Fantastic thanks chaps!
Fixed Cross, what would you be doing during the 90 minutes you were held in the aircraft at night? Dozing? It must have been quite tedious after a while! Do you remember how many crews were in the rotation per aircraft? I mean how often would you have to complete these hour and half stints? Did you go out to Germany during one of 85s temporary deployments? Do you recall if there were any differences to the stand-by procedure?
Sorry just realized that is a list of questions .... its a fascinating, rarely touched subject.
Lightning Mate - Happy to hear your stories! What period did your service cover?
Thanks Dominator, I have a bit of a soft-spot for the Phantom, quite the beast. I seen some footage of Battle Flight F4 launches. Very impressive! When all else is ready to go and the INAS align is chugging away must have been frustrating. I have heard elsewhere that the American Zulu alert sometimes took off before it had fully aligned in order to reach readiness time.
BB