Late 70's and 17 decide to have a weeks jolly to Memmingen, 2x Jags and six troops who are also to be cross trained on the F-104.
Enter the ever resourceful ( he of the " if we run a Jag outside the HAS in -20C the efflux will melt all the snow and ice ", which it did, before freezing solid, along the Jag, again fame ) J Engo who decides the troops can travel in the Commer van, used for generally carrying bodies and bits and which the programme "Scrapheap challenge " was possibly based on.
Just outside Cologne, on comes the pretty orange light, for the first time. ADAC comes to our rescue and, unknown to us, do some pre-planning. It's about 550km to Memmingen.....every 100 km, roughly, there was an ADAC patrol...... waiting.
Arrive, eventually, at destination and go to MT. The Germans, ever diplomatic, once they had stopped laughing having seen this relic, say we can't repair it. At which point, we produce the international currency, contained in a bottle with a red label, and explain that's fine, all we want is the paperwork to say it should be scrapped.
The Germans, now very happy, duly oblige with chapter and verse as to why the heap is a death trap. However, we still have to return and, to add to the fun, they are having a "Minival".....had this been the RAF, as we know, the admin world would have said " we're closed, there's a war on ! " and that would have been that.
Thankfully, the Germans were considerably more realistic and thus we were booked, tickets provided c/o the Luftwaffe, on the Munich-Amsterdam express from Ulm to Cologne. Very scenic, very hospitable and free !.
It was only once the heap had been returned to Bruggen, on a low loader, that the allegations of our clearly lamentable driving skills suddenly ceased.