Global Aviation Magazine : 60 Years of the Hercules

[Dougie M]

Anguilla was before my time on the fleet but they did send Andovers too. The Argosies were denied the Caribbean sunshine.

[chickenlover]

Agreed. While we wait for AA62's next instalment, how about some snaps to clear the air. Apologies if these have been up before, but frankly, my admin is a shambles. It's Friday, the sun is shining and I'm lucky enough to be going to quaff an ale or 3 with Dougie M later and will get to hear some more ripping yarns in person

Firstly-not my snap but its on the inter web and its a great picture.



Happy days.



Just for Smuj



An oldie but a goldie. Never tire of seeing this.



And finally, thought long and hard about posting this as it is not mine, and I don't have the photog's permission to post, but it's such a great shot, I hope he doesn't mind sharing it with a bunch of Herc people. I found it a while ago and tried to track the photog down and failed. I've looked on flickr and the usual haunts but can't find it again now. So, if the photog ever comes through here, get in touch and I will make amends.



Thats it for now, happy weekend folks.

[Jackw106]

Deviating slightly from the Herc but I like a good parade

http://youtu.be/brYzxsgqEGg

[Wander00]

Well that's two horses for defaulters. However, takes me back to the mid 70s when I worked for Norfolk County Council and two years running helped man their stand at the Royal Norfolk Show

[smujsmith]

Chickenlover, how do you get away with posting pure sex photographs on this thread ? Thanks though, as a Lightning loving ex Albert employee, I'm sure you have catered for my small deviance

Hope the soirée with Mr M was good, a great way to spend an evening I reckon.

Smudge

[WIDN62]

The Royal Norfolk Show.

I did that a few years ago with the Internationally Acclaimed Parachute Display Team of the Royal Air Force.

I swear the hotel we stayed in was the one used for filming the Alan Partridge programmes - my room even had a Corby Trouser Press!

[ancientaviator62]

DM has rightly pointed the way for Op Sheepskin. When the Caribbean states were granted independence some of them were 'bundled' together to make them viable. Anguilla was attached to Antigua. However in 1969 they decided they wished to go it alone. Antigua appealed to the UK for assistance and Op Sheepskin was the result. We did not send the army we sent UK 'bobbies'.
My logbook tells me I did the first such trip on 9 April 1969 in XV 293.
We routed via Gander, Bermuda to Antigua. You can imagine the conditions down the back with an a/c full of policemen. They did not mind as they were off on a well paid 'jolley'.
The Andovers set up a detachment in Antigua to provide a shuttle to Anguilla
and were there for a goodly time. Nice work if you can get it !

[ksimboy]

Then Dougie fell off a banana in Antigua, while there in support of the Volcano eruption in Montserrat. Along with the the Lyneham Sumo wrestling team. Highlight of one evening was sundowners on Shirley Heights, our eng , fed up boring the rest of the crew attached himself to some paying tourists and found himself attacked by a land crab. No laughter at all amid the rum punches!!

[Dougie M]

Montserrat

This det wasn't Op Sheepskin but came about when the top of Chancellor's Peak in the Souffriere mountains on Montserrat blew up. We were sent out to Antigua with a bunch of marines to evacuate the islanders and the marines to rescue any casualties and maintain order. We spent several days shuttling between Antigua and Blackburne airfield on Montserrat with refugees. The marines carried their search equipment including thermal imaging kit. They had to be reminded that it was a volcano we were on fer chrissake! On a day off at the end we decided to take a banana ride. Rum punches were involved. Being aircrew and not exactly slim the tow boat couldn't dislodge us. After a brief interlude of chat we then saw the tow boat at 50kts heading at 180 deg to us. The orange towing string then snapped back the nose of the banana and catapulted said sumo wrestling team up into the air. I clearly remember hitting the sea and seeing the 2nd row forward 18st co-pilot in plan view directly above me descending at 32ft sec.
As we struggled ashore I felt nothing until I tried to stand up. The journey home via Rosie Roads was v. painful but we WERE on active duty.

[ksimboy]

Or to quote the eng "thiiiiiiit"!!!

