I had the pleasure of working with Jack during a 4 month stint on R05.
Coming towards the end of our tour, it occurred to me that I'd not seen a single SHAR land so, I popped up to Flyco and asked permission to take a look and get some pics.
Jack London was the second jet to approach the deck however, from the offset, things looked rather different from the first landing I'd just watched.
As he came to the transition to the hover, he didn't seem slow down much and maintained a healthy overtake on the carrier. Unfortunately, he did descend and disappeared from view. I will never forget the site of a WAFU waiving at him as he vanished. About a second later, jack reappeared courtesy of Martin Baker and promptly vanished again, this time into the water.
He subsequently drank like a fish on 2 deck. Hosted by most messes!!!! Utter legend.
A couple of days later, we went alongside in Gibraltar. Jack made an appearance in several bars dressed like Elvis. I will never forget looking across at the good looking
, as he sang on karaoke, thinking 'good looking lad, harrier pilot, absolute gent AND he can sing like a star...' Slightly envious eyes from many of the lads.
Without exception, everybody on that ship loved him. I never heard a bad word said about him.