I'm sure I posted this earlier......
....but it would seem not.
Ballykelly, mid '60s, oh god oclock in the morning ready for a 14 hr crew trainer.
As we roared off and the usual after t/o chat finished, a small voice from the starboard beam announced "I know the exhausts are brighter at night but the flames from No4 are past the tailplane!"
No 4 shut down and captain announces that we'll land asap albeit more than a tad heavy and tells ATC of intentions. After a few mins ATC say "From your CO you are NOT to land. Go and burn off fuel while doing some training"
Captains says Stuff that we're landing. And so we do. Like a cat peeing on glass.
Get into dispersal and we all get out to see the damage. CO arrives in his mini in one of his (frequent) Hitlerian rages shouting that "I ORDERED you not to land"
No signs of damage to No4 at all. Boss gets even more apoplectic. Get back in the air was his demand. Capt now looking thoughtful.
We are about to trudge back into the aircraft when the FE's torch sweeps past NO3 - covered in oil and slowly oozing onto the pan. Capt feels better.
Griffons on odd occasions best known to themselves were prone to "gulp" and spit out the entire contents of the sump out of the starboard side of the engine. (Doubtless an FE will be along dreckly with the correct explanation).
This was what had happened and the ejected oil had gone straight into the exhaust flame on No4 where it burned rather spectacularly.
Had we done as ordered we'd have been out off the Irish coast with one engine shut down (Suspect fire) and soon another engine seized (No oil) and still at a very high weight. Ooooooer missus!!
Boss departed saying "I want the full report on my desk at 0900".
As a young aircrew person I learned a lot that night, particularly about the irrationality of some bosses. All this came about as a result of "chasing the chinagraph line" on the squadron Ops Room wall. Soon after, the staish put a stop to it.