Buccaneer Tales
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When you've exhausted the Buccaneer links, there's always my book "Buccaneer" which is still in the Haynes catalogue (or you could try the library for a copy!). Here's one of my snapshots that I used for the book cover:-
Join Date: Jul 2000
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The PEN club produced some great nights. One of my memories was the run on three T-shirts logo's produced by three acft operators within the same week:
T Shirt 1- "Real acft fly over Beirut"
T Shirt 2- "Real acft fly through Beirut"
T Shirt 3- "Real acft land for a cup of tea in Beirut"
Happy days...................
T Shirt 1- "Real acft fly over Beirut"
T Shirt 2- "Real acft fly through Beirut"
T Shirt 3- "Real acft land for a cup of tea in Beirut"
Happy days...................
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Originally Posted by granmarriott
I seem to remember one Sqdn Ldr look of horror when after climbing out of his bucc he saw that the bombay door was rotated a full 90 degrees and so virtually on the deck. He had done a couple of fly bys because the door was showing crosshatched for ATC to check the status only be told it was "partially open". I think he maybe would have banged out had he known the truth and not landed.
Mind you if I recall same jockey mught have been wanting to bang out anway after hearing how much fun it was from his navigator.
TTFN
exXVsqn armourer
Mind you if I recall same jockey mught have been wanting to bang out anway after hearing how much fun it was from his navigator.
TTFN
exXVsqn armourer
"I seem to remember" is surely the start of a story mired by the mists of time. Whilst I accept that it might have been possible that the bomb bay failed half open, it was a hydraulic system fact in the Bucc that once hydraulic pressure was applied to move the door (either open or closed) nothing would stop it completing that cycle; in my over 2000 hrs on the jet I never ever heard of a bomb door failing half open. I have personal experience on 2 occasions, however, of the design of the bomb door hydraulics being to my disadvantage when, first, a tennis racquet was crushed by the rotating door as it was closed for RTB post detachment and, second, when one of 19 demijohns of Cypriot Brandy moved during rotation at Akrotiri before RTB after a rather fine ranger. Both incidents caused damage to the ac skin (not the bomb door) and both earned a mild bollocking from the then OC XV.
Moreover, I doubt the efficacy of your tale as, since the bomb bay didn't have doors that hang down (it rotated within its own volume), there would have been no likelihood of a ground strike in the event that it did, as you suggest, fail half open.
Lastly, I don't recall an emergency drill that might include EJECTION for such an eventuality, if indeed there was any mention at all in the FRCs.
Please don't speculate! It spoils the value of this very good thread
.FW
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I was a controller in the tower at Lossie 93-95 and therefore had the pleasure of being there for the last months of Bucc operations. Great bunch of guys on the Bucc fleet - even obliged with a couple of sporty flybys for my wife and I when we were on our honeymoon on Skye! Nearly the best thrill I got on my honeymoon - but not quite!
The flypasts for the disbandment of 12 Sqn were pretty damn good. Senior officers leading at the front of the formation, with the JOs getting progressively lower towards the back - all good stuff. However, the last 208 Sqn formation out of Lossie (going to the scrapmans torch at St Athan) was the one to watch. The forty-odd people watching from the tower were most impressed, but not so sure about the nav of the last one through! That flypast will live long in the memory.
Great days, great jet and the Bucc crews were top blokes to work and socialise with. The ATC lunches in the OM were never quite the same after that.
The flypasts for the disbandment of 12 Sqn were pretty damn good. Senior officers leading at the front of the formation, with the JOs getting progressively lower towards the back - all good stuff. However, the last 208 Sqn formation out of Lossie (going to the scrapmans torch at St Athan) was the one to watch. The forty-odd people watching from the tower were most impressed, but not so sure about the nav of the last one through! That flypast will live long in the memory.
Great days, great jet and the Bucc crews were top blokes to work and socialise with. The ATC lunches in the OM were never quite the same after that.
Tales of rotating bomb doors.
Bomb Doors!
1. In an ASF it wasn’t unusual for there to be a shortage of Bomb Door Struts – Big Red Tubular Bars to connect the Main Gear to the Bomb Door and prevent it moving (The Door that is!). It also wasn’t too unusual to find that someone was working in the Door Area, and leaning over the door, or having a hand through the side skins to adjust a Microswitch. It wasn’t that uncommon either, for someone to need to throw chocks or, in at least one instance, a crew ladder into the “jaws” of the door to stop it slowly crushing, or slicing through, an unwary soul.
2. Working through a veerrry long night shift, and just about to knock off at three in the morning, we carry out the dutiful tool-check only to find a torch is missing. After finding the guy who had the torch, we enquire as to what he was doing, “Fitting and Rigging the Bomb Door Jack” came the dreaded reply.
For those that don’t know: The Bomb Door Jack was big and Heavy (with a capital 'H') mounted on the front bulkhead of the Bomb Bay, and behind a great deal of Hydraulic, Fuel and many other systems pipe work. (“Not very ergonomic” wasn’t just in the cockpit). After some detailed planning, we mounted our attack.
We rolled the Door open.
Commandeered the smallest bloke we could find and tied him to the door with that white lashing tape that has no real tensile strength.
Inch the Door closed again and – shouting through the door-latch panels - confirmed that we had dissipated all Hyd Pressures and our hands were off the Rigs.
