Who was 'the boss' on a Nimrod?
Dare I put my head over the parapet and ask,'What is a Lead Wet and Dry'?
Dare I put my head over the parapet and ask "What is a Nimrod?"
Despite being dark blue and one who was welcomed on board on more than one memorable occasion, so I actually do know the answer. I just wanted to highlight that I still cannot believe how incredibly stupid our lords and masters have been in losing such incredible hard-won expertise in such a cavalier manner.
Jack
Dare I put my head over the parapet and ask "What is a Nimrod?"
Despite being dark blue and one who was welcomed on board on more than one memorable occasion, so I actually do know the answer. I just wanted to highlight that I still cannot believe how incredibly stupid our lords and masters have been in losing such incredible hard-won expertise in such a cavalier manner.
Jack
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Ding Ding
Mutty
In a tight crew the pilot would also put the aircraft where the Sgt told him to, so while some were passengers, some just drove the bus!
CRM does stand for Capt reputation management after all
In case of a bad day I do like to remind the Banana munchers that the last thing to go through their mind could be my arse
From my experience it was the best man for the job regardless of his brevet or ego, I was lucky all 11 breeds of mine in ISK are good lads with the odd guest appearance on other crews as well.
Charlie sends
In a tight crew the pilot would also put the aircraft where the Sgt told him to, so while some were passengers, some just drove the bus!
CRM does stand for Capt reputation management after all
In case of a bad day I do like to remind the Banana munchers that the last thing to go through their mind could be my arse
From my experience it was the best man for the job regardless of his brevet or ego, I was lucky all 11 breeds of mine in ISK are good lads with the odd guest appearance on other crews as well.
Charlie sends
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No Charlie,
Mutty is spot om, passengers is wot we was.
And Mutty, to misquote the filum...
On Squadron Leader specialist aircrew pay..."I'll be your passenger anytime"
I'll even bring you a sandwich...but sniff it first before you consume
Did I mention that under AFPS 75 Spec Aircrew Pay Rates are pensionable? Now excuse me, I think my new merc is ready for collection.
Mutty is spot om, passengers is wot we was.
And Mutty, to misquote the filum...
On Squadron Leader specialist aircrew pay..."I'll be your passenger anytime"
I'll even bring you a sandwich...but sniff it first before you consume
Did I mention that under AFPS 75 Spec Aircrew Pay Rates are pensionable? Now excuse me, I think my new merc is ready for collection.
Last edited by The Old Fat One; 6th Oct 2012 at 09:07.
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There was normally a team of 7 what might be termed 'sensor operators' on the maritime Mk 2 Nimrods. These were split into a 3-man acoustics team (wet men) and a 4-man non-acoustics team (dry men). Each team was coordinated by a lead operator, hence 'lead dry' or 'lead wet'.
The leads were appointed by the squadron and in my day (mid-late 80's) a competent operator could expect a lead slot on their second tour, depending on how many people had been pissed off in the interim.
The wet team manned the acoustics system and the dry men rotated between the dry sensors, normally hourly. One dry man was dedicated to the radio position and the other three rotated between ESM, radar and 'spare' dry who normally did the sonobuoy loading, made the tea and generally did 'stuff'
As lead I tended to stay off the gear and monitor the less experienced guys, especially if it was a more dry orientated sortie.
Depending on the sortie type there would be a couple of bods kicking around to help out with the loading as the dedicated acoustic sorties could be quite hectic each time the nav changed his mind on which buys to drop.
Hope this helps
The leads were appointed by the squadron and in my day (mid-late 80's) a competent operator could expect a lead slot on their second tour, depending on how many people had been pissed off in the interim.
The wet team manned the acoustics system and the dry men rotated between the dry sensors, normally hourly. One dry man was dedicated to the radio position and the other three rotated between ESM, radar and 'spare' dry who normally did the sonobuoy loading, made the tea and generally did 'stuff'
As lead I tended to stay off the gear and monitor the less experienced guys, especially if it was a more dry orientated sortie.
