Sqn Ldr Mark 'Disco' Discombe awarded the AFC

[mmitch]

Sqn Ldr Mark 'Disco' Discombe has been awarded the AFC for getting a BBMF Hurricane back on the ground safely after an oil pipe burst.
http://www.memorialflightclub.com/bl...isco’-discombe
mmitch.

[pembroke]

Something similar happened to me. Climbing out of Lydd on an IMC exercise, passing 2500', the crankshaft seal decided to move forward and thus dump a lot of oil over the TB 10. I immediately turned back towards the airfield, (3.5nm) ,trimmed for best glide and throttled back to idle. Words to ATC, "by the way it's a PAN call"! The oil loss decreased and I managed to find one quick burst of power and made the threshold , using the side window as a landing visual reference. A quick tow to the back of the hangar. No damage to the engine , in fact we had 3qts remaining .Prop. off and seal changed. The aircraft then left with the owner back to its base at Biggin. Only paperwork, an MOR. Back home to a stiff whiskey and no medals!

[Stitchbitch]

Well done Disco. On a less serious note it appears there's only slightly more oil underneath LF than usual

[Mystic Greg]

Great skills from Disco, and good to see the recognition.

[Alber Ratman]

Great to see such an award go to Disco, Top Bloke!

[just another jocky]

3FTS, surely.


Well done m8.

[Tankertrashnav]

Having seen one or two AFCs awarded on the thinnest of pretexts which caused a few eyebrows to be raised at the time, I am delighted to see this very well deserved one. Congratulations!

[57mm]

IIRC, Flt Lt Grant Taylor had a similar experience in a BBMF fighter some years back and managed to land safely at RAF Woodhall Spa.

[noflynomore]

AFCs awarded on the thinnest of pretexts

Presumably there was vastly more to this than gentling the engine for a mere 20 miles and landing with oil on the windscreen.
There must have been? Surely? For an AFC?

[Peter G-W]

They used to award Green Endorsements for exemplary airmanship, didn't they?

[57mm]

I believe Grant was awarded a Green Endorsement for the recovery to RAF Woodhall Spa.

[QTRZulu]

Well done Duck. Certainly come along way since we were in school all those years ago

[kintyred]

My captain got one of those nasty banana death 'copters safely down after a hydraulic failure caused by an electrical cable rubbing through a pipe. Sparks, smoke, hyd oil everywhere. Didn't even get a Green Endorsement.
By the way, us whirlybird drivers dream of the kind of gliding ability the plankies have!

[Old-Duffer]

LF363 is a bit of a 'case'. Ain't she the Hurricane that was reduced to a back of bits several years ago and then completely rebuilt from scratch?

Any congrats to Sqn Ldr Discombe.

Old Duffer

[Alber Ratman]

I do believe it was the Hurri that cartwheeled into Wittering after a con rod failure. I was on RSS at the time and heard the emergency state 2 call "Hurricane" so went out to see it try and recover. When it crashed , I said a few expletives.. Was standing next to OC 1(F) at the time. On day 11 years later at Cottesmore, I was talking to a contracted pilot doing FRA stuff. Talking careers, he mentioned that he was OC 1 at that time. I apologised for my language of that day.