Well, I have finally got to visit this site, and what memories it has rekindled !
Dodgy Bombs were pretty fatal on Jags (a full piccie sequence of the ejection exists somewhere as I saw it in an Australia "Post" magazine years ago) Rick sure was lucky, and beat amazing odds to fly again.
Motor Cycle Batteries stored in nose lockers on beat ups don't do Jags much good either ...... do they Dick ?!
Air Traffic Control was rather a misnomer at OOTH .... we were a right bunch of misfits for the most part ..... a couple of ex RN ..... Hairy Doug and Don Thompson ..... couple of ex RAF (including an ex WWII Stirling pilot as I recall) ..... ex RAAF (Me !) ..... the GCI bunch and Ops crew were pretty amazing characters too ...... who could forget "Bubbles" (GCI) or Dickie (Ops) .....
The skyvan story was true ....
Havn't heard the one about the brand new tower windows getting blown out by the arrival of the Jags yet Nick ?! Or the one about all the pool furniture getting dumped in the pool or reduced to bits by the beatup over the Mess.
Also heard a rumour that one Jag beatup went through a hangar ....... Have no doubt it happened, and yes I do know who it was ..... !
Some stories happened in the Messes ..... one pissed off (Hunter) pilot who had been waiting a while got the staff attention by blasting a hole in the dining roof with his revolver at Lansab !
AT LEAST 1 laugh came at my expense ..... the Ex RN guys used to use QTH for QGH's ..... the RAAF used QDM ..... I recall sending a certaing "Paddy" out over Aden for an eternity before I realised the CRDF was set on QTE not QDM .... OOOPS !
Hunter time-exed rocket rails made great back axles for Land Yachts !
Cheers and beers.