Very well deserved, he tried to save my life :ok: Last time I met him was years ago and some people on this forum will know him very well, he was a Sqn Ldr C130 Nav.
No he really was a rock (I lived in the same block as the firemen and movers), they had an Ops room in the Operations Centre, same as the Police. If Ollie had crashed 10 mins later a heck of a lot more people would have been caught up as the crash zone took in the car park and most people started work at 7am. The first person through the hole in the wall was an LEC (Locally Employed Civilian) fireman (in the picture in the grey suit on the right).
Dug out a picture of Gill and I at the firemans xmas party which was just before we were flown home.
http://i80.photobucket.com/albums/j1...ONU/Cyprus.jpg

BD

The Met Office social association have an annual award in memory of the forecaster who was killed.
An airfield 'somewhere in Europe' uses an AMG:} when the balloon goes up. Or rather down.

Bernie Limb
 

flew with him several times. What a great guy.
IIRC he had a brother also as a Nav on 47 Sqn?

Bernie Limb
 

Bernie was a nav on 47 Squadron, certainly in 1982.

We used to see F-117s night flying from Binbrook in the late 80s. It was meant to be a secret because armed chaps blocked the road to crash gate 3, but just about everyone in the village saw them. They weren't official at the time.

My grandad took a photo of one, for which he achieved fame in his village (North Thoresway... where everyone knew him anyway).

It's the only thing I've asked for in his will :)

I worked on 56F Sqn (F4 Wattisham) all through the mid 80's as a ground engineer and our Aircraft used to que up behind it ( Big Black thing with long thin wings, with sticks with wheels on the end hanging dowm, two hugh engines...) most mornings to take- off.... but ask the 'Yanks' in the Bar in the evening and nothing of the sort happened..... Totally Brainwashed or just 'American':ugh: :ugh: :ugh:

Specsavers in Cyprus?

Hi all

Daft question, but there's never been a big secret about U-2/TR-1 ops out of Akrotiri...i mean I recall various articles in magazines such as Air Forces Monthly in the 80s and think the US Airpower in Europe special by AFM mentioned U-2 det at Akrotiri!!:ok:

Think it was mentioned in the whopping great 80s publication by Salamander called The US War Machine.

I still wish the 501st CSW at Alconbury would re activate the runway like back 15 years ago, as I remember driving past there and seeing the U-2s of the then 10th TRW

There was in the 1970s.:suspect:

Was living in Akrotiri from 1993 to 1995 and regularly saw U-2's coming and going.

Weather Balloon!

http://www.cuisineconsultancy.co.uk/...herballoon.jpg

Quite true...The Jack Flawn Trophy
Awarded for the promotion of awareness of meteorology in sporting or leisure activities.

Four locally employed civilian met staff also perished that day. They were :-
G. Gostanian, G. Hannis, P. Panayi, and A. Televantos

CM

I've a nice photo of a formation of two "weather balloons" at Akrotiri - the first ever outside the USA.... if the third one that was working Akrotiri Director, had been a bit quicker coming down it would have been the first ever three ship (so I am told)


Don't know how to get it on here though

MM

Hope they removed the towbar from the rear wheels before he rolled.
Was at Akrotiri with cadets Apr '86. On the beach near the harbour, it was great fun to see the 'TR 1' on final and dozens of cadets pointing their cameras at it, with the ACLO running about telling them not to take pictures!!

When I passed through Akrotiri in the period 1964-66, the U2s were operated by the CIA. The pilots never socialised and always went everywhere in twos (including, probably, the bog). In 1974 at the time of the Turkish invasion, they were USAF aircraft and the crews, led by Col Gary Powers (not the Gary Powers, or so he said) were very sociable indeed and happy to let us climb over their aircraft.

Correct, Olive Harvest is an overt operation as we were constantly told during my time at RAF Butlins-on-med. You can even buy the T-Shirts....

