In the interests of CRM how come one of you didn't help him out :p

With a bucket of cold water! That would have dampened his ardour.

Walter turfing back up at Aldergrove semi minus 1 leg, Sandbag pile to land it on readied when ATC turf up and tell us to move it as when it falls over it will block the main runway :}

Asking the crewman if he picked up the evenings film as he was there when the leg snapped off....... :p sadly his answer not printable :ooh:

Parts off it used to fix Xmas Tree incident Aircraft ;)


Nelson :ouch: the Squadron cat................:=

A girlfriend I was on top of a place called Lilly Tarn on Loughrigg Fell overlooking Ambleside at the north end of Lake Windermere, 6 years & 2 weeks ago. It was a beautiful cloudless, flat calm day with unlimited viz & the lake was like a mirror.

We'd hiked up to the summit, got a bit 'frisky' & to cut a long story short, within a couple of minutes, we were bollocko with her Ladyship straddling me going for all she could. Then I heard it.

The sound of a Wokka is unmistakable, but she never heard it. I was trying to strain to look south down 'Windermere but could see nothing until it appeared over her shoulder at about 500' tracking south to north up the lake.

I froze, she carried on & looked up to her right as the Wokka slowed & orbited our position with at least one crewman waving from the lowered ramp.

"What should we do?" she asked,
"Wave back I suppose" I replied.

The Wokka made a couple of orbits then continued north towards Carlisle. I don't know if it was an SHFNI Chinook & crew but if it was, thanks for giving us a giggle!!!
:ok:

Change-over dinners
 

Surprising, no-one seems to have mentioned the great change-over dinners. The final one was a real bucket-full, probably because it was, so I am lead to believe, the largest game of Pi??y Fisherman ever played by all accounts. When combined with the waterlogged ditches (accn improvements under way) there were a few stiff (mud-soaked) participants the next morning. Me, I know, or cannot remember, nuffin Sir!

As for the infamous dumper truck incident, when a 'bucket rider' left his leg dangling over the front which was great until the fleshy bit came between bucket and tree.....................messy, the RN, ex-RM pilot was in a bit of a mess.

Best wishes to all for the season - anyone still flying the beer about on Christmas Day?

:ok:

Then & Now.
 

No response to my last one, so I'll take that as a default 'yes' then.

From
http://i765.photobucket.com/albums/x...Phamphotog.jpg

POD & XR498'W' on 3rd May 1996

Tohttp://i765.photobucket.com/albums/x...Phamphotog.jpg

Eleven Years later - 12th June 2007. Hard to believe it all ever existed.

Bessbrook??????

A couple more-
http://i758.photobucket.com/albums/x.../Bessbrook.jpg
Mill from SW.
http://i758.photobucket.com/albums/x...I/GndRun-1.jpg
In the garden.
http://i758.photobucket.com/albums/x...I/R850Wall.jpg
The wall in the mill.

Becoming a bit of a Wessex-fest:ok:

More At t'Mