Global Aviation Magazine : 60 Years of the Hercules
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I42
Here is the anti swing on the HSP doing its job. The risers on the main chutes were so long that the anti swing just stabilised the load in the vertical in time for it to touch the ground
Here is the anti swing on the HSP doing its job. The risers on the main chutes were so long that the anti swing just stabilised the load in the vertical in time for it to touch the ground
RAF Hercules 60 today
Photo in yesterday's Sunday Telegraph Business section shows the first RAF Hercules handover ceremony at Lockheed Marietta 60 years ago today! Anyone with access to the online ST able to post it here? Or, in the sad absence of Coff, can someone tell me how to post it here using an iPad? If and when it appears here is anyone recognisable?
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Christmas
Nothing posted on here since before Christmas!
Hope everyone had a good time.
Where is the most unusual, fun, different, good, dreadful place you spent a Christmas, New Year or birthday, courtesy of Albert?
Hope everyone had a good time.
Where is the most unusual, fun, different, good, dreadful place you spent a Christmas, New Year or birthday, courtesy of Albert?
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An unexpected Christmas and New Year in Salisbury, Rhodesia before it became the sorry state of Harare, Zimbabwe. "All you need to do is nip down there and take freight out to the assembly areas and you'll all be home for Christmas" they said. Yeah right. I think it was the Ides of March when we finally left one of the most beautiful countries in the world to its fate. The weather was fantastic, the people lovely, the allowances phenomenal and the flying was unhindered by air traffic. The food was exquisite and the hotel excellent. When the Boss came out on a shuttle he was entertained at a pool barbecue with drinks served by the staff and he said "How am I going to go home to your nearest and dearest and tell them that you are suffering the privations of a bush detachment"
I nearly bought a coffee plantation in Chipinga before the election results declared that the fabled Bob Mugabe had "won". The hotel owner said "We are all refugees now"
It was the last of the "Bring a bottle" wars.
I nearly bought a coffee plantation in Chipinga before the election results declared that the fabled Bob Mugabe had "won". The hotel owner said "We are all refugees now"
It was the last of the "Bring a bottle" wars.
Tampa for New Year due diversion inbound to Belize for smoke/fumes drill. Most unexpected and a whole bunch of fun. Beat seeing in the NY outside Block 101 just before boarding MT to go flying!
Christmas in Rhodesia
Dougie, your comments on the hard lying det to Salisbury bring back memories of how we suffered for our country at that time but IIRC we also had to suffer a New Years pool party at the Rhodesian Air Force C.I.C's home at which a certain Co-pilot, C...s F..d by name did his ear in relegating him to Ops Officer for some while while the crew I was with had to borrow a Co when we went flying. At that time the Det was crews plus a G.E. each and Christmas was celebrated in the hotel and a good time was had by all! Your G.E., a gentleman by the name of E..y B....m and I shared a room there and yet again as you say it was very hard to keep up the story of how bad it was to be out there!
Last edited by gopher01; 9th Jan 2017 at 14:35. Reason: comments
Where is the most unusual, fun, different, good, dreadful place you spent a Christmas, New Year or birthday, courtesy of Albert?
It was not always fun in the sun (but I had some of that ,too!
)
I spent one wonderful Christmas inside a fuel tank in J3 hangar!
On the night shift, too (no 'heads down' time either
)
Made a couple of bob using the 'bog money' system, though.
Happy New Year to you all!
It was not always fun in the sun (but I had some of that ,too!
)I spent one wonderful Christmas inside a fuel tank in J3 hangar!
On the night shift, too (no 'heads down' time either
)Made a couple of bob using the 'bog money' system, though.
Happy New Year to you all!
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Calling all those with low standards . . .
Just for a laugh and I'll stick my neck out :
Calling 1975 Belize Airlift
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/...te%20Tales.mp3
Calling 1975 Belize Airlift
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/...te%20Tales.mp3
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Flier Flyer #4204
Having just worked my way through all of the posts I came across your photos from 1987 when I was one of your SACs and my future Father In Law (Noel) was a major contributor to the smoke in Rects Control. Studying the photos, I then saw myself cleaning windows with Ros, I also believe that's me topping up the main wheels in a previous post. You ask where are they are now....well I live about 6 away miles from Lyneham having left the RAF in 2013 and now work as a contractor at ABW. Happy times.
