Taranto Night Dinner BRNC

[megan]

Anyone going to the dinner? See Tracey Curtis-Taylor is giving a speech, listen up and you might receive an education in how to fly, and how you've been doing it wrong all these years.

[Mick Strigg]

Which Taranto Night Dinner may that be? Myself, I know of six that are taking place this November!

[sharpend]

WOW, this is something I cannot miss. We did meet here once at a gala dinner, but politeness prevents me from stating what we thought of her.

[Brian Abraham]

Britannia Royal Naval College, Dartmouth Mick.

http://fleetairarmoa.org/event/brnc-taranto-night-dinner-

[Lordflasheart]

wiv 'er honnery crab pilots' wings ? :E ............... LFH

......................

[clunckdriver]

During my time in the Mob I met many Great senior officers {I was a junior one} but judging by the number posing with, socializing with, inviting this incredible fraudster to various piss ups, its obvious that the present bunch must be total twits, my youngest daughter {ex bush pilot , float/ski pilot, fire pilot, medevac and now 737 driver} is waiting to " welcome" her along with most of here fellow female crews, should she try any of her crap in Canada, it should be fun to watch!

[MSOCS]

Megan,

Is that the very same Tracey Curtis-Taylor alleged to have completed none of her famed flight solo, and had only piloted just 4 of the 30-odd legs of the journey?

Great guest of honour there....I guess I have been doing it wrong all these years; shoulda paid someone to fly for me and actually stay schtum. As for piloting ability, as my old instructor once said, "it's mostly confidence mate!" Confidence to do it on your own for a start.

[Stanwell]

Looking at it...
I'm starting to think that it might just be a trendy fashion thing within the RN this season.
Perhaps somebody's had the idea that a liberal coating of egg-on-face would nicely complement the scrambled egg on cap-peaks.
Knock, knock ... Is anybody home in there?

[airborne_artist]

The Dark Blue has form on this. The famous TV celeb survivor is an honorary Commander RN.

He explains that he left the Artists Rifles following an injury sustained while parachuting.

He left because he was asked to go/sacked, ie SNLR. The injury was sustained while jumping as a civvie anyway.

[Lordflasheart]

Will there be dancing after the Dinner ? Who will get the last 'Walt'z ? ...... LFH

............

[Wander00]

The only appropriate quotation that comes to mind is "How are the mighty fallen". Having attended a number of Taranto Dinners I have to say I am pleased not to be attending this one.


PS Flasheart - that's a cracker!

[ehwatezedoing]

The Dark Blue has form on this. The famous TV celeb survivor is an honorary Commander RN.

He explains that he left the Artists Rifles following an injury sustained while parachuting.

He left because he was asked to go/sacked, ie SNLR. The injury was sustained while jumping as a civvie anyway.

Well the version I've been told (from an Irish guy who spent 15 years in the French Légion) is.....

That he simply fell off the back of an army truck when it started moving.

[Union Jack]

Will there be dancing after the Dinner? Who will get the last 'Walt'z? - LFH

Flasheart - that's a cracker! - Wander00

A cracker indeed, and observing that the Britannia Association is advertising this as a "stag event" (vide Post #6), it would only be right and proper for Ewald to get for the last waltz, since he appears to have been doing TCT a solo "sub" successfully for quite some time now without receiving due credit.:ok:

Anyone considering attending this dinner who has not read the last few pages of http://www.pprune.org/private-flying/579030-tracey-curtis-taylor-merged-threads.html should certainly brief themself before deciding whether to go for laughs, or not go on principle.:rolleyes:

Jack

[airborne_artist]

Well the version I've been told (from an Irish guy who spent 15 years in the French Légion) is.....

That he simply fell off the back of an army truck when it started moving.

Entirely possible that's how he sustained the injury ;)

You have a PM.

[Danny42C]

Taranto Night long ago (L-o-O), Commander (Air) is on his feet after Dinner. Hushed audience....

