Odly enough, I have not seen a thread to mark this momentous occasion
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UCAV enters service........The Chief of the Air Staff closes down pilot training....................
Easy Jet introduces pilotless cockpits............
It could never happen Beecham!
Don't spoil a thread that marks a significant event for many of us.
Easy Jet introduces pilotless cockpits............
It could never happen Beecham!
Don't spoil a thread that marks a significant event for many of us.
A nav?
Blimey Biggus, after your 'woosey' reply to my cycling suggestion I had given up on you!
Now I find you are a member of the good-looking,beer-buying intelligentsia!
You must be a top man after all!
Brian Wildey
PS Hope there will be some navs at the 48 reunion in May.
Now I find you are a member of the good-looking,beer-buying intelligentsia!
You must be a top man after all!
Brian Wildey
PS Hope there will be some navs at the 48 reunion in May.
Geehovah
Your posts reference UCAV, RPAS, UAS is definately a "nail and head" moment.
I suspect that WSO/WSOps will still have roles to play for some time yet; it's just that we don't need to train any at the moment and that rear-crew trg on 55 Sqn is finished (and we don't know yet what MFTS is going to deliver). I suspect that small numbers of WSOs and WSOps will start to trickle in a few years time at RNAS Culdrose alongside the Observers prior to starting RAF OCUs - small numbers, mind, for Sentry, RIVET JOINT, Reaper (or SCAVENGER), Shadow, Taranis (or whatever that might turn into) and maybe if a LRMPA comes along.
By the way, in recent years, the majority of Navs in the RAF have been doing more Weapons Systems/RADAR manipulation than Navigation - Tornado GR1/4, Tornado F3, Reaper and Nimrod. The Navigation piece, as so many have pointed out, is but a tertiary distraction to the majority of Navs/WSOs these days!
iRaven
Your posts reference UCAV, RPAS, UAS is definately a "nail and head" moment.
I suspect that WSO/WSOps will still have roles to play for some time yet; it's just that we don't need to train any at the moment and that rear-crew trg on 55 Sqn is finished (and we don't know yet what MFTS is going to deliver). I suspect that small numbers of WSOs and WSOps will start to trickle in a few years time at RNAS Culdrose alongside the Observers prior to starting RAF OCUs - small numbers, mind, for Sentry, RIVET JOINT, Reaper (or SCAVENGER), Shadow, Taranis (or whatever that might turn into) and maybe if a LRMPA comes along.
By the way, in recent years, the majority of Navs in the RAF have been doing more Weapons Systems/RADAR manipulation than Navigation - Tornado GR1/4, Tornado F3, Reaper and Nimrod. The Navigation piece, as so many have pointed out, is but a tertiary distraction to the majority of Navs/WSOs these days!
iRaven
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Brian 48Nav
At our age memory becomes a fickle thing - but I seem to remember that the "Society of Directional Consultants & Allied Trades" was around in the late 1960's.
At our age memory becomes a fickle thing - but I seem to remember that the "Society of Directional Consultants & Allied Trades" was around in the late 1960's.
.
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Heros
I would like to record my unending admiration and respect for the RAF navigator community, and that's as someone with as much time single-seat as two-seat. To fly in the back of a GR4 (it was GR1s in my time) on an operational sortie takes considerable bravery and balls. I was never that happy being thrown around in the back-seat of a Tornado as a QWI on a peacetime sortie. We had people navigating in the back of Tornados on low-level night attacks against heavily defended airfields in near IMC and often with the TFR decoupled from the autopilot to prevent pull-ups into SAMs and AAA. As a pilot it was more or less OK as we had our destiny in our own hands. The navs just had to ride it out and hope for the best, night after night. None ever complained and we probably took them for granted. I felt honoured to get a glimpse of what navigators did for the RAF on just a few operations. Taking the history of the RAF as a whole, we all owe them a great debt. I take my hat off to you all.
Signed,
A grateful pilot.
Signed,
A grateful pilot.
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I agree wholeheartedly with 67Wing.
While there may have been banter between The Twin-Winged Master Race and members of SODCAT, having been involved with Nav training (as a Dominie Staff Pilot) and seeing the dedication and effort put in by both Staff Navs and studes, having been a member of a multi-crew Flight-Deck and been pulled out of the poo by the Nav numerous times (eg when a former Soviet State ATC tried to descend us IMC into high ground during a CFE Treaty flight), I have nothing but admiration and respect for my single winged colleagues.
A sad day indeed.
(I'll still take the piss though.
)
While there may have been banter between The Twin-Winged Master Race and members of SODCAT, having been involved with Nav training (as a Dominie Staff Pilot) and seeing the dedication and effort put in by both Staff Navs and studes, having been a member of a multi-crew Flight-Deck and been pulled out of the poo by the Nav numerous times (eg when a former Soviet State ATC tried to descend us IMC into high ground during a CFE Treaty flight), I have nothing but admiration and respect for my single winged colleagues.
A sad day indeed.
(I'll still take the piss though.
)
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No, you are correct I don't know a lot about them. Just how to turn it on. Luckily I don't have to build them.
To be fair good Navs were worth their weight in gold! Had a blast flying with most of them. The old adage 'I'd rather have the fuel' was just an outright lie..... most of the time. ;-)
Good luck to the last few guys through.
To be fair good Navs were worth their weight in gold! Had a blast flying with most of them. The old adage 'I'd rather have the fuel' was just an outright lie..... most of the time. ;-)
Good luck to the last few guys through.
