Did You Fly The Vulcan?? (Merged)
SD hats
As a nav radar I used to zip my SD hat into the space behind the side-window to my left. This ensured a nice, cool hatband by the end of the sortie. My OCU air instructor, Terry Mooney, gave me this tip - possibly the most important thing I learnt at 230.
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Just thumbing through the web, as you do, and I came across this, which I thought may be of interest to you all.
Edit: Oh dear, the URL Police seem to have stepped in. Try http://bearalley.*************/2007/10/avro-698-big-delta.html, where you should replace the lovely line of asterisks with "b l o g s p o t . c o m"...
Edit: Oh dear, the URL Police seem to have stepped in. Try http://bearalley.*************/2007/10/avro-698-big-delta.html, where you should replace the lovely line of asterisks with "b l o g s p o t . c o m"...
taxydual wrote
He's a Group Captain and - according to the story told in the original documentary - the Waddington Station Commander. He's also shown in the bar greeting the new crew. Would be interesting to know if he was the genuine incumbent. Judging from the aircraft featured it was filmed after March 1959 and probably before 1961.
Other details - the full film runs about 30 mins, and is narrated by Peter Dimmock.
the hoary old (insert rank here) with a tunic full of medal ribbons
Other details - the full film runs about 30 mins, and is narrated by Peter Dimmock.
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Thanks for the post nacluv 
Alternatively, using those nice people at TinyURL.com gives you something like this. 
Try http://bearalley.*************/2007/...big-delta.html, where you should replace the lovely line of asterisks with "b l o g s p o t . c o m"...
The blog author is obviously a very prescient chap. One of the illustrations at the top of said page shows Sarah Palin packing a pistol 
Cunning Artificer
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Brief clip of the station shows how much smarter things were back then - I can't believe how dreadfully shabby RAF stations look these days...
On the other hand its hard to believe how scruffy most of us juniors were. 'Ernie' was a real enough corporal, but he only got away with his appearance because the SWO didn't realise he was in the RAF - he thought Ernie was a civvy contractor.
(..and so did Ernie, as some would have it.
)
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In "those days" the Staish and his more senior officers were typically ex WW2 and had been conditioned into being terrified of the SWO. We also had a MPBW depot on each station, complete with a Superintendent of Works.
We also had the SWOs working party where each Cpl and below were placed at the disposal of the SWO for the first 2 weeks after arriving at a new station. They were used for such jobs as painting kerbstones, sweeping roads and paths, painting white lines on car parking spaces etc. I too believe that compared to today, the station of yesteryear was a much smarter establishment. But I doubt that many people care about that today. The manpower situation has long gone where bods could be spared for 2 weeks to work on the SWOs gang.
'We knew how to whinge but we kept it in the NAAFI bar.'
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Coo, the SWO's gang. Way back when, I arrived at Strawbury and was 'allocated' to SWO's gang for 2 weeks. We, the 'allocated' did a job under the watchful eye of the SWO. After a couple of hours, he called a break and promptly lit a fag. I, likewise, lit up. The SWO then dogged his and bollocked me rigid for smoking in uniform!! You couldn't win! Coo, happy days.
I don't own this space under my name. I should have leased it while I still could
Gainsy, TAG, trade's assistant general.
I have one working for me now. All kerbs yellow and white, parking bays white, concrete powerwashed, asphalt groomed, weeds weeded, plants watered.
I have one working for me now. All kerbs yellow and white, parking bays white, concrete powerwashed, asphalt groomed, weeds weeded, plants watered.
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"What was that Airman Trade Group that supplied permanent SWO Joes? General Duties or something? All thick as planks"
Gainesy , I'd venture that comment tells us far more about you than them.
Gainesy , I'd venture that comment tells us far more about you than them.
I don't own this space under my name. I should have leased it while I still could
RETDPI, I remember one such when I was wet behind the ears and didn't know trade groups as such, for the youngesters this was before TGs got numbered, and we had a TAG. We treated him as any other SAC - we had a clerk stats and a clerk admin not to mention the clerk ops.
Only after a while did we discover he was a TAG, by then it was too late, he was remustered to clerk admin. All it usually needed was an application of tlc and education in the right proportions.
My current ex-TAG is a very steady pair of hands and was telling me of some outstanding postings he had. Because he was not in anyone particular TG he was employed where ever, when ever - bit like GD Aircrew even.
Only after a while did we discover he was a TAG, by then it was too late, he was remustered to clerk admin. All it usually needed was an application of tlc and education in the right proportions.
My current ex-TAG is a very steady pair of hands and was telling me of some outstanding postings he had. Because he was not in anyone particular TG he was employed where ever, when ever - bit like GD Aircrew even.
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BEags, the danger of shoving your SD hat down the side of the bang seat though, was the remote possibility that the pee tube stopper hadn't be retightened and your hat became more of a container than part of your uniform 
I don't own this space under my name. I should have leased it while I still could
't would have been the first time the nav rad had 'assisted' the copilot. I still think back fondly to on Roger S who after many uncomfortable hours eventually overcame the inconvenience and embarassment only to discover that bladder and funnel were disconnected.
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Well, being less ancient than an incontinent old navigator, I never found the need to use that dreadful pee-tube. A quick wazz against the line hut wall before flight was good enough.....
....or over the tyres of another squadron's jet - to look like an hydraulic leak!
....or over the tyres of another squadron's jet - to look like an hydraulic leak!
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And then there were the soup heaters: one new copilot stuck his can of Heinz Vegetable in the soup heater, purely as storage. When the Capt asked the AE to turn on his soup heater little did he realise that they were both powered by the switch selection!
When he lifted the can out, placed it on his goonsuit kneepad and punched a hole in it with the dinghy knife .......... out came a stream of hot pureed vegetable soup!!
When he lifted the can out, placed it on his goonsuit kneepad and punched a hole in it with the dinghy knife .......... out came a stream of hot pureed vegetable soup!!