TEE SHIRTS ETC

Try and get too close to one of their big black machines howver...well thast a different story :=

Recall a pretty windy day, very low cloud and and even lower U2, COCISS and appearing in my wing mirror just above the trees and buildings as I drove into wind along the A420 outside Swindon. He drew and stayed level with me for quite a bit - didn't have all that much overtake;). Im crap at judging height and I know it's a deceptivly big a/c but I'd be surprised if he was any higher than 3-400 ft... clearly though, he was on his way to/from the US and had must have had altimatry problems as they never operate out of UK...

I would be more worried the fact the CIA have now tracked your post and have cancelled all your credit cards , removed your identity from interpol and made you number 2 most wanted spy next to Billy Bin Laden :ok:


good luck on lasting the next 48 hours as Jason Bourne has your details :E

Been living at AKR for 7 years.
Never seen one. :(

I spent a couple of weeks in Akrotiri on a Det from Lossiemouth. We arrived around lunchtime on the first day, so we got stuck into setting up even though the rest of the station went home shortly afterwards! Two of us were driving around looking for Ground Eng to pick up some Houchins and parked up to ask directions. We just got out of the rover when this nice RAF officer came round the corner of the hanger we were parked outside. We asked if he could direct us to GE, and the reply was along the lines of, "Yes just get into the vehicle and drive because if you sit there much longer you'll have some long discussions with some of our American friends who live in the hanger you're parked next to. Oh and don't park there again, or leave a vehicle there unattended...."
Like you all say, there are no U2s in Akrotiri, I remember the plod in the land rover driving down the pan telling me this, just after he told me to turn round and lie face down until something that wasn't there went past. :oh:

As the stn Rock sqn, we used to vist the hanger frequently (invariably at 0300) to have an official rummage around, check arcs, approach routes, entry points, likely enemy positions etc. God, the noise that thing generated ot 0640.. in fact, the inly time I ever heard a louder groan based on the noise that an aeroplane generated were the C5s and various helicopters that always seemed to be there in the mid 80s, in connection with Libya and the Achilli Lauro. But of course, Delta Force was never there and if they had been, they certainly wouldn't have tried to swap kit with the likes of me.

Interesting to read the tale of the crash - although before my time there, we did have someone on the sqn who was caught up in it during his previous tour. He got blown into a dustbin and damaged his back. Olive Harvest piss ups were pretty good and made a nice change, B52s and Depthcharge cocktails are remembered with much affection still and I have loads of shots take in the club - lots of dodgy haircuts and loud Limassol shirts. The women were pretty hideous though.

In fact, on one occasion, we weren't invited to the 4th July do, so we held a rival one at the Pen Club and branded it as a VC night. We turned NBC suits inside out, ripped up some bamboo lie lows and made them into conical VC hats, flip flops, tin AK47s and of course.. lots of Anglias brandy. Things went sour when we held a swallow diving competition into that big bush from the old PS bar roof and sustained an injury. We used to welcome the OH lot into the block whenever possible and they bought some great booze stashes. All in all, great lads.

If they had existed of course. Perhaps I just imagined the entire 4 years.

U2 @ Akrotiri
 

Whilst servicing a 56 F6 in a certain hanger at Akers in `74, I and my mates noticed a large black balloon at the other end, unattended.
Being curious we all had a good look around it inc. the basket.
Outside were several burly Americans in civilian clothing they had not noticed us go in! We completed the service and left, the look on their faces was a picture!
The balloon had two large gas tanks which could be mistaken for engines!

Of course there weren't...... Neither were there any SEALs guarding the 'biscuit factory' at B****y.










They were all up at the Mull of Kintyre, playing with weird Wally's wacky wirelesses.

