Sopping on the Cays in Belize
Stopping on the Cays in Belize was not a one off as during a Harrier changeover saga the crew I was on also managed to stay there instead of downtown and the story goes as follows:
Are you sitting comfortably and I will begin, it was a dark and stormy night, actually just stormy and very very wet as the two ship Herc trail carrying both bits of a Harrier to Belize, ( we had the wing, the other frame had the fuselage )landed at Nassau prior to continuing to Belize. As both frames were ready to go at the same time it was decided that the other would takeoff first and we would follow. As the Herc crossed the runway intersection on its take off roll a very large sheet of spray enveloped the aircraft as the mainwheels went through a gigantic puddle, we followed shortly after but with no problems. As we climbed out the other aircraft requested a visual inspection from below as they had a loud flapping noise from the area of the main U/C. After joining below it was seen that the inner port U/C door was flapping in the breeze, presumably damaged during the puddle splash. A decision was made to divert both aircraft to a military base in the States where engineering facilities existed so off we went to Homestead.
It was decided to freefall the port U/C to avoid any damage through forcing the U/C down under power and ask Homestead to check the position of the U/C on a flyby. We landed first and parked up to watch the proceedings as the flyby was performed which was followed by ATC calling in all his Phantoms before this Herc with only one gear down landed on his runway, slight breakdown in communications somewhere we found out! After lowering the rest of the gear normally the aircraft landed and taxied in.
Investigation showed the door actuating rod was broken, probably by the force of the water on take off so no major problem there. However, and this is were it all gets interesting I believe to freefall the U/C you switch off the hydraulic pumps, its a bit vague now it was a long time ago, and the pumps had tripped off and would not reset, yet again no problem apart from the fact it had Vickers pumps fitted which the Yanks didn't have so the frame would have to await spares from the UK.
A cunning plan was then hatched, we would night stop Miami, fly to Belize, unload our load (the wing ) and fly back to Miami to pick up the fuselage and night stop again, then fly down to Belize with the fuselage and stop while the Harrier was assembled, air tested and the returning Harrier was prepped for return. On our first arrival Rudi was asked about the possibility of being accommodated on the Cays as we would have several days waiting for the return load.
So on our return with the fuselage we were informed that our aircraft awaited us at Belize municipal airport to take us to the Cays and would pick us up two days later to take our flight back and so it happened. If you ever saw the municipal airport then taking off seven up from there in an Islander was quite interesting as one end of the " runway " was the seawall and the locals just wandered across as they fancied so the timing of the take off run involved looking for a gap in the foot traffic and aiming to arrive at the end of the runway the same time as the gap did!
We took our half of the Harrier home with no further problems but the frame in Homestead had the further complication after their rectification was carried out of when they went to start up to depart to Belize the Loady got struck by lightning whilst out on the end of the long lead resulting in a short hospital stay but I gather he was fine afterwards although some people said would anybody notice any difference.
It certainly made a change from the Fort George or the other one on the sea front whose name I can't remember,