Hands to Flying Stations Scimitars and Sea Vixens
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Alright ... I know its been asked before .... but looking at that footage and thinking back ..... how come we could afford a real multi-carrier navy and a proper air force then .... and not now? Hardware is not relatively that much more expensive. How could we have allowed ourselves to get into this mess. The EU? The unions and "management" together destroying our manufacturing? Relying on financial services to carry the country in a recession doesn't work that well. We once had a real FAA and a real RAF.
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Re Norway Scimitar etc August '66
Extract from Ark Royal Exercise Diary; There was another early start today with the Scimitars airborne at 0230 to strike the Norwegian coast. For those who live mainly below decks it should be explained that we are operating about 64 degrees North and, at times, have been about 100 miles only from the Arctic Circle - hence the very long summer days. During last night's replenishment, when we fuelled the escorts, a Russian guided missile destroyer appeared and joined our force and she has kept station on us happily throughout the day, giving her sailors possibly their first sight of a carrier launching and recovering. We have taken some very good photographs of her as, doubtless, she will have done of us. The Sea Vixens had a busy day intercepting both the excercise enemy of Canberras and Buccaneers and also the intruding Russian aircraft. At about 0800 two BEAR aircraft made a pass over the ship, returning again later. This is the TUPOLEV 20 turbo-prop, very similar to the TU-114 airliner. Later in the forenoon two BISON flew over escorted neatly by Vixens. This is a pure jet and very clean, sleek aeroplane. Meanwhile the Scimitar strikes continued until it became unwise to operate due to the deterioration in the weather. The principal excitement was a diversion to the Norwegian airfield of ORLAND when a Scimitar lost its external fuel tank. An AEO of 803 Squadron was flown in by COD. It subsequently transpired that the pilot had narrowly escaped disaster when he had chopped down some high electric cables. Although he is now safely on board writing his report of the incident, he has left several small islands without electricity. (A repetition of the birth rate increase resulting from the great New York black-out cut may be forestalled by the shortness of the night at this latitude.) An American Tracker courier brought both visitors and mail on board and our own COD brought Rear Admiral Evans, who is the Deputy C-in-C North, a NATO appointment, to observe the exercise. He was expected to stay on board but Captain Evans USN, COS to COMSTRIKFLTANT (Chief of Staff to Commander, Strike Fleet, Atlantic), did not expect to, but has now found himself marooned on board. There was an ugly rumour that valuable mail had been blown overboard from the Flight Deck, in fact, some packets of strictly official exercise mail were lost - nothing important!
Goofer3 - That sounds like Stumpy's incident. Anyone got the photo similar to the one in S's logbook. Just very clear in my memory from 1966. (PS: What did I have for lunch?)
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Hands to flying stations Scimitars and Vixens
Interestingly, the film showing aicraft tail-coded both "H" and "V" ,but seeming to show mainly HMS Hermes ( at one time shown leading HMS Ark Royal) has brief shots of the Captain of Hermes ( Captain Tibbetts ??) on the bridge wearing a uniform cap,whereas in the film "Hands To Flying Stations" (which this is not) he wears a beret !!
I remember seeing the film "Hands to Flying Stations"in February 1964, whilst under training--it was a way of inducing potential electrical & mechanical specialists to volunteer for the Fleet Air Arm ,rather than staying in "General Service" ; I did not hesitate !! I never did get to go to Malta, though!
Roger Mills 766 NAS 1965 ; HMS Eagle AED 1966-69 ; RNAS Lee-on-Solent 1969-74 (NARIU, Avionics,etc.) Also St Athan ; Watton ; Changi.
I remember seeing the film "Hands to Flying Stations"in February 1964, whilst under training--it was a way of inducing potential electrical & mechanical specialists to volunteer for the Fleet Air Arm ,rather than staying in "General Service" ; I did not hesitate !! I never did get to go to Malta, though!
Roger Mills 766 NAS 1965 ; HMS Eagle AED 1966-69 ; RNAS Lee-on-Solent 1969-74 (NARIU, Avionics,etc.) Also St Athan ; Watton ; Changi.
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Definitely Captain Tibbets. A scholar and gentleman. Personally apologised to me, a mere baby, for turning the ship early as I landed a Scimitar. Went a bit sidewise on pull out but no big deal.
FAA/RAF Formation over Aden, 1967
Just wondering if any of those contributing to this thread flew in the formation over Aden in early 1967 put together by the RAF Khormaksar Hunter Wing and the FAA squadrons on a carrier group deployment to the Far East that stood off Aden for some days? I can't recall now the total number of aircraft involved, but it did look pretty good from down below, and unfortunately the Super 8 cine footage that I took at the time has vanished. That visit was also the last time that I saw Tim Miles, who had gone through South Cerney and Nav training with me. He was on attachment to the FAA on Sea Vixens, and later flew with the Sea Vixen display team ("Simon's Circus," if I remember correctly.) I guess it was an appropriate posting as his father was a Surgeon Rear Admiral. Our paths never crossed again, and the last I can remember hearing of him was that he was on Sky Flash development flying in the USA sometime in the 70s.
Definitely Captain Tibbets. A scholar and gentleman. Personally apologised to me, a mere baby, for turning the ship early as I landed a Scimitar. Went a bit sidewise on pull out but no big deal.
For those who might be interested,
Captain Sir David Tibbits - Telegraph was Captain of HERMES from 1959 to 1961. I like the bit about how he declined to be promoted to Rear Admiral because he felt that was too old - aged 50!
Jack
For those who might be interested,
Captain Sir David Tibbits - Telegraph was Captain of HERMES from 1959 to 1961. I like the bit about how he declined to be promoted to Rear Admiral because he felt that was too old - aged 50!
Jack
Hope the AEO had put the pins in
FAA/RAF Formation over Aden, 1967
ICM said "I can't recall now the total number of aircraft involved, but it did look pretty good from down below"
Chris Bain in his book "Cold War, Hot Wings" refers to a 55 (count 'em) ship flypast - 16 Sea Vixens, 12 Bucaneers and 27 Hunters - enough to fight a war all on their own.
Date is 17 May 67 according to the book
Chris Bain in his book "Cold War, Hot Wings" refers to a 55 (count 'em) ship flypast - 16 Sea Vixens, 12 Bucaneers and 27 Hunters - enough to fight a war all on their own.
Date is 17 May 67 according to the book
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3...... 4GREENS
|Description={{en|1=Three Supermarine Scimitar F.1s of 736 Naval Air Squadron Lossiemouth at the SBAC show, Farnbrough 8 September 1962. '611' (XD265) in the foreground was lost later that year (15 November) in a birdstrike at 400 feet: the )
|Description={{en|1=Three Supermarine Scimitar F.1s of 736 Naval Air Squadron Lossiemouth at the SBAC show, Farnbrough 8 September 1962. '611' (XD265) in the foreground was lost later that year (15 November) in a birdstrike at 400 feet: the )