B Fraser

When I was visiting the Met Office at Leuchars, no (non-UK) NATO aircraft ever had a tech diversion whereupon the first item off the aircraft was a set of golf clubs. Nope, never happened, didn't see a thing

Fly747

My brother fraudulently saved petrol by putting his car in the back of a herc from Gut to Lyneham. I seem to remember he then had paperwork difficulties getting customs sorted out as he was importing it at the end of his tour.

biddedout

Mrs Windsor used to take a Tristar and three Nimrods with her when she went on her Holls. Of course the Nirods were on a very important exercise and it was only a coincidence that HRH was pasing by.

Now that would have paid for a lot of steak.

SRENNAPS

The problem you have in the society of today is that nobody in charge has got the ability to apply common sense or any form of reality to an incident such as this. To them it is a black and white rule broken and therefore it must be condemned and punishment awarded. Take Mary Scanlon’s comments for example. She should be the first to understand the importance of the role that the coastguard plays in that area and the danger that potentially comes with it. She could quite easily have seen the incident for what it really was and made a rather more appropriate comment.

I have no doubt that the crew of that aircraft would bend or even break rules to save the life of a person in distress. I have no doubt that they would put their own lives in danger to try and save the life of another. They are not selfish people and they are certainly not corrupt or fraudulent people.

It is the qualities and attitudes of people like the crew of this aircraft that are being eroded away because of the self righteous attitude of certain people in charge or in prominent positions such as the local MSP. Ask me who I would trust in any form of situation I might find myself in; the pilot of this aircraft, the person who ordered the suspension (who I have no doubt has probably moved his way up the greasy pole in the normal way – most of you will know what I mean) or the MSP (who have a tendency to change their values or beliefs at a moments notice if the party requires it).

I do hope to God that we see the light soon and start applying common sense with respect to the so called rule book before all of the qualities, values and honourable attitudes of decent folk have completely spiralled out of the bottom of the tube. If we don’t then this country really will become screwed and I mean far more screwed that it already is.

NutLoose

biddedout...
Mrs Windsor used to have her own set of VC10 wheels, that we would fit everytime she went flying in it, indeed she seemed to own quite a lot of VC10 stuff..

El Grifo

20 odd years ago, when I lived in the village of Maxton in the Scottish Borders, a Sea King dropped into the front lawn of the big Country House along the road. I wandered along with my camera to be met by several occupants of the house and a couple of crew. They were obviously going up for a jolly.
I said take me along and I will get some nice shots of the estate. Hop aboard they said. I was hooked up with a harness and headphones and sat throughout the 30 min trip at the edge of the open door. Third best seat in the house I reckoned !!

After some fantastic low level stuff and high speed pull-ups, we crept along behind a guy in a combine, who only knew we were there when the straw started whirling up all around his machine.
Poor guy almost crapped himself when he looked up and saw the clattering monster 20 feet above him ! He loved the subsequent snaps though !

The crew had been on exercise at nearby Otterburn and dropped in to see the pilots mother in law, who was lady in waiting to Diana, different rules clearly applied in that case though

denachtenmai

Ballykelly, back in the early 60's, we certainly didn't climb aboard a squadron Shackleton which then did a trip to St.Mawgan, Manston, Hucknall and, I believe, ISK, just to save a 24 hour journey (for me!) on a stand down leave period!
Regards, Den.

airborne_artist

Rumour has it that a Midshipmite whose father commanded a large red ship did his Dartmouth sea-time (SL aircrew only did ten days) in said large red ship and then flew back from Gib.

Perhaps the best moment was when Pere Artist came up onto the bridge as I was showing the Captain's Secretary how to use the Decca kit. The old man realised with a start that his little lad was now a naval officer.

blimey

He should have dropped a flower into the Atlantic en route claiming it was in memory of the Titanic. The pillocks who unfortunately set the tone in this country could then have had a collective emote, and he would have been off scot-free. The BBC could have covered it.

I should add that if I should go my length carrying a side of beef, a couple of pork pies, and a ham shank to my car, these lads are well trained to pluck me from the butcher's yard and whip me off to hospital. No experience is ever wasted.


.

J.A.F.O.

Who says?

I hope that those in power see sense.

Canadian Break

When those who sit in any type of position of governmental responsibility - local or national, see fit to show that they are indeed whiter than white, I will start to take notice of Ms Scanlon et al. Until then, I will simply continue to do what I consider to be "the right thing at the time", having hopefully considered all the pros and cons of the situation - and if that breaks a rule then I'm sorry, but that's the way it is. There are millions of decent, hard-working people in this country of all colours, ethnicity, religion and political stripe and it's about bloody time their voices were heard. I am far from being an anarchist, but those in positions of responsibility should remember that they run this country with the consent of the silent majority.

obnoxio f*ckwit

And I never ever used the military supply system to fly 36 bottles of Bacardi and a load of pineapple juice and coconut cream, plus a bunch of inflatable palm trees and other jungle related paraphernalia on a C-17 to Basra for a Belize party. No never. Especially when the JEngO commented he'd been waiting 4 days for a fuel pump for the AOG ac and the booze took less than 12 hrs...

El_Presidente

But that's the key...the JEngO wanted spares ...everyone knows the military don't carry spares these days!! Was this post just in time?!

SRENNAPS

Canadian Break

You echo my earlier words, well said.

The problem is that the voices of the silent majority will never be heard because the voices of the 60 (ish) percent of the brainwashed population who keep voting for these knobs will keep these people in power; and we call it democracy.

If I won an election where I won only 36.1% of a 65.1 % turnout and then had to rely on a 3rd place party with only 23% of that 65.1 % of the vote to become PM, I would truly hang my head in shame and look at the whole system to try and establish where it has gone so wrong. The fact that these people (all politicians of all parties) don’t do this and then crucify anybody who bends a rule shows what kind of people we have in charge of us. As I grow older my blood boils more and more.

NutLoose

I can categorically deny ever filling the front hold of a VC10 up with 43 cases of bier whilst there was a fuel saving moratorium going on, so much so they had reduced the amount of Dom water being carried and the movements officer who was also on the plane with his boys had limited them to one case each!

The problem with politicians is they would rather blow our money to stick a finger up at the opposition, rather than deal with the issues.... The last budget was an example, tax cuts to appease the Lib Dems when the real issue should have been to continue cutting the deficit.

As said before, yea who casts the first stone...

ricardian

Someone has started a petition

Kengineer-130

Disgraceful, what has happened to common sense? I would hope his colleagues would have a sudden aversion to flying until he gets fully reinstated.... Zero SAR cover would soon make them see sense! But the crews would not do that as they no doubt would prefer to be out saving lives!

What has happened to leadership where the press would swiftly be told to foxtrot Oscar in the nicest possible way?

grimfixer

Standfast the comment from the oxygen thief going by the Proone callsign, it is refreshing to see the support for the guys currently in the spotlight for this "appalling" waste of public money. Spread the message fellas and see if it actually does make a difference (might only be a moral support one but who knows). Have a look at the petition link above if you have a minute too.

PS. Anyone know the latest on the witchhunt?

salad-dodger

Have to join facebook to do that

S-D

SRENNAPS

This is the latest on BBC Orkney news:

BBC - BBC Radio Scotland Programmes - Radio Orkney News

Petition also signed.