PPRuNe Forums - View Single Post - Sea Survival Training — Still Taught to RAF Aircrew?
Old 27th Mar 2016, 18:47
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Alan Mills
 
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: Braunton Devon
Age: 81
Posts: 36
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When I was on 204 at Ballykelly in May '67 we did a dinghy drill from Portrush, The AEO (GB) junped from the Pinnace into the dinghy, but the rest of us had to swim for it in flying suits. The Atlantic is very cold in May, but we all made it to the dinghy apart from the captain (LR) who was a poor swimmer. The Nav and AEO junped in to help him and as they were soon very cold I also jumped in to help. We then were zoomed past by the pinnace which thought that we were having extra training, and wanted to make the water more disturbed! The dinghy had no rubber ring and line, and no sea anchor, and drifted away faster than we could swim. We were picked up by the pinnace after they had picked the rest of the crew from the dinghy, and were a sad shivering foursome, only stopping shaking after a few whiskies in the pub in Portrush. A big difference from the previous drill which had been from Aden!
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