My Newfie Nemisis was always Gander,
Arriving for the B/F to find the brakes leaking because of the temperature, was but one of the regular occurrences during the winter months. I believe that I spent more time in the RAFLO's office than in the Albert Ross, during my winter visits. A small sample is as follows, no icons I promise Mal Drop;
I was dispatched with the 6A crew to convey a Propellor and prop change team to Bermuda, where the SAGE, one E* B****m, route checking a newly hatched GE had gone "Tits" ! Now this was January/February and bloody cold on arrival for our night stop Gander en route. The Prop change team were great in helping me put Albert to bed, and we enjoyed a night on the town, with stretchy soup at Vera's (Pizza Delight), and some serious "screeching in". Next morning on start, our extended stay began. Number 3 Prop decided to ditch all of its hydraulic oil just after start. The ambient temperature was -28 and the crew were soon back down at the hotel. ATFOC had no worries, there was a spare prop at Gander, and we had a prop change team on board. Off we went.
To be fair, the RAFLO was superb, he arranged not only hot soup, but also had a polythene tent erected on the front of No3, heated by a 4 therm trolley that kept us fairly warm (the temperature never exceeding -18) doing the reconnects etc. it was the longest prop change I have ever been involved in, taking 14 hours of us all working 20 minutes outside 20 minutes inside to warm up. At the end of the prop change we were ready for the ground runs, but neither the prop change team chief or myself were happy about doing a High Power ground run, on ice, after 14 hours. We called the Captain, and he, and the Eng were more than happy to come to our assistance. He drove Albert to an out of use runway, where we jumped out and bunged some chocks in. One HP ground run followed. A good result and we were hot to trot first thing next morning. It was interesting that on jumping out to recover the chocks we had slid forward, pushing the chocks at least 50ft on the icy runway. At least we had a driver Airframe to control any break out from the chocks. Both the BLSS chief and myself were glad we weren't in the LH seat for the run. By the time we had put Albert to bed, none of us were too bothered about a taxi ride to the hotel, so once again gratefully accepted some warming soup, and crashed out in the RAFLOs office for the night. The trip to Bermuda next day was routine, and the broken down crew took our aircraft back to Lyneham. The prop change went to plan and we were ready to go within 12 hours of arrival, the Hotel beckoned.
The next morning, imagine our surprise when No1 Prop (not the one changed) dumped its contents through the rear GITZ ........
You can imagine the rest chaps, we've all been there haven't we ? 3 more days of hell in Bermuda awaiting the arrival of a replacement rear GITZ seal.
Smudge