Nimbev, Ancientaviator,
I wonder if the introduction of the GE coincided with the adoption of crew duty hours for the AT fleet. In the days when the Air Eng, plus crew, could fly a Hastings to Aden, change an engine and do the test runs, and have about 5 hours sleep before charging off to the next port of call, the need for dedicated Groundcrew was limited, and anyway, most transient aircraft stops had people who could help. In my day, the whole of the operating crew were subject to crew duty hours, which meant that a delay at the aircraft to help with aircraft servicing could lead to delayed take off the next day. I'm not too sure about trade qualifications prior to mustering as a Flt Engineer, I personally believe that most of them were pretty well grounded in the systems and how to fix them.
I do remember operation "motorman" when I was a Jnr Tech Airframes at Colerne in the early 70s. When a gang of around 20 of us were sent to augment the Visiting Aircraft team at Aldergrove as the troops and rubber bullets arrived. In my day as a GE, such an operation would have been covered by one or two GEs, going in with the first chalk and recovering on the last. Perhaps more efficient. I do know that GEs were always made to feel part of the team when away from base, although, no doubt some aircrew looked on us as "hangers on". On that basis, some of our former ground single trade colleagues resented our turning up in December with a suntan. Who can blame someone though for taking up a challenge ? To be a C130 Aircraft Ground Engineer required passing all four trade courses on the aircraft, plus a bit in 6 months. Being involved in the progression if the route with the professional operators from the Aircrew side. It was a busy time, and the one statistic I remember from my time (88- 95) was that we had an establishment of 32 AGEs, the flying squadrons had the equivalent of 120 constituted crews. About a 4:1 ratio. My average time away in that period was around 275 days a year, and I logged over 5000 hours of "Air experience". I'm biased, obviously, but I reckon the introduction of the Ground Engineer was a positive move on the AT fleet. Certainly the C130K was a real bonus to the RAF, in its day. I suspect though that it was people who made it work from Captain to mess steward.
A couple of GE down route shots, apologies to former GEs in arms, but we did get some days off.
A certain GE in Egypt (No not me, I took the photo). The first GE I ever met who could honestly say he had experience of Camels
(unfortunately not Mr Sopwiths). I'm sure some wit will ask who is riding him
A day off in Malaysia, and three of us were there at the same time. A rarity.
Sorry for the long post, it's obviously a bit of an interest. I'm hoping I can find some more shots of Albert, always the star.
Smudge