"I well remember that night, the most stressful of my life so far. I was the youngest Sub-Lieutenant on the Squadron, I was "breaking my duck". I'd been thoroughly briefed, knew what I had to do in an hour or two. but would I be capable of doing what was expected of me ? Who knows, in that first test, how he will behave when "the chips are down". How would I feel if I failed ? It didn't bear thinking about. I paced nervously up and down. A quick gin in the Wardroom ? - strictly forbidden.

At last it was time - the 'op' was on.... I "screwed my courage to the sticking point", squared my shoulders......"

(not a glass clinked on the Mess tables, not a chair moved......)

.......and went in to my new bride in that little Devon hotel on the first night of our honeymoon !"

Danny42C.

(Am sure Union Jack has heard that dozens of times, but it was a new one on me. D).

[Robert Cooper]

I married my Italian love on 11 Nov, and when she found out what that was the anniversary of she never forgave me!

Bob C

[Genghis the Engineer]

If anybody makes the Taranto night dinner in question, and happens to film it - pretty please - quite a few of us would like to see the speeches.

G

[FODPlod]

If anybody makes the Taranto night dinner in question, and happens to film it - pretty please - quite a few of us would like to see the speeches.

G
Whatever (y)our interest, I hope no one does film it. Chatham House Rules usually apply to Service after-dinner speeches or they would be far less entertaining.

[BEagle]

Surely anyone attempting to film at a Service Dinner will be fined a round of port? Equally if they were to take some 'selfie' with their iToy?

Very chav.

[Dougie M]

At Cottesmore when 360 Sqn had a high percentage of Dark Blue aviators the monthly "Dining In " format changed in November when a White Ensign appeared in the bar and an invitation "To the officers of RAF Cottesmore from the officers of the Cottesmore Wardroom, celebratory drinks before dinner at the first bell of the second dog watch" It had us all seeking out our boy scout diaries for the decode. One Lt John Eagle RN was late at table and was required to "stand up" for an after dinner story. He related,in disgusting detail how to reserve a train compartment on the night sleeper to Scotland with the aid of a spare pair of trousers, a tin of Maconnachie's Russian salad and a miniature bottle of rum. A great evening even to the blue carnations on the table and an honourable memory.

[Wander00]

Had some good Taranto Nights at Wyton when I was there in 90-93 - vivid memories of the Band of HM Royal Marines at full blast in the dining room

[Arclite01]

and lets not forget what it commemorates.

Arc

[Wander00]

Arc - ABSOLUTELY

[innuendo]

Re Tracy Curtiss Taylor: from the Daily Mail,

Self-styled 'Bird in a Biplane' stripped of prestigious flying award over allegations she wasn't flying solo during her epic trips.

Don't have the link but it appears that all was not as claimed, (as mentioned in previous posts).

Edit to add, it was in Mail Online, Oct 23rd.

[wiggy]

Not sure about the Mail but Saturday's events made the Mirror:

British 'Bird in a Biplane' stripped of flying award amid claims she wasn't flying solo - Mirror Online (http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/british-bird-biplane-stripped-flying-9110682)

[Wander00]

Well done the LAA, of which I am a member, and well done Barry Tempest - whom I remember from my flying scholarship days at Sywell in 1961, when he was the "much older" chap crop spraying in a Tiger Moth - I guess he was actually only a few years older than us 17 year olds. Met his son at the LAA Rally this year.

[The Old Fat One]

I think a growing number of people will be watching and following this increasingly sordid debacle and hoping that the whole truth will eventually be forced out.

Aside from irritations of the photos of her in military uniform, the connections with high ranking members of the establishment and all the corporate PR, a whole lot of people are getting truly p1ssed off with this classic example of the "post-factual" world we seem to increasingly live in.

I commend the thread in the private flying forum to all and any military aviators with an aversion to "doublespeak" as Orwell would have it. Especially those of us that have that actually earned our rank, and would have been assessed on our integrity every day of our working lives (and there would have known that creating our own definition of a word like "solo" would not cut the mustard).

Edit, I just checked the Navy List and she is indeed listed as an Honorary Officer (Lt Cdr). I am gobsmacked that this is not being chased up on by our pprune naval aviators???? WTF???

[esa-aardvark]

Barry was a year ahead of me at school, or was I a year late ?
Anyway a good guy.

