"No - really - I wasn't chopped - honestly!"

[BEagle]

Neptunus, I was one of the unfortunates crammed into the Honington Orlits in 1976. Miserable little dog kennels in which I had to keep myself and all my worldly possessions (apart from my car....).

One beanstealer lived at RAF Wittering and would vacate his splendid room in the OM in time to drive 70 miles to Wittering's Happy Hour on Fridays.

Fortunately I did eventually move in to the main OM - but for only a few weeks before my pre-Vulcan Buccaneer course came to its ultimate conclusion.

[Neptunus Rex]

BEags

That was a shame, as the points system must have been abandoned. It wasn't original, I just modified the scheme for MQs, which I thought was poetic justice. I think it should have been applied to all OMs, which are the bachelor officers' home.

[parabellum]

Thanks Beags. All understood.

[XN593]

How I was chopped

Dear All,
What a great thread. It has prompted me to write only my 3rd post.
I had always wanted to be a pilot. I joined the Air Cadets at 13, was awarded a gliding scholarship in 1970 followed by a Flying Scholarship in 1971. With the financial help from my parents I clocked up the necessary hours to complete my PPL. I joined the RAF and went through Helow (275 course) where my Flight Commander was a Navigator from Malta. Then it was straight on to Church Fenton and as I had a PPL a short chipmunk course. I did 13 hours and one solo before leaving for Linton. And now I started to be air sick. Nevertheless, on the 12th Feb 1974 after 11 hours I went solo on XN593. The fateful flight came 9 days later. I had done a few flights on my own and this one was a dual nav ex in the morning with the solo version later that day. During the flight I threw up and started hyperventilating. My fingers locked onto the coming and I needed an injection to relax my muscles before I could get out. Recovering in the ward my medical became A1G1Z1. The diagnosis was an indirect expression of emotion. I was medically retired and became Pilot Officer Smith (RAF Retd). I was 20.

I would much rather have been chopped because I was no good. At least then I would have known. Reading the forums brings back memories of things I missed. Would I want to be Beagle or Lightning Mate, you bet. I have no reason to doubt the medical assessment. There was no option of the spin table. I would love to go back with the knowledge that experience & maturity bring and to be able to fly without the nerves of youth. Could I have hacked it? If Flt Lt Anders is out there, how did I do?

I am saddened by some of the changes that have befallen the RAF. Are there really no crew rooms anymore? And so many stations gone.

Enough of this soppy sentimental stuff, must go and buy a ticket for Fridays Euromillions. XN593 is languishing in some hangar in the US. Everything is possible.

Regards to all who got the chop. I wonder if my dayglow axe is still stuck on the crew room ceiling.

P.S. I have never been air sick since.

[Failed_Scopie]

I wasn't chopped - "No - really - I wasn't chopped - honestly!" - I PVR'd. The callowness of youth, a misplaced sense of entitlement, intellectual arrogance, all were ascribed to me and all, to a degree, were true. However, while I sometimes wonder what might have been, I don't actually regret it. At the end of the day, I simply did not wish to become a Fighter Controller, and nothing that I have seen or heard about since has actually disuaded me from this point of view. I was sent on leave, hung around at CHOM for a bit and crossed the road to OASC for further interviews and branch re-selection. In the end, though, it made no difference - I wished to leave and after a very uncomfortable interview with the 2* at Cranditz, was granted my wish. By October that year I was a Lt in the Royal Corps of Signals and almost 11 years later am now a fairly senior post sub-unit command SO2 (not an overwhelming achievement I know, but further than I think I would have gone in the RAF). I meant to return to Cranwell next year for a course at the AWC - it'll be emotional...

[flap15]

Where do chopped pilots go?

In responce to Trim Tabs question. After an EFTS course on Chippies and a FTS course on the JP's with 130hours of Aunty Betty time I was chopped. Failure in air work, was the bland comment in my log book. In reality I reached a wall in and it was taking me too long to find a way over it. I had considered engineering as an option if I had gone early but as I was told by an old instructer "If the company was not shrinking I would have gone multi's".
So I requested to be released, got my commercial. Spent 10 happy years in general aviation before joining the big jet brigade. So I now have the responsibilities of a Flt Lt, have four stripes of a Grp Capt but the pay of an Air Commodore. However I do miss the Air Force.

[Roger the cabin boy]

I met this fellow once - the bloke was an absolute loon. He had some horrendous tale along the lines of he went V-Force, got chopped. Went heli's, got chopped. Went Fighter Control, got chopped. Went Herc's, got chopped. The sequence and types may be incorrect, but something like that. Think he was a Nav?

Some time later I believe he was spoken to by some burly gentlemen with cheap suits for leaking info about an Air Officer's MQ. Later still, there was some scandal because his wife had been caught getting amorous in the Gents (with someone else) during a Christmas Draw. I think he ultimately managed to see out his PC in the RAF without every getting CR on an aircraft type or ever being productive. Brilliant. Often wonder (out of idle curosity) what he's doing now.

