Base and Communications Flight, things of the past?
Thread Starter
Base and Communications Flight, things of the past?
Just noticed over the years whether its RAF, USMC or USN or any other air arm, that communications flights / base / station flights seem to have withered away either due to post Cold War / Gulf War One.
Do Base Flights / Communications Flights still have a place today?
Cheers
Do Base Flights / Communications Flights still have a place today?
Cheers
Do Base Flights / Communications Flights still have a place today?
There are, of course, seven pillars of wisdom.
I suggest the 3 others are:
Flying hours
Time to do a job properly
A shared ethos (which cannot be obtained working alongside civvies who are paid min. wage, receive no on-going training and slope off at 4:30 on a Friday whatever the Monday requirements)
I suggest the 3 others are:
Flying hours
Time to do a job properly
A shared ethos (which cannot be obtained working alongside civvies who are paid min. wage, receive no on-going training and slope off at 4:30 on a Friday whatever the Monday requirements)
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What was wrong with Ops Admin Eng wings?
Back in the days when we had an air force, there were quite a number of these communications squadrons. They flew from stations such as Andover, Bovingdon and Topcliffe (2 of which have since been pongo'd, the other is a prison) and would potter about the UK in Ansons, Bassetts, Devons, Pembrokes etc. carrying scrambled egg-hatted officers about. They went about their business in a quietly, professional manner until the axe-wielding bean counters decided that they had to go....
The last remaining comms squadron is 32 at Northolt - 4 x 146 and 2 x 125 plus a couple of helicopters......
And nowadays senior officers aren't even entitled to first class rail travel.
The last remaining comms squadron is 32 at Northolt - 4 x 146 and 2 x 125 plus a couple of helicopters......
And nowadays senior officers aren't even entitled to first class rail travel.
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I was very fortunate to bag a seat in a Pembroke C1 of 60 Sqadron at RAF Wildenrath many years ago. Night SCT for the crew followed by a few pints of Amstel on me ... a great bunch of characters 
Can't remember names now
A great little aeroplane ...
Coff.
Can't remember names now
A great little aeroplane ...
Coff.
Last edited by CoffmanStarter; 29th May 2013 at 06:49.
Back in the days when we had an air force, there were quite a number of these communications squadrons
This meant that the 3 Grp stations had to bid for an aeroplane if they had a reason to need it.
3 Grp staff, however, had no problem.
Last edited by Fareastdriver; 25th May 2013 at 19:57.
I don't own this space under my name. I should have leased it while I still could
carrying scrambled egg-hatted officers . . .
Or a Bassett which could carry half a Lancaster crew and needed two just to flew 5 of us from Benson to Waddo.
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Ahhh the Pembroke, as a young AC NL I learnt to Marshall with one of those at Saint Athans Coff, and was taught to swing a prop with a Bassett, again at Saints, thankfully never to be done again, even though I do piston stuff these days..
Pembroke a bit later on miraculously became a flier again and departed the school....
Nearest I ever got to one again was doing a Jag engine change next to one at Gut, it had flown in to do a medevac and threw a cylinder on take off covering the side in thick black oil and scaring the stretchered patient. Took them a while to fix as one of the guys doing it asked his mate to throw a screwdriver up to him and he never caught it.... It dissapeared straight down through the open cap into i think the oil tank lol... Took a couple of days to get it out and get the pot done
I also as a Civi i did repairs on the then BBMF Devon cowlings, all the intake scoops were age hardened and cracked, so we asked the RAF if they had new ones we could fit whilst it was stripped for paint.... Yes was the answer, we will sell them to you, you fit them, then bill us for them, needless to say that went down like a lead balloon and it never happened, so rather than a smart looking job it left with dirty great ugly patches nailed onto them before paint... Sigh
Didn't they used to put a couple of aircraft on a UK circuit near Christmas to help folks get home for the holidays in the 50's come 60's?
Pembroke a bit later on miraculously became a flier again and departed the school....
