"No - really - I wasn't chopped - honestly!"
A short-sighted Royal Navy. Says it all! Privileged to have a post next to yours, sir. Hope Mr Branson affords you the appropriate respect!
Beagle
I honestly did apply to be a nav! Several reasons:-
1. My mate at school,'Nav to Pilot' on this forum, was doing nav training and it sounded right up my street.
2. I'd just seen Dr Strangelove and thought the nav on the B52 was really cool and obviously in charge of the aeroplane.
3. But the real truth is my underconfidence in anything requiring bodily co-ordination. I couldn't even do a forward roll as a kid!
In 1973 when my second tour on Hercs was finishing and the posters wouldn't give me a shiny fleet posting,I thought about becoming a civilian pilot and went off to Staverton to do a PPL. Everything was OK in naving,planning a trip,R/T etc but I was crap at poling the thing! This was just after the Invicta Vanguard prang in Switzerland, where apparently the captain had taken 8 attempts to pass his IR. I decided even if I did improve that I could not inflict myself on the travelling public.
I became a civilian ATCO (just the sort of thing I had been trying to avoid in the mob) and enjoyed the job eventually with postings at LATCC (ugh!), Stornoway,Boscombe Down and finally LHR.
I did apply to go back in air force in '77, but it was just after the Comet,Brit,Belfast & Andover had been scrubbed and there was no chance of getting back on Hercs. Before I was committed to rejoining I found I was destined for Vs,because of my plotting ability(!!!).Needless to say, having been a Herc nav (incidentally the first postee from Nav School on to the the mighty beast), there was no way I was going to go in an aircraft I considered a death trap for rear crew!
So I stayed in the CAA and lived happily ever after.
Fincastle we are roughly the same age - I was on 88 nav course what was yours?
1. My mate at school,'Nav to Pilot' on this forum, was doing nav training and it sounded right up my street.
2. I'd just seen Dr Strangelove and thought the nav on the B52 was really cool and obviously in charge of the aeroplane.
3. But the real truth is my underconfidence in anything requiring bodily co-ordination. I couldn't even do a forward roll as a kid!
In 1973 when my second tour on Hercs was finishing and the posters wouldn't give me a shiny fleet posting,I thought about becoming a civilian pilot and went off to Staverton to do a PPL. Everything was OK in naving,planning a trip,R/T etc but I was crap at poling the thing! This was just after the Invicta Vanguard prang in Switzerland, where apparently the captain had taken 8 attempts to pass his IR. I decided even if I did improve that I could not inflict myself on the travelling public.
I became a civilian ATCO (just the sort of thing I had been trying to avoid in the mob) and enjoyed the job eventually with postings at LATCC (ugh!), Stornoway,Boscombe Down and finally LHR.
I did apply to go back in air force in '77, but it was just after the Comet,Brit,Belfast & Andover had been scrubbed and there was no chance of getting back on Hercs. Before I was committed to rejoining I found I was destined for Vs,because of my plotting ability(!!!).Needless to say, having been a Herc nav (incidentally the first postee from Nav School on to the the mighty beast), there was no way I was going to go in an aircraft I considered a death trap for rear crew!
So I stayed in the CAA and lived happily ever after.
Fincastle we are roughly the same age - I was on 88 nav course what was yours?
I don't own this space under my name. I should have leased it while I still could
Each crew member had his stats and the sortie was put together by the plotter.
I'll tell you why people from all branches, trades or rank cover up being chopped. Going to any station tainted with failure is (or was) like walking into a village and introducing yourself as the new leper.
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Not always. One of my mates was chopped from AEO training. Two years later he arrived on our squadron as a pilot. He didn't mind at all, as I suppose he was the village miracle.
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Thread creep alert. I knew an LAC steward who worked in the O Mess at RAF Nause Brighton who got laughed out of court when he declared he wanted to remuster as a pilot. A few years later he was flying the Vickers fun bus around the skies, based at the very same Nause Brighton. I believe he now works for Emirates.
Beags will probably be able to verify this story.
Beags will probably be able to verify this story.
I can't, actually, BANANASBANANAS.
It might have been during my time away at ULAS?
I did hear a rumour that he'd eventually left under a cloud. But have absolutely no knowledge to confirm or deny such a rumour - it could well be utter bolleaux.....
....so what's new, I hear you say
It might have been during my time away at ULAS?
I did hear a rumour that he'd eventually left under a cloud. But have absolutely no knowledge to confirm or deny such a rumour - it could well be utter bolleaux.....
....so what's new, I hear you say
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I recall hosting an Air Traffic Dinner at RAF Shawbury about 10 years or so ago (50th Anniversary of CATCS??) when myself and the Guest of Honour (AM Jenner) were the only pilots amongst a dining room full of controllers.
In my introduction of the Guest of Honour, I said something like:
"Our principal guest tonight is the only other pilot here...." .... long pause ... "if you don't count the chopped ones!"
Whereupon Sir Tim turns to me and says:
"You b@st@rd Allen - I was going to say that!!"
In my introduction of the Guest of Honour, I said something like:
"Our principal guest tonight is the only other pilot here...." .... long pause ... "if you don't count the chopped ones!"
Whereupon Sir Tim turns to me and says:
"You b@st@rd Allen - I was going to say that!!"
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This isn't as 'off thread' as it appears - and I've always been curious. In the mid '60s at Cottesmore there was a corporal, early forties I suppose, who wore pilots wings. No ribbons, not even a GSM, just wings. How'd that happen?
Gentleman Aviator
Thread Starter
forget Probably he trained just at the end of the war, sufficient to get his wings as Sgt Pilot, then had to remuster to stay in when aircrew numbers were slashed.
There was an LAC IIRC with wings at Linton or CF in the late 60s, but he had the ribbons too!
There was an LAC IIRC with wings at Linton or CF in the late 60s, but he had the ribbons too!
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In the mid '60s at Cottesmore there was a corporal, early forties I suppose, who wore pilots wings.
I believe he worked in ATC
Old Wings
Beags might recall the SAC Dental Clerk at The Towers in the late 60's with wings.
A bit like the above tale, he was a Sgt. pilot on Mustangs in 1944 who remustered into one of the only available trades post war.
A bit like the above tale, he was a Sgt. pilot on Mustangs in 1944 who remustered into one of the only available trades post war.
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Hi Beags,
Just checked him out on Friends Reunited. Initials "CL" Flying B777 out of OMDB
Just checked him out on Friends Reunited. Initials "CL" Flying B777 out of OMDB
Haraka, the only dental person I recall was the lovely Sue...
...(trouser moment....)
BANANASBANANAS, nope, sorry - doesn't ring any bells. PM with the name, perhaps?
...(trouser moment....)BANANASBANANAS, nope, sorry - doesn't ring any bells. PM with the name, perhaps?
I don't own this space under my name. I should have leased it while I still could
Siloth had a cpl steward pilot plus medals - lovely mess, all highly polished tables and sparkling linen and that in a nissan hut mess.
Then there was the girl at Lincoln Training College in the early sixties - each Cadet from Sleaford Tech she went out with was chopped in succession - maybe she just picked guys who could not hack piloting, or maybe she sapped their strength!
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SAC with wings
There was a SAC in the Safety Equipment section at Cottesmore in the mid 60's who wore the RAF pilots brevet. I don't know if he had any medals. I asked him one day why. He said he re-mustered after the war and liked not having to make any decisions about his life - he knew where he would be sleeping and someone cooked his food for him!
ACW
ACW
He said he re-mustered after the war and liked not having to make any decisions about his life - he knew where he would be sleeping and someone cooked his food for him!
Some end up in prison which is just another institution they can cope within.
