Originally Posted by
Expe
Fantastic, thanks all. I worked under a certain D/Flying(PE) around the name of Schooler (sp?) late '80s. Fun watching people trying to procure anything. I moved engines around and found some merlins hiding in a wind tunnel, probably Farnborough. Being youthful and all that was keen to rescue for BBMF. Went grey trying and left. Guess they are still there.
Gp Capt David SCOULER. COEF at Farnborough and as with normal tradition, next posting was D/Flying (PE) which had been an Air Cdre post until David took over when it was downgraded to Gp Capt!
He presented me with a 'Good Show' award in the mid '80s after he had moved to Boscombe, I think Graham Williams was his successor as COEF at Farnborough. Last heard of David instructing on microlights at Old Sarum.
I happened to visit Coningsby for summer camp with my ATC cadets about the time the RAE Transport Flight Devons were being replaced with Navajo Chieftains. The BBMF people told me they had a 'hack' Devon which they'd literally 'pinched' from Wyton as it was about to be retired, problem was as it wasn't officially on charge, they couldn't get any spares for it. I told them about the Farnborough Devons being retired and a few weeks after summer camp, the BBMF Devon arrived at Farnborough. It was pushed into 'A' Shed (where the Devons had been serviced) and the doors were closed. About 2 hours later, it was pushed out, noticeably lower on its oleos than when it went in!!
BBMF later replaced this Devon with Farnborough's Dakota ZA947 which had been erroneously registered KG661 while at West Freugh, the 'real' KG661 having apparently being written off whilst serving with the RCAF.
Re the BAC 111s; the one at Farnborough (XX919) was already on strength when I was posted there in March '74 although I didn't see it until August as they were re-surfacing the main runway until then. Bedford's 1-11s came along later, the last one being about '92 I think (may be wrong) .
By the way, I don't think there were any MOD(PE) aircraft actually based at Aberporth, all the ones used for Cardigan Bay trials were based at Llanbedr.