[Wander00]

About 79 time we were with my TA recruiting stand at some event at Belton Park, near Grantham. Barry was due to turn up to display in his TM, but there was an announcement that "due to unforeseen circumstances " his display was cancelled. Turned out he had got caught up in some cables whilst displaying over the Trent in Nottingham

[BEagle]

I wonder whether the 'guest speaker' will have the gall to turn up at BRNC in some sailor-suit with Lt Cdr insignia - perhaps even with a non-entitled pilot's flying badge?

[wiggy]

BEagle

Given her attitude so far (and for her sake I hope she's not as delusional as some press releases/statments make her sound) my money is on the fact she will turn up if the invitation stands...there's money to be made and no doubt there will be polite applause for her to bathe in.

But yes, regardless of the uniform ( That's the Senior Service's problem to sort out somehow), she should get rid of the military flying badge.

[76fan]

"The Taranto Dinner provides the perfect opportunity for the Officer Cadets at the college to be introduced to the Fleet Air Arm tribe and to experience the camaraderie and spirit of those they one day aspire to join. Guest of Honour this year is Tracey Curtis-Taylor (www.birdinabiplane.com (http://www.birdinabiplane.com/))".

Is there really no ex-FAA tribesman/woman who can replace her to recount true camaraderie and spirit tales from their personal experience? Shame on you Dartmouth.

[The Old Fat One]

This is now all over the mainstream media, this is is just one example.

'Bird in a biplane' hits back at claims she did not fly solo as she threatens legal action (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/10/24/bird-in-a-biplane-hits-back-at-claims-she-did-not-fly-solo-as-sh/)

The honorary Royal Navy Lt Cdr has said she will be taking legal action. Against whom? The guy who has been posting the facts about her "adventure" (as described on the flyer forum by one poster a well funded joy ride, with an instructor) has been posting under his own name, completely openly for well over a year. If what he is posting is untrue, malicious or in anyway defamatory, she could have had this in court months ago.

She has played footloose and fancy free with a pretty sacred aviation term "solo". She claims these were not reported as solo flights, despite the overwhelming evidence available all over the internet and elsewhere that they were.

Her and "her people" are indulging in the time-honored political defence:

Deny
Obfuscate
Threaten

Surely this is not the military way. Surely any arm of the military has a duty to get the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth and then either:

a. Back her.
b. Sack her.

[Stanwell]

Pardon my ignorance..
Could somebody explain just what her connection to the Royal Naval Reserve might be that warrants her being accorded the rank of Hon Lt Cdr?
Was it just due to her applying the RN&RM Charity sticker on the Spirit of Artifice?
Or some other influence?

Now, I gather that the Senior Service has been mucking around with boats and submarines for some time now - and it should therefore know enough
to stay away from rocky bottoms in inadequately charted waters.
.

[Subsunk]

The honorary RNR commission thing has been trashed by some of the people that get awarded one. Increasingly, instead of recognising genuine, inspirational figures (step forward Robin Knox-Johnson & Dee Caffari, who are a credit to the uniform), the RN PR department seem to lunge clumsily at all kinds of shysters and spivs, hoping to get some vicarious PR exposure. They've managed to do my head in twice over TCT's appointment, from both the flying side and from the ex-RN side.

The new Navy List has also managed to cut out serving Maritime Reserves Officers from its listings, but still includes MR Honorary Commission holders, which looks like a massive kipper cross the face for the actual, serving MRs from where I'm standing.

[noflynomore]

Lets hope she either has the decency to call in sick or that the College has the nous to make any applause brief and cursory.

[The Old Fat One]

Could somebody explain just what her connection to the Royal Naval Reserve might be that warrants her being accorded the rank of Hon Lt Cdr?

Asked and answered dear chap. Click on the link and navigate your way to post #2171 (page 109)

http://www.pprune.org/private-flying/579030-tracey-curtis-taylor-merged-threads.html

You will see all the links you ever need...nepotism in the RN! Surely not!

[Stanwell]

Thanks, TOFO.
Seems that some of Her Majesty's relatives are out of control.
She's going to have to have a word with a couple of them, I think.
.