Nearest I ever got to one again was doing a Jag engine change next to one at Gut, it had flown in to do a medevac and threw a cylinder on take off covering the side in thick black oil and scaring the stretchered patient. Took them a while to fix as one of the guys doing it asked his mate to throw a screwdriver up to him and he never caught it.... It dissapeared straight down through the open cap into i think the oil tank lol... Took a couple of days to get it out and get the pot done
I also as a Civi i did repairs on the then BBMF Devon cowlings, all the intake scoops were age hardened and cracked, so we asked the RAF if they had new ones we could fit whilst it was stripped for paint.... Yes was the answer, we will sell them to you, you fit them, then bill us for them, needless to say that went down like a lead balloon and it never happened, so rather than a smart looking job it left with dirty great ugly patches nailed onto them before paint... Sigh
Didn't they used to put a couple of aircraft on a UK circuit near Christmas to help folks get home for the holidays in the 50's come 60's?
Last edited by NutLoose; 28th May 2013 at 23:22.
I don't own this space under my name. I should have leased it while I still could
The rest of the plebs could spend hours travelling by train (pre-Beeching) but the elite could do he journeys in minutes.
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Lyneham used to sometimes lay on a Britannia for those going to Scotland & N. Ireland in the late 60s. A Benson Argosy did a flight to Ballykelly, via Topcliffe & Turnhouse, at a May bank holiday in, I think, 1966.
The RN 'Tilly' used to do regular runs between their various stations, using a Sea Heron and later a Jetstream.
Rumour has it that some senior RAF officer, let down by his own service, had to travel in a naval Jetstream and promptly demanded that Heron Flight should be disbanded. If it's true, then he must have been an utter ar$e!
In 1969, the RN flew me home from Lossiemouth to Somerset - the RAF alternative was about a day on the choo-choo. My chauffeur on that occasion was a RN Cdr flying one of Airwork's Sea Vampires.
Taking an aircraft for the weekend was once possible in the RAF provided that there was a reasonable excuse; I flew a Wg Cdr down to Dunsfold in a Hawk from Valley, then popped up to Scampton for the weekend where I left it parked for a static display before flying back first thing on Monday.
Rumour has it that some senior RAF officer, let down by his own service, had to travel in a naval Jetstream and promptly demanded that Heron Flight should be disbanded. If it's true, then he must have been an utter ar$e!
In 1969, the RN flew me home from Lossiemouth to Somerset - the RAF alternative was about a day on the choo-choo. My chauffeur on that occasion was a RN Cdr flying one of Airwork's Sea Vampires.
Taking an aircraft for the weekend was once possible in the RAF provided that there was a reasonable excuse; I flew a Wg Cdr down to Dunsfold in a Hawk from Valley, then popped up to Scampton for the weekend where I left it parked for a static display before flying back first thing on Monday.
Last edited by BEagle; 30th May 2013 at 07:17.
One could still get a 125 ride as late as 1989. I remember 32 Sqn did a sweep-up trip on December 23/24th for all the deserving waifs and strays - I'd done an extra QRA to cover for illness, and got dropped off in London so's I could spend xmas with my girlfriend. I also flew as co- on the BBMF Devon a few times doing the odd 'support flight' that ferried a few people around.
Those days are gone....
Those days are gone....
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At Benson in the early 90s 115 Sqn did a nice number in Christmas shopping trips to the Channel Islands and France.
It was actually doing a Nav exercise so it was decided to offer it out to families on the station to take their kids, think they had to pay for a days ticket and hotels at the other end, then as the crew had their rest day the families enjoyed Disneyworld.
There was also the Annual yearly Ten to Legoland Denmark for disabled kids etc, Shell or whoever donating the fuel and the crew their time..
I used to bum lifts on Pumas or Chinooks heading north on exercises, so i could go home on leave
our Chinooks were better as i used to take my motorbike in them.... only got stitched up once (by 33 Sqn), we landed on to meet another Puma, I thanked them, off loaded my bag and set off for the main gate at Catterick to thumb it to Carlisle..... hang on this ain't Catterick i thinks as two Pumas promptly disappear off over the hill leaving me standing in some totally deserted Pongo camp up in the back of beyond (that was only used for range firing once in a blue moon), the sole occupant at the gate informed me Richmond was that way some 10 miles!!!! luckily the only car that passed the place in an hour stopped and gave me a lift... it was so out there one expected James Herriott to be driving it. I wondered why the bloody crewman was grinning as i left.....
Last edited by NutLoose; 30th May 2013 at 11:47.