Summer 1974, and I was a SLOJO at Brize on my Cadetship summer detachment. After all the excitement generated by events in Cyprus, life had calmed down a touch, and I was often asked if I would like to fly with one or other of the squadrons there at the time - notably on the Belslow and with 10 Sqn.
One day I was asked if I would like to go on a quick families/trooping jolly to Gutersloh - out and back, couple of hours - a long lunch-break, really.
On approach to GUT, three greens didn't come up. The aircraft flew past the tower a couple of times from where it was confirmed all three were down. The Captain asked the Flt Eng to just pop downstairs and check the recalcitrant element was actually locked - if not, hand lock it. (As I type I realise this may be b******s, but it is what I was told and thought I heard at the time!)
Again, if I recall correctly, access to 'downstairs' was somewhere in the pax cabin and I watched the reaction of those around the hatch as they saw a chap, in overalls, carrying a toolbox, pull up the carpet and hatch and disappear. The more observant pax had already noticed we had been going round in circles for a while, so they were not exactly enthusiastic about this - and it showed in their reactions.
Clearly, we landed safely but, despite the Captain saying he was happy to take the return pax, wheels down, 38 Gp (is that right?) said no and despatched a replacement aircraft for the pax.
I elected to fly back to Brize with the original crew, wheels down, and jolly interesting it was too. I regretted I did not have a camera as we flew, relatively low, in a sky full of those beautiful, very tall, flattish at the top, fluffy clouds, playing 'in and out the dusty windows'.
Last edited by Gerontocrat; 15th Aug 2013 at 23:03.