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Old 4th Feb 2014, 12:01
  #13 (permalink)  
Centaurus
 
Join Date: Jun 2000
Location: Australia
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No, but I forgot to mention the Aldis Signalling Lamp.
I was flying a Lincoln Mk 31 (Long Nose) at night on an anti-submarine exercise in the Timor Sea NW of Australia. We got a radar contact at 10 miles (bloody marvellous for our ASV Mk 7 radar). Dived to 500 feet and rushed in to drop sonobuoys and still in radar contact. Extended and tried to switch on the one and only landing light (situated far out in the left wing), but excess speed must have buggered something and it didn't work.

Now less than a minute from the radar contact, I asked the Signaller to aim the Aldis Light at the sea to illuminate the object. At the first flash of light and sparks from the buggered landing light the radar object faded which we were sure it was a submarine submerging.

As soon as the Aldis light operator hit the lamp trigger the light from the lamp reflected from all the glass panels including the cockpit glass roof and momentarily blinded all of us up front (captain, second pilot and navigator). We were down to 200 feet and pitch black outside when we were affected by the Aldis Light beam waving everywhere in the cockpit as the signaller tried to keep his footing. We were lucky not to have pranged.

Everyone up front shouted through the intercom to the Sig to turn off the bloody light which the Signaller did. He then sulked for the rest of the flight. Meanwhile we dropped our sonobuoys and tracked the submarine for ten minutes.

At the subsequent de0briefing back at Darwin, the Royal Australian Navy denied having a sub in the area so we put it down to a foreign sub spying on the exercise. The Navy poo-poo'd our report by saying it was probably only the sound of copulating whales which the sonobuoys picked up...
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