Shack Mk2 Ballykelly.....
......oh dark thirty and we're off somewhere at max all up weight. After the initial flail of getting airborne a small voice from the starboard beam lookout (Yeah him again)says "I know the exhaust flames are brighter at night but from No 4 they're reaching past the tail plane" Ooooooer missus.
Capt decides we're going to land overweight but tower informs us the squadron boss "ordered" us to remain airborne until he gets to the tower to take control.
Capt says "Bollocks, we're landing" and so we do. Like a cat peeing on glass.
Boss screeches into dispersal in his mini having one of his (frequent) Hitlerian rages. "I ORDERED you to stay airborne".
We all get out to inspect No 4 for signs of fire - none! Boss gets even madder.
We are all reluctantly contemplating getting back in again when someone's torch sweeps over No 3 - absolutely plastered in oil and it's trickling onto the dispersal.
Griffons were known from time to time to "Gulp" which was spitting ALL the oil out of a vent on the outside of the engine. (No doubt a FE will be along dreckly with the technical explanation)This was what had happened and all the ejected oil was blown into the exhaust of No4 where it burned spectacularly.
Capt would then have been faced very quickly with the dilemma of no.4 shut down, suspect fire followed by no3 seizing, no oil and we're at Max AUW.
Boss turned round and walked away saying "I want the incident report on my desk at 0900".
He was my first Squadron CO and quite possibly the worst. I thought then and still think today that he was borderline psychotic.
I learned about flying (and bosses) from that night.
The Ancient Mariner