[smujsmith]

You are cruel ksimboy, I'm sure it's not true that they had to flag Rosy Rhodes as a result of having to offload fuel to accommodate the weight of the operating crew. just been re reading the magazine reference from Coffs first post, I suppose the very source of this thread. It covers many nations Alberts, in various shapes and sizes. I was fortunate to get a trip on an 8th SOS gunship during a det. to Hurlbert many moons ago. I have always wondered why the RAF didn't find a need for the beast. During that det we also got introduced to the MOAB, and we're reminded that 8th SOS lost a crew, delivering one of these massive weapons over Kuwait during GW1. Having spent more than 5000 hours of flight in our own Albert, I wonder if the RAF ever looked seriously at using the aircraft in an offensive mode ? Any thoughts chaps?

Smudge

[CoffmanStarter]

Good morning Gents ...

I hope you don't mind me asking a quick question

I was reading a short Biography about Air Marshal Sir Cliff Spink yesterday which mentioned that, aside from flying the F4M in the South Atlantic, he also flew the Hercules. It would seem he did this when he was Station Commander of Mount Pleasant Airfield. Would that have been a local RH seat checkout or did he do the OCU ?

I appreciate Sir Cliff is a highly regarded VSO/leader/pilot ... it was just a surprise to see Albert on his type list given his fighter pedigree.

Best ...

Coff.

[ancientaviator62]

Coff,
like most of the VSO he almost certainly did not do a full Herc OCU. He may have done a Herc famil prior to taking up his appointment. I am sure someone who was there at the time can fill us in on the details, but probably RHS at least for the T/O and landing.
On a slight thread drift there is the story of a non qualified AOC who tried to insist on doing the take off in a VC 10 at Muharraq. Perhaps Beags can fill in the details.

[ancientaviator62]

smudge,
the only firing offensive mode that I believe was ever trialled was the GPMG 'gunship'.
The only 'bang' trial over the ramp that I am aware of was the mines for use during Op Corporate. We have cover both these in earlier posts. There is of course no reason why we could not have dropped other ordnance as did the USAF. But when doing the HEART job I did not find any evidence of even the suggestion of such a trial
I once suggested that the APFC with an impact detonator would make a good inprovised weapon !
I suspect dragartist would count the MSP as a lethal ramp dropped bit of kit !

[Wander00]

Hopefully not the same VSO who wanted the autoland demo on the Tri*

[Kengineer-130]

Bit of an old school Herc video, apologies if it has been posted already! Looks to be way before my time on Albert, but does anyone recognize anyone?


https://m.youtube.com/watch?feature=...&v=aVjuw3g7jgE

[Dougie M]

I do recall at Lyneham when the AOC who had recently completed the 3day VSO fam course decided to lead a 15 ship formation for a para drop in Denmark. The instructor pilot in the Co's chair had his hand surreptitiously behind the control column in order to pull back as we thundered across the North Sea at low level. The warm fuzzy feeling was even more distant when his "Airship" took the occasional swig from a blue ridged glass bottle which he had in the top pocket of his flight suit.
There are phases of every sortie when you can relax for a few minutes. This was not one of them. The DZ at Lolland couldn't arrive soon enough and the landing at Vaerlose was a relief.
There is a reason for the 3month OCU being longer than 3days.

[Captain Sensible]

During Corporate when we heard that the Nimrods were being armed with Sidewinders, I asked for our 2 Hercs to be similarly armed for Op Mikado, but was told to pull my self together stupid boy, or some such words! So we soldiered on with our hand-held (hairdryer) RWR and hope in our hearts. It's all in the book.

[ExAscoteer]

Originally Posted by ancientaviator62

smudge,
the only firing offensive mode that I believe was ever trialled was the GPMG 'gunship'.

There was of course the release of paper cups from one of the Para Doors darn sarf.

Apparently, to the F4 driver, it looked like tracer...

[smujsmith]

I was a mere RH Para door occupier during a det in "the Gulf" in the build up to GW1. As was our Captains wish, we regularly did fighter affil with both MB133 ? and a Hawk, flown by a smashing exchange pilot from the RAF. On one such sortie, we were accompanied by a couple of AD lads, who had strapped a bloody great Gimpy onto the middle of the ramp. Well, the Hawk got in behind us in the turn, and up close, at which point, the ramp was lowered and the Hawk pilot got a face full of Gimpy. His reaction was a serious pull and, in his own words in the party room that night, an over stress of the aircraft. This is the bloke who delighted in slipping a gun camera picture of my LH Para door position bang to rights, under my room door. I promise, I'm still looking for it, it will be posted.

Captain Sensible, read the book, bloody nutters the lot of you !!! With the greatest respect

Smudge