Wander00 - Seconded!
Happy Christmas to all. Reading Danny's post re. Gatow made me think fondly of almost the final trip on the METS course at Finningley which involved a weekend landaway flown by the studes (me) with our QFI's. (METS being then the multi-engine training sqn to train pilots for the likes of Nimrod, Hercules, Andover etc. and part of no. 6 FTS)
I did mine at the end of February in 1981 and with four studes plus 2 QFI's on board we headed east. Mine was the first leg FY to Gutersloh flown on airways and lasted 2 hours and on arrival we did a quick turn-round and refuelled for the next leg to Gatow. The rest of the trip was as a pax but we were all briefed to keep a good lookout as we flew down the central corridor at fairly low level, probably no more than FL50 or FL70 and past Hannover and into East German airspace.
It was amazing, our route took us just north of Brandenburg and over various military airfields and training areas. I distinctly remember one with huge numbers of helicopters and also spotting the river Elbe as we crossed it. Another memory I have is seeing the other air traffic heading west with BAC 111's (and the like) flashing past us with only a 500 foot vertical separation. It certainly made you concentrate on flying accurately!
On arrival at Gatow we did a virtually straight-in approach over a Russian military tank training area which we flew over relatively low and landed shortly after a RAF C-130 had landed and only after arrival did we hear that it had taken hits from a trigger happy Russian who had loosed off with his AK47! The Herc had been hit in the wing and was leaking fuel. I don't know if this was fairly common then or if it sparked off a diplomatic incident or not but I didn't hear much about this afterwards.
We were put up in the OM which was pretty typical of any RAF Mess but this had a certain amount of history too it with ISTR a huge basement. This was on a Friday and we were not due to return till the Monday so the next two days were spent "sightseeing" both in the nightclubs of the famous Kurfustendam (Club 77?) and also crossing into East Berlin (dressed in No.1's) via Check Point Charlie and dining out in style c/o the French Air Force at their airfield at Tegel.
Seeing East Berlin was a revelation. There was very little traffic on the wide roads and still evidence of bomb sites which had not been re-built. By contract West Berlin was full of traffic and every suitable building plot had been developed. At the time we had a Master Nav called "Spud" Murphy at METS where he was one of the ground instructors and just about to retire. He had flown in Lancasters in 1944 and 1945 and had flown on ops to Berlin. He used to joke that he had created some of the car parks in Berlin!
I also remember being pleasantly surprised to find out that the exchange rate was 10:1 between East and West German Marks; This wasn't apparent to us when we were looking at the price list displayed outside a hotel restaurant but once we clock this the prices looked VERY reasonable indeed so we proceeded to have a big feast! No doubt we were eating in a restaurant where only Russian military, the East German elite, the Stazi and foreigners could dine. We saw queues outside food shops elsewhere and the shops were practically empty with little in the shop-windows.
Crossing back into West Berlin was like turning the lights back on after a power cut! The rest of the weekend was a blur and I was glad that I was not one of the studes having to fly back on the return leg. In fact I felt I had the easiest part with UK ATC for part of it before Eurocontrol took over with a radar to PAR at Gutersloh.
Now all a distant memory, of nearly 34 years ago. Keep the memories flowing Danny - you've got a better memory than me!
Happy Christmas one and all.
Madbob