Depending on the sortie type there would be a couple of bods kicking around to help out with the loading as the dedicated acoustic sorties could be quite hectic each time the nav changed his mind on which buys to drop.
Hope this helps
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SSD,
It used to be 13 until the change in the acoustics processor and user interface. That saw the reduction in crew compliment by one wettie, so the crew became a team of 6 operators (4 dry, 2 wet), 2 navs, an AEO and 3 up front: total 12.
It used to be 13 until the change in the acoustics processor and user interface. That saw the reduction in crew compliment by one wettie, so the crew became a team of 6 operators (4 dry, 2 wet), 2 navs, an AEO and 3 up front: total 12.
Last edited by MFC_Fly; 6th Oct 2012 at 10:50.
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SSD
Over the years the old lady had a lot of crew permutations...and with various relaxations in staff orders, even the formal crew compliment could vary a little bit.
However...the MR1 was designed with a crew of 12 in mind and the MR with a crew of 13. As MRC_Fly points out, the MR2 reduced by 1 wettie circa 2001 (but not without the mother of all p1ssing contests between various factions).
For interest, The MRA4 was going to have had a crew of 10 or 11 (sure someone knows the state of that dilemma at the time it was binned) which would have been sporting since the MRA4 still had manual (hand held) photography and manual sonobouy launchers.
Not to mention the incessant galley demands from the lardy boys at the pointy bit.
Who cares about anything on Pprune? It just for us internet losers to get a bit of social interaction isn't it?
PS And before anybody leaps in and has a go at an AEO talking about galley duties, I'll have you know that I cut up a dairy cream sponge in 1983...and I wasn't even asked.
Over the years the old lady had a lot of crew permutations...and with various relaxations in staff orders, even the formal crew compliment could vary a little bit.
However...the MR1 was designed with a crew of 12 in mind and the MR with a crew of 13. As MRC_Fly points out, the MR2 reduced by 1 wettie circa 2001 (but not without the mother of all p1ssing contests between various factions).
For interest, The MRA4 was going to have had a crew of 10 or 11 (sure someone knows the state of that dilemma at the time it was binned) which would have been sporting since the MRA4 still had manual (hand held) photography and manual sonobouy launchers.
Not to mention the incessant galley demands from the lardy boys at the pointy bit.
Regarding the original question......
Who cares?
Who cares?
PS And before anybody leaps in and has a go at an AEO talking about galley duties, I'll have you know that I cut up a dairy cream sponge in 1983...and I wasn't even asked.
Last edited by The Old Fat One; 6th Oct 2012 at 14:47.
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PS And before anybody leaps in and has a go at an AEO talking about galley
duties, I'll have you know that I cut up a dairy cream sponge in 1983...and I
wasn't even asked.
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And I thought the first judgement on who made a decent skipper/crewman was who could be arsed to make a pot of tea. Forget this ASW stuff, it was all about the cooking 
Last edited by thunderbird7; 6th Oct 2012 at 19:28.
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Did I mention that under AFPS 75 Spec Aircrew Pay Rates are pensionable
Yeah but did you share it?
Last edited by The Old Fat One; 6th Oct 2012 at 19:02.
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Was it the same on the Shacklebomber?
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Sponge cake?
"I'll have you know that I cut up a dairy cream sponge in 1983...and I wasn't even asked."
These defence cuts are ever so sad. In the 70's we used to get Artic Roll. No expense spared.......mind you, Nimrods were so boring to fly around in, they should have been dispensing opium.
"These defence cuts are ever so sad. In the 70's we used to get Artic Roll. No expense spared.......mind you, Nimrods were so boring to fly around in, they should have been dispensing opium.
I don't own this space under my name. I should have leased it while I still could
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Tsssk.....
Try a Shack on night minimums back into Lossie with a sulky engine and an even grumpier FE. Nimrods were designed to carry rich totty tourists. Never met a Nimrod pilot that could do any other than play video games.
Stands back and awaits abuse........
Stands back and awaits abuse........