He then un-strapped himself from the Door and crawled to the front of the Bay. Once at the front, he proceeded to saw the torch in half – it was still where it was placed, jammed behind all those pipes and still switched on – albeit only a glimmer by now.
An hour later, (It’s tough to saw through Batteries, apparently!) He straps himself back in the Door as best as he can, and grips tightly to any Lugs he can. Rigs are re-started and clutches slipped again, to go as slowly as possible to open again.
Voila! End Shift at 0530-ish.
1. In an ASF it wasn’t unusual for there to be a shortage of Bomb Door Struts – Big Red Tubular Bars to connect the Main Gear to the Bomb Door and prevent it moving (The Door that is!). It also wasn’t too unusual to find that someone was working in the Door Area, and leaning over the door, or having a hand through the side skins to adjust a Microswitch. It wasn’t that uncommon either, for someone to need to throw chocks or, in at least one instance, a crew ladder into the “jaws” of the door to stop it slowly crushing, or slicing through, an unwary soul.
2. Working through a veerrry long night shift, and just about to knock off at three in the morning, we carry out the dutiful tool-check only to find a torch is missing. After finding the guy who had the torch, we enquire as to what he was doing, “Fitting and Rigging the Bomb Door Jack” came the dreaded reply.
For those that don’t know: The Bomb Door Jack was big and Heavy (with a capital 'H') mounted on the front bulkhead of the Bomb Bay, and behind a great deal of Hydraulic, Fuel and many other systems pipe work. (“Not very ergonomic” wasn’t just in the cockpit). After some detailed planning, we mounted our attack.
We rolled the Door open.
Commandeered the smallest bloke we could find and tied him to the door with that white lashing tape that has no real tensile strength.
Inch the Door closed again and – shouting through the door-latch panels - confirmed that we had dissipated all Hyd Pressures and our hands were off the Rigs.
He then un-strapped himself from the Door and crawled to the front of the Bay. Once at the front, he proceeded to saw the torch in half – it was still where it was placed, jammed behind all those pipes and still switched on – albeit only a glimmer by now.
An hour later, (It’s tough to saw through Batteries, apparently!) He straps himself back in the Door as best as he can, and grips tightly to any Lugs he can. Rigs are re-started and clutches slipped again, to go as slowly as possible to open again.
Voila! End Shift at 0530-ish.
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Rigga
A sqn guy riding the bomb door at Lossie was not so lucky and did not manage to get in before the door swung. Bar a bit of quick thinking from his mate and a handy chock he might have been a bit worse off than a few cracked ribs.
regards
retard
A sqn guy riding the bomb door at Lossie was not so lucky and did not manage to get in before the door swung. Bar a bit of quick thinking from his mate and a handy chock he might have been a bit worse off than a few cracked ribs.
regards
retard
Not quite so bad as unlocking the folding nose and then have the whole thing fall off. Makes a mess of the radar cables, not to mention the shreddies.....
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I know someone who changed the 91 ways on the radar cables ( 2sets all hand soldered for the uninitiated and had forgot to put the backshells on. To add insult to injury he re-did the job and made exactly the same mistake. We all left at that point to save personal injury, he was way beyond banter.
regards
retard
regards
retard
Or as we were replacing an RWR RF cable, and the other shift decided to run it from the Fin to inside the radio bay.
Have you ever tried crimping 18 x mini-coax pins inside the dark radio bay?, needless to say we extracted the cable and ran it from the radio bay to the fin, and spent Saturday afternoon sat on top of the tailplane where we were a lot closer to the hangar lights and had a lovely flat surface to work on.
Have you ever tried crimping 18 x mini-coax pins inside the dark radio bay?, needless to say we extracted the cable and ran it from the radio bay to the fin, and spent Saturday afternoon sat on top of the tailplane where we were a lot closer to the hangar lights and had a lovely flat surface to work on.
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Bucc Link
I am a recent joiner to Prune having had it recommended by a friend. Quite surprised to find a Buccaneer thread. I have a bit of previous experience on Buccs from the early 80's as a Sooty on 237 OCU at Honington and on 16 Sqn at Laarbruch, before seeing them replaced by Tonkas.
I left the RAF in 97 but was tracked down by some ex 16 mates recently who have a 16 Sqn website. It has quite a bit of general Buccaneer stuff and may put you in touch with some old friends. I include the link if you are interested.
http://www.arni.co.uk/
For info my name is Lenny Bruce and I have just moved to Australia this last month and am working in Canberra.
I left the RAF in 97 but was tracked down by some ex 16 mates recently who have a 16 Sqn website. It has quite a bit of general Buccaneer stuff and may put you in touch with some old friends. I include the link if you are interested.
http://www.arni.co.uk/
For info my name is Lenny Bruce and I have just moved to Australia this last month and am working in Canberra.
Just got this off a binaries newgroup. I have never seen it before so I thought I would post it. Original poster says it shows Buccaneer S2s of 809 Squadron on Ark Royal some time in the mid-70s.
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As a happy member of the Bucc Ground Crew fraternity posted to TASF, Akrotiri, I well remember a pair of Buccs that stayed a weekend, (yes, in them days they managed to con the boss into WEEKEND stopovers). Come the see-off we happily stowed quite a few demijons of kokkers onto the bomb door. They had been sealed very lovingly by the crews and all was well as we waved goodbye.
About 30 minutes later we were told that they were returning with one of them developing a hyd leak.
Any guesses?
About 30 minutes later we were told that they were returning with one of them developing a hyd leak.
Any guesses?