Well the security standards have certainly come down since the Cold War days then. On a S**** T**** det from Lossie a couple of years ago, one of the returning Tonkas went u/s so we hangared it overnight opposite Olive Harvest. Noticing their hangar doors open with the resident at home, I wandered over to ask their techies if I could have a look. As I approached the red line, my lot were expecting me to get arrested or shot at any moment. Nothing of the sort happened and I was treated to an up close tour of the ac, cockpit and all, in exchange for a look at our GR4 - good swap I thought! ;)

Despite representations to the contrary on several postings on this thread the 2 'tanks' slung under the wings on a U-2 are not for holding fuel. They are called superpods and generally contain lots of SIGINT sensors however they are optional depending on the sensor payload of the mission aircraft. Some U-2 missions are/were flown with a slick wing configuration.

It's a great aircraft. I had the pleasure of working on sensor and datalink systems on them (based out of RAF Alconbury) from 1990 to 1994 when they left Alconbury. I had a great time and worked with some real characters many of whom had been with the programme for many, many years and who had fantastic stories to tell.

One of my former colleagues (a civilian contractor) left Alconbury to go to an island somewhere in the med that is/was known as Det 3 in the U-2 world :ok:. When I later went there on holiday I contacted him and we spent a very enjoyable evening out in town - Brandy Sours all around.

There's an interesting U2 story in the current Air & Space magazine - also on the website at:

Above & Beyond: I Have a Flameout | Military Aviation | Air & Space Magazine

The last time I was at Akrotiri (3-4 years ago) we were assured that the U2's that hadn't been there in previous years definitely weren't there now. A couple of days later the most almighty jet noise had us rushing out of the accommodation early in the morning. Something black appeared to be spiralling upwards, but was almost out of sight. As it can't obviously have been a U know what, I assumed it was some sort of bird scarer...

I was on 56F 84-87, and our F4's used to que up on the runway to take off behind those planes that didn't exsist.......Funny lot used to Herc in loads of Coke and Big Macs...........Top diet.........:suspect::eek::confused:

Guess that explains why they needed such enormous wings to get off the ground...

I was 14 years old on the day the "Weather Balloon" crashed, remember going to school in Episkopi that morning & one of the girls being a bit upset, found out later her father was one of the casualties killed in the accident.

The weather balloon used to wake us up at around 06.55 am most weekday mornings & it used to throw a great big shadow as it decended to the runway in the afternoons over Buttons Bay while we were swimming.............:}:}:}

Never saw sight or sound of Bono or his mates though..............

Interesting topic...
 

Was on det there in 1981 for a week... it existed then..
posted there 1995-98... still existed.....

Why...??

i aksed the question to one of there support tem.. a Master Sgt... who i got to know very well as mover invariably helped to unload the c141 resupply run...

Under the SALT agreement, the "balloon" was sent there...

Loudest "balloon" in history though.... the Beemer was still in use 95-98....
Such a high spec a/c but only fitted with stabilisers... oddly same as the Harrier !!!

a Google search for SALT surely show it up...!!
think i'll look now!!!!

As I was going up the stairs
I met a man who wasn't there
He wasn't there again today
I wish that he would go away!

no big secret...
 

check this link out

RAF Akrotiri (Hansard, 15 June 1990)

so it aint a big deal after all...

if in doubt ??

ask !!! or
seek and ye shall find...!!!

as already explained... loud balloon that you couldn't really hide !!

i can smell the early morning coffee...!!!

more chance of seeing a U2 in AKT than the RAF AT fleet from BZZ !!

I was a Runway Caravan Controller at one stage in my career. I received a telephone call one morning instructing me not to look at the black thing that was lining up on the runway.

Thirty years on, I'll come clean. Tee Hee, DSATCO, I looked!!!

1974, Aircraft Repair Flight 103 MU did manage to zap a day glo Noddy (with spanner) on the fin,
BR
om15

We used to play battleships with them on the radio.

Jun 08, Ladies Mile, same time every ****ing at **** sometimes headed west other times east. For the westerly take-off it would swing to the south and out of sight after about 5 minutes.

Could this be a weather balloon. The one with the Black and Yellow tail ????

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v3...u2inthemed.jpg

The black and yellow tail, you say?

No, can't be, it's far too high for that type of weather balloon:E