Read 'The Lightning Boys' by Richard Pike! A collection of 'war stories' by the pilots who flew it.
Chapter 1 - There I was at 30,000ft when I had a No1 Engine Fire!
Chapter 2 - There I was at 30,000ft when I had a No1 Engine Fire!
Chapter 3 - There I was at 30,000ft when I had a No1 Engine Fire!
Chapter 4 - There I was at 30,000ft when I had a No1 Engine Fire!
Chapter 5 - There I was at 30,000ft when I had a No1 Engine Fire!
Chapter 6 - There I was at 30,000ft when I had a No1 Engine Fire!
...and on and on and on!
Anyway, you get my drift and that tells you something about the Lightning's reliability!
Look here:
https://maps.google.co.uk/maps/ms?ms...a=0&dg=feature
And you'll see a map of Lightning losses and just how far they got to/from base before they speared in!
Bloggs
Here to help!
PS. The entry for XR768: October 29th 1974 on the map is wrong. I was bombing on Wainfleet Range that afternoon when we heard the Mayday from Tex Jones just before he ejected. We cleared the range and, in a Buccaneer, assisted the rescue chopper (Whirlwind, if I recall) who had no Violet Picture with locating the survivor in tumultuous seas just before dusk. Tex Jones did survive because he rang me afterwards to thank me for 'raising his morale' as he sat being tossed around in his dinghy and we orbited overhead - he promised a crate of beer as a reward... ...it never arrived! That's Lightning pilots for you!