[Tankertrashnav]

Never been chopped, but as there's a lot of FJ - rotary - nav banter going on maybe I can contribute

Went straight in as a Nav as eyesight was below pilot standard, got straight through without being recoursed. Thoroughly enjoyed being down the back, but always had a nagging feeling that I was missing something.

Fast forward 30 years and started a PPL at age 60. Two highpoints. One obviously was first solo after a total of - wait for it - 27 hours!!! (Not a record, Im assured, but I was being to feel like that Welsh woman learning to drive). Other highpoint - first solo landaway - Lands End - Perranporth - Lands End. Got as much of a kick out of that as pretty much anything I have ever done.

I know there are guys on here with multi thousands of hours flying scores of types, but just that one little day's flying means I can in some small way count myself as part of their world

(Still think of myself as a nav though )

[Union Jack]

So I now have the responsibilities of a Flt Lt, have four stripes of a Grp Capt but the pay of an Air Commodore.



Jack

[Pontius Navigator]

Originally Posted by BEagle

trial a couple of prototype tests under development by the trick-cyclists. This wasn't subterfuge as the test papers bore no names or references.

Thread drift but around this time many of us received "annoymous" questionnaires, attitude surveys IIRC. We didn't believe the assurance that it was truely annoymous and altered our DOB on the forms.

Not long after we all got individual letters telling us that our replies were important and asking us to complete the questionnaires.

Annonymous my arse.

[Pete268]

I must admit I was quite impressed by a young lad on my basic Airmans course at RAF Swinderby back in the very early 80's. After just two weeks he decided he was so homesick, being so far away from his family etc, that he decided to voluntarily chop himself from the course and go home.................

....to Swinderby Village!

Mind you he was positively dangerous attempting to do drill with a dummy SLR, never mind being let loose with a real 'bang stick'.

Peter

[Wander00]

Then there was the young man who turned up one Sunday evening in the early eighties for IOT. On Monday morning he had gone, and pinned to his pillow was a £20 note to pay for any charges he had incurred and an apology for any inconvenience he had caused. He was recalled to complete the VW paperwork!

[BEagle]

There was a chap like that on 99 Entry, RAFC. We met up on the train from Kings Cross to Grantham, where we were herded onto buses which drove us straight to the South Brick Lines. After dumping kit and being marched off for various arrival adresses, back we went to the SBLs.

The next day he simply wasn't there. We later found out that he hadn't even unpacked; he'd called a taxi from the Junior Mess the night before and simply bogged off. The son of a colonel too......

[oxenos]

The South Brick Lines, sadly, are no more. You would have thought they would have kept one, just to show the luxury we used to live in.

[TorqueOfTheDevil]

If you'd never been through it, don't critise [sic] those who have. It's their effort and their dashed dreams and if I was them I'd be damned if I was going to let someone who'd never been in my shoes critise [sic] me for my reaction.

I have been through the process of being chopped, and of course it's very sad to have one's personal dreams dashed etc. But even at the time, I could see that it was the right course of action, and I'm just about man enough to admit to people, when the matter comes up in conversation, that the sole reason I was chopped was because I wasn't good enough. It never ceases to amaze me how many people who have been chopped simply bleat and make excuses for what happened, which makes them appear weak of character as well as (inevitably) weak at flying.

[Pontius Navigator]

To try and fail is far far better than to fail to try.

[TorqueOfTheDevil]

CP, PN,

Fair points, but if one does try and sadly not make it, why not be grown up and face the facts, rather than vainly trying to pull the wool over people's eyes? Let's face it, the RAF doesn't want to chop people it's spent money on, so if you are chopped, it's because you can't do it! I'm not proud to admit that I couldn't fly a Hawk well enough, and it was a shame to get chopped on my Wings trip, but it was a fair cop and I'm grateful that I was given the chance to try. After I was chopped I was more interested in moving on than trying to pretend I should have made the Synchro Pair but was seen off by a bad instructor!

By all means be sad but don't make up excuses, it's insulting to people's intelligence!

[Dan Winterland]

''Fg Off Winterland found the co-pilot's seat of large aircraft much more to his liking........''

Looks like my first tour on Victors!

[Ogre]

We had a bloke at Swinderby who left the day after we arrived, citing the fact that the DI Sgt was from his home town, and knew his mum because they used to be neighbours.

[RAFRAAF]

RAFRAAF

To 26er re FTS Ternhill
I was at Ternhill through 1952, graduating in Oct. I do not know if there may have been someone with the same surname there the year before. I was on 88 Course.
Perhaps you can help settle a question - did the Prentices have one or two ID letters on the side of the fuselage?
I have recently established contact with Geoff Siers. Do you know him - he was at Ternhill in 50/51
Rgds James Perry