Not Cranwell, but the Thunderbirds in Paraguay, early sixties. Unimaginable by today's regulations ...

<grin>

As I recall, that was their first season in the Hawk, and we were basically one of the first groups (maybe the first group?) of civilians to see them.

And as a direct result of that display, here I am 29 years later with half a life time spent in aviation.

pb
(an ex-MCS lad)

Now that I didn't know - or if they told us on the day, the passage of time has erased it from the fading grey cells.

The lowest on You tube, have you seen this A10 (may not count as just after take off) and the Harrier here or the TV presenter who says "F£@k-me" as the Spitfire goes over/past his ear.

iX

A-10 and Harrier don't count, standard tactical departures.

For the record Alain de Cadenet, chap in the Spitfire vid getting wired by Ray Hanna is about 5ft 8in.

Getting back to the cranwell incident, did anyone ever obtain a copy apart from IFS, or whatever yer man Spry is called these days?

Not least, because even Reagan decided twenty years later that Albert Stroßner's human rights record was unpalatable.

That flyby
 

My wife was ADC to the reviewing officer - an interesting conversation in the back of the car on the way home...

JT: 'What did you think of the flyby?'.....

ADC: .. What flyby?

JT: 'The one that blew the parade's hats off and nearly deafened the Princess...'

ADC: 'Oh... I thought she loved it....'

JT:. 'Hmmmm...'

:}

Who is JT?

the late John Thompson perhaps?

Affirm
 

Yes, he was C in C support Command at the time IIRC... Sad loss, a very good guy, ex Jaguars and US exchange F4's I believe. He died suddenly of natural causes as a serving 4* The current air warfare centre building at Wadington is named after him.

Ah, yes, had forgot about him. Good bloke.

Cranwell Beat Ups
 

As a young Airman at Cranwell in the late 50s early 60s we had lots of visiting ex Cranwell jet jocks visit us from the squadrons in their hot ships. The best at the time was usually the Hunter. When we saw them off after their visit it was usual for the strapper in to ask for a beat up down the pan. There was also a subtle hint that "so and so", who they would have known, had done one a little while before and had got below the fin of a JP.

This was like waving a red rag to a bull and had the usual effect on a jet jock and we were rewarded with some great beat ups.:ok:

Oh great days.

That's dragged a trip out of the memory bank. Just after 360 got the first T17s (B2 with knobs on), as an ex cadet, and first tourist, I was programmed to take an aircraft to Cranwell for the students to see. In the hour before take-off I was taken aside by several of the more experienced (ie older) pilots and warned that "more pilots lose their flying badge for beating up their FTS than for any other reason". Suitable chastened, I set off for Sleaford Tech, parked our shiny "new" jet and went for coffee. A couple of hours later, having shown the studes what we could of the T17, we crewed up, did the checks and called for taxi clearance. Got that, and then the tower called "You are clear for a low fast run!" The T17 was limited to 250kts for fatigue reasons, but was allowed to go to 425 (as I recall) for trim checks, so we did a low trim check! Seems a lifetime ago now.

Wander00

I am not sure that I would be proud of that! Despite having had some good sound advice from your mates you managed to get talked into doing something that you had not planned or really thought through. := You were no doubt lucky on that day and managed to survive (both as a pilot and a human being) to tell the tale. Fortunately we tend to be a bit more professional nowadays, but I suppose we will always get one or two who think that they can impress others by flying lower and faster than the last guy. Unfortunately it tends to be the less able aviators who want to prove themselves in this way but only manage to put their ac and fellow aviators into situations that they do not really have the skills to carry it off safely or competently. I wonder how many more ‘incidents’ we need before we all see the light, but perhaps I am getting too old?

LK

Did not make a claim for it being "good" - looking back 40 years, the foolhardiness of youth - and we all (hopefully) learn from such experiences! Your plasitic ruler on the knucles well merited!

Cheers

Wander00

Point taken, fly safe.

Do these count?

Jaguar

YouTube - Low Flying Jaguar

The last few seconds on this....

YouTube - Sepecat Jaguars Flying in Oman

Last minute requests. Tony Kern tells a story of a newly minted aviator in his F-15 being asked to do a beat up. Pulled up into a zoom at the end of the run and the wings came off. In his excitement had forgotten to tell the magic box that the aircraft had full drops and then pulled to the clean g limit. More poignantly, had also forgotten to strap in so no ejection.

Vulcan Does it Again
 

Story goes that the RAFC graduation fly-past some years ago was to be done by the mighty Vulcan. This happened, one of the cadets was the son/daughter of the sqn CO. However, the first Vulcan was closely followed by a second with a light fuel load that did a low pass and an almost vertical climb over CHOM. The resulting turbulance caused a young lady's skirt to rise way above her waist, but she hung on to her hat. Afterwards she said "What you were all looking at is 20 years old, what I was holding onto is brand new!"

Maybe a myth, but I larfed.

Re the above post about John Thompson. As SO(UK) to the SHAPE COS (German 4*) in the early 90's, I had the extreme good fortune to escort Sir John and his American wife from their aircraft at Chièvres to SHAPE HQ. The cars (principal and chase) were driven by COS's German staff. They practiced escape and evasion, but COS would not allow them to do it while he was in the car. They wondered if Sir John would let them, I asked him and before he could reply Lady T said. "Sure, it could be fun." And it was!

I later had the sad task of breaking the news of Sir John's death to COS and he was very sad. "If only all your RAF seniors officers were like Sir John", he said. He never spoke a truer word.

Pip pip

ON