Ah yes, the Silver Jellybean!
I'd been on a SORF JP refresher in Apr/May 1977 at Leeming, so went along on one of the practices and watched a stunning display of incompetent leadership by the lead Jetstream. A box of 4, with 4 Cranwell Dominies in vic on one side and a box of 4 Finningley Dominies in vic on the other. Slightly early, so the clown decided to throw an orbit, much to the anger of the poor sods on the inside.... Then we set off for the target which, if I recall correctly, was Lindholme that day. As soon as we'd passed, the Cranwell Dominies, who'd clearly had enough by then, legged it as soon as they could. I'd love to have heard the debrief!
The SORF refresher was a prelude to my Vulcan OCU course, the simulator for which was at Finningley. So at the end of June and in early July, I was there to witness some of the arrangements for The Day. Huge amounts wasted on tarting up Finningley; I also recall seeing the Op Order, which specified that all officers attending in No1 HD had to wear new shirts with gold cufflinks... Fortunately my Vulcan sim course ended on July 19th, so I escaped the real nonsense!
On the day itself I had a picnic in the sun at the viewing point just off Tillbridge lane, waiting to watch the departure and arrival of the Scampton-based formation. The viewing point is just off the end of the RW, so the sight and sound was most impressive!
Sleepy Fred passed away some 20 years ago now. But we shouldn't forget that he fought in WW2 and was a PoW in Germany for 5 years.