Having just worked my way through all of the posts I came across your photos from 1987 when I was one of your SACs and my future Father In Law (Noel) was a major contributor to the smoke in Rects Control. Studying the photos, I then saw myself cleaning windows with Ros, I also believe that's me topping up the main wheels in a previous post. You ask where are they are now....well I live about 6 away miles from Lyneham having left the RAF in 2013 and now work as a contractor at ABW. Happy times.
AEM 87/AEF 97
A Contractor at ABW? You going to still be there post March 31st? Or even post the end of Feb?
Sorry for thread drift.
A Contractor at ABW? You going to still be there post March 31st? Or even post the end of Feb?
Sorry for thread drift.
Belize / Nassau 1975
Brian W May:
Very entertaining, that little ditty, Brian! Thanks for re-activating some of my fading memories.
The Belize job was one of those sunny trips I referred to in my Christmas 'hard luck' post above #4536. Some of us groundies were unfortunate enough to have to put up with a couple of weeks or so at the Nassau Beach Hotel - things got even worse for me later, as I had to do it all over again, during the recovery phase
.
Things got off to a cracking start for those of us on the Nassau detachment - the brown jobs (allegedly) fired the starting pistol about 48 hours later than advertised, so there was precious little for us to do for a day or two. We made a start on our suntans, courtesy of the adjacent Cable Beach, and got in some practice in trying to make the perfect Wallbanger - the functional testing of same was a popular gig. Perhaps this was because the groundcrew variation of the Harvey Wallbanger recipe was concocted in rather industrial-sized quantities e.g. Take one clean metal waste bin, etc. IIRC the bottle with the bat on the label, obtainable from the 'licor store' outside the hotel cost around $2.50 for a 40-ouncer!
Luckily, I had drawn the short straw and was on the night shift; staging through just the one aircraft (usually) returning from Belize most nights was a really hard slog! Again, fortune was on my side as my room (half of a suite) was directly above the aptly named "Peanut Taylor's Drumbeat Club"
: being on nights thus limited my exposure to the Caribbean rhythms emanating from below.
We groundies usually ate at the airport: the workers' canteen did an excellent grouper salad and a large beer for 5 dollars, although I did have the odd brekkie or two at the Howard Johnson at the front of the hotel. A fabulous time was had by us all, we even received some rather good rates from the detachment paymaster
.
Very entertaining, that little ditty, Brian! Thanks for re-activating some of my fading memories.
The Belize job was one of those sunny trips I referred to in my Christmas 'hard luck' post above #4536. Some of us groundies were unfortunate enough to have to put up with a couple of weeks or so at the Nassau Beach Hotel - things got even worse for me later, as I had to do it all over again, during the recovery phase
.Things got off to a cracking start for those of us on the Nassau detachment - the brown jobs (allegedly) fired the starting pistol about 48 hours later than advertised, so there was precious little for us to do for a day or two. We made a start on our suntans, courtesy of the adjacent Cable Beach, and got in some practice in trying to make the perfect Wallbanger - the functional testing of same was a popular gig. Perhaps this was because the groundcrew variation of the Harvey Wallbanger recipe was concocted in rather industrial-sized quantities e.g. Take one clean metal waste bin, etc. IIRC the bottle with the bat on the label, obtainable from the 'licor store' outside the hotel cost around $2.50 for a 40-ouncer!
Luckily, I had drawn the short straw and was on the night shift; staging through just the one aircraft (usually) returning from Belize most nights was a really hard slog! Again, fortune was on my side as my room (half of a suite) was directly above the aptly named "Peanut Taylor's Drumbeat Club"
: being on nights thus limited my exposure to the Caribbean rhythms emanating from below.We groundies usually ate at the airport: the workers' canteen did an excellent grouper salad and a large beer for 5 dollars, although I did have the odd brekkie or two at the Howard Johnson at the front of the hotel. A fabulous time was had by us all, we even received some rather good rates from the detachment paymaster
.