[megan]

Post by Jay Sata on the Private Flying threadI understand it is confirmed TCT is not attending the Honourable Company of Air Pilots awards Banquet.

It is very unusual for a recipient of a major award not to attend.

HRH Prince Andrew ,the Grand Master, will also not be attending.Perhaps Her Majesty is not happy with the company Her relatives associate with Stan.

[B Fraser]

I wish I could join in the festivities tonight but alas, I have only ever worn civvies during my time in the MOD as a weather guesser.


Taranto was an event of even greater significance than most would appreciate. It was far more than the destruction of the Italian fleet at anchor. The success was noted in far away Japan. Historians have made the connection between Taranto and the subsequent raid on Pearl Harbour. The Japanese action then brought America into the war and from that point, the defeat of Nazi Germany was assured.


I wish you all a pleasant evening and look forward to reading suitably redacted reports should high jinks ensue.

[Union Jack]

I understand it is confirmed TCT is not attending the Honourable Company of Air Pilots awards Banquet. - Jay Sata

Lost without Trace....?:rolleyes:

Jack

[Wander00]

Maybe on the basis of the absences of both we could start a rumour......................

[Lordflasheart]

So did she sup ?
Did she sing ?
Did she walt'z ?

LFH

.......................

[MPN11]

Subtle, My Lord ;)

[bgbazz]

Smoothly done Sir. :D

[Rossian]

.....a sitrep from the subject function? Has there been an edict from what my Dad used to call " the admirality" for all attendees to stay schtum? I feel we should be told.

The Ancient Mariner

[MPN11]

I suspect the RN would be seeiously averse to bad press. They do like to keep things as positive as possible, given assorted major embarrassments with big expensive ships ;)

[Stanwell]

I reckon.
Have a look at the HMS Nottingham incident down here at Lord Howe Island in 2002.
The Captain was known to be a bit of a social animal and had left the ship in the charge of an inexperienced junior officer.
It took a Dutch heavy lift ship to eventually get it home - and then a mere 39 million to fix it.
A most expensive embarrassment.
.

[air pig]

....a sitrep from the subject function? Has there been an edict from what my Dad used to call " the admirality" for all attendees to stay schtum? I feel we should be told.

Would that be the same edict about the 1 Group Dining Night.

[langleybaston]

In which case we may expect chapter and verse and embellishments in due course.

[pulse1]

Over 10 years ago a young man who was destined to enter Dartmouth came on Pprune and asked for advice on what to expect and how best to survive the experience. I happen to know that, shortly after his arrival at Dartmouth, he and his fellow cadets were warned to stay away from Pprune. It shows that, even then, the College were very much aware of what transpires here and I would not be surprised if there was a 3 line whip on the guests to keep quiet.

[airborne_artist]

FB11 used to Pprune, and is still serving. Pretty sure those in the know knew who was ;)

[SATCOS WHIPPING BOY]

Have we had any feedback from this and how her speech about herself went?

In a similar light, it seems she has ingratiated herself with the RAF now...

"THE FIRST STRIKE" Typhoon on canvas has been presented by Number 1(F) Squadron to the Royal Air Force Club. In the photo are members of the squadron with honorary members including Tracey Curtis-Taylor Tracey Curtis Taylor - Aviatrix, Adventurer, Inspirational Speaker (http://www.birdinabiplane.com/)
RAF Club Vice-Chairman Rick Peacock-Edwards received the picture from OC 1(F) Sqn, Wg Cdr Chris Hoyle. 12 Dec 2016

It does make me wonder when the military hierarchy will see through the charade.

[NRU74]

Blimey, there are a couple of chaps in brown shoes ! Brown in town, what next ?

[PPRuNeUser0139]

Must be footballers..

[NRU74]

OK to carry parcels as well ?

[langleybaston]

and are they able to attract salutes from sentries, as indeed are Foot Guards officers in plen cluths.

[NutLoose]

"THE FIRST STRIKE" Typhoon on canvasOne would have thought a Tornado would have been more apt for her to present, as that has seating for two.

[glad rag]

One would have thought a Tornado would have been more apt for her to present, as that has seating for two.


und surely Rafale as the STRIKE candidate?