The British are quite good....

[ExRAFRadar]

Might bring back some memories

East Anglian Film Archive: Anglia News: Annual Bombing And Navigation Contest Between British And American Bomber Crews, 1976 (http://www.eafa.org.uk/catalogue/11012)

Check out the Coltishall open day on the same site.

"The British are quite good" Bloody cheek.:)

[PeterHai]

I remember this story as I had just arrived at Marham as a brand new Navigational Instruments Junior Technician and one of my jobs was to set up the sextants that the Victor crews used.

[Fox3WheresMyBanana]

A USAF Colonel said to me once:
"If you guys had our airplanes, we'd still be a colony"


Mind you, it was 2am at an airshow party.

[cliver029]

My overwhelming memory of Marham in the late 60's early 70's was of the B52 detachments for the bi annual (?) bombing comps, the subsequent plundering of the surrounding "antique" shops for chamber pots and the second hand car dealers for clapped out mini vans which then got shipped back to the 'States and sold for profit.

Oh, and lest we forget, our "ancient" NBS equipped aircraft winning the bombing comps against the all those expensive thingys our friends from across the pond brought with them.:E

CDR

[Pontius Navigator]

Given that this was during the height of the Cold War the competitons were taken very seriously. Probably a good way to show off capabilities etc in a semi-public forum.

By '76 we were taking the competition so seriously that we formed two flights, Giant Voice - the competition crews and Big Top - reserve crews.

Things like 2 extra offset boxes and special spot calibration for each target. Aircraft specially chosen etc etc.

[Tankertrashnav]

Bit of technical help required here - I cant get this clip to play - I'm either getting a message which read "video not found or access denied, etc" or else I'm just getting a continuous buffering circle and the clip doesnt start.

Particularly frustrating as my old captain, 214 boss John Lomas is mentioned as being featured and I had only recently left his crew in a reshuffle. I remember being relieved, as I think that year they didnt exactly shine in the navigation competition which IIRC took the form of a night limited navex.

Anybody suggest another way of viewing this?

[earswentpop]

TTN

Don't know which browser you are using, but I used to have issues like that until I ditched Internet Explorer and used Google Chrome.

If Chrome says "xyz extension required to play this video", just download & install xyz. Worth a try?

[Tankertrashnav]

Thanks for the advice earswentpop - problem solved - tried it on my laptop and it worked ok. Notice the good looking nav beside John Lomas - Tony Binnington, squadron smoothy! Good to see shots of Victors on the ground.

One year when they were at Marham I had the chance of a trip in a B52 around the UK low level route, but didnt take it :ugh:

[HTB]

PN

Don't forget the reactionary non-participants (i.e. the bulk of the OCU staff), who formed a "Little Whisper" flight as an antidote to the competition divas:O

Mister B

[AR1]

Beats me that even in 1976 the USA thought if an aircraft flapped it's wings on the takeoff run it would get up quicker.

[goudie]

Notice the good looking nav beside John Lomas - Tony Binnington, squadron smoothy!



TTN

Remember Tony from 32 Sqdn. Akrotiri, in th early 60's. He was the
sqdn smoothy even then!