become untethered in blustery conditions on the second day of the photo shoot. It was no wonder we didn't see the target as apparently it had burst at an estimated 18,000 feet shortly after we had left the scene ... falling into a local famers field.
It was sad to learn later on that the final Album Cover (above) incorporated a superimposed pig graphic rather than a photo of the actual flying pink pig
Unfortunately the original 8mm film of the photo shoot at Battersea has been blocked on YouTube by EMI ... but here is a clip of the recent reenactment when the PF albums were remastered.
Pigs Can Fly: Pink Floyd Animals album cover reconstruction - YouTube
Strange but true ...
Coff.
And the next one please ...