Good comment Doug, and nice to see you still have your primary navigational instrument !!
Whilst electric Betty never bought me a beer down route, you certainly did, There's no substitute for a proper Nav !! How does this sound for a 4D deployment in GW1. Deployment to Abu Dhabi, with various activities related to shakeyboats and even shakier Hereford people (least said the better). We depart Lyneham and flag Akronelli for Abu Dhabi, it was a long trip in the hammock, and both of us GEs looked forward to seeing the hotel that was to be our home for the following four weeks. 4D was Captain, and seemed to enjoy returning from ops, as we performed the A/F servicing, to inform us that the plan for the standard 26K fuel load, was to be changed to 62.9K (until it leaks ISTR) and by the way, do a B/F we depart in an hour. Off we went to Diego Garcia,(DG) flat floor, our pax and cargo offloaded , life was never more sublime in the hammock, until the Loady and myself swapped jobs for 6 hours. DG was a 14 hour chance to sleep, by now I'm like a thing on a spring, my body and brain can't agree whether I should be sleeping or awake, the matchsticks in the eyelids ensured I was available for the transit DG to Riyadh after our downtime. On arrival at Riyadh, we carried only an RN sub Captain as Pax who was escorted to a "Briefing, we were told that Hotac accommodation was not available, bed down on the aircraft and make do, departure for DG in 12 hours. Now we are competing for the right to sleep in our own hammocks, though our Nav, one R4 C***man as I recall remained strapped in front of his Doppler throughout, thank goodness we had some DFs on board, there's at least one poster who must remember this trip (DC) ! On it goes, we take the submariner back to his boat, enjoy a few beers in the wardroom, and 14 hours ground time before departure. My fellow GE and myself just didn't know what time or planet we were on, so wandered the island getting only a couple of hours kip, back on Albert, concerned that we might miss call and credibility. The last leg was a straightforward DG to Abu Dhabi. On landing, and looking forward to arriving finally at our HOTAC in the near future, we were informed, by none other than 4D that 26K was the fuel load, take off at OFFS next morning to do some HALO drops. I know what I felt like, what 4D and the rest of the operating crew felt like, I hate to think. Professionals all, there were no complaints.
I'm damn sure that Doug as a Nav can come up with the hours required to fly that schedule, I, to this day have no idea of the hours, and hours, and hours we spent, at the start of that det in the aircraft. 4D, as always just "kept on truckin" as some say, a fairly standard deployment continued for the rest of the month, with a mishap that led to my eventual medical discharge just before our return in time for the new year. A memorable Christmas Day Dinner, after collecting "A senior officer as guest of honour " from Riyadh was well enjoyed. Hours? As can be seen, 4D knew how to accumulate them, and never refused an opportunity. As an aside, I well remember our Captain giving us a guided, low level tour of the Radfan etc, whilst giving us his history of flying Defenders around the same area, in a previous existence. As always, apologies for the long post, I do try
Smudge
