Have a good leave you chaps, in the meantime perhaps we could look at Stations/units that Albert has operated from since its entry to service. My own personal introduction to the C130K came in March 1971 on posting to RAF Colerne, atop Bannerdown Hill. As one of six ex 214 Craft Apprentice entry arrivals I was initially accommodated in a Nissan hut, just down the road from SHQ. It had the standard coke stove, and we took it in turns to keep it fired up through the nights.
Colerne had six C130K second line servicing teams, 4 did Base 2 (minor) servicings and 2 did Base 3 ( major) servicings. As White team, a Base 3 team, had a Flight Sergeant manager called Norman Smith, I was allocated to them, with a rumour being spread that I was his son, resulting in my being a little mistrusted for a while, until all became clear. A Base 3 servicing took around 4 weeks (plus overtime) to complete, and was followed by an airtest. Colerne had its own Air Test Crew under the Captaincy of Sqdn Ldr Whelch during my time. The other names I remember is the Air Engineer, Bert Poulton, who inspired my application for Air Engineer a couple of years later, and the "Air test crew" Loady, Roy Gaunt, who introduced me to gliding with Bannerdown gliding Club, based at Colerne at the time. From a techy point of view, Colerne was hard work, but getting stuck in had its rewards, with the teams always having a great social time, and a sense of belonging. For a young 18 year old lad, just out of Halton, having experienced the Hunter as the advanced Airframe, Albert was a whole new world, apart from its huge size (to me at the time) new words like empennage, snubber valve and falsework all entered my vocabulary, and a sharp learning curve soon brought me up to speed. My Air Eng attempt was in my third year at Colerne, I went through the Biggin Hill system to be told that they felt I was too immature at the time to credibly hold SNCO rank! and would benefit if I re applied in a years time. One year later I was busy enjoying Akrotiri with Kilwhang, and I never gave Air Eng a thought after that, although, he didn't do badly
I'm sure many have happy memories of their first association with Albert, its curious that some 27 years later I ended my career as the team manager of Blue team at RAF Lyneham, a direct successor of the Colerne teams. I'm sure there must be some with happy memories of Fairford, Thorney Island and other units associated with Albert over the years. Let's be having you while the aircrew are having a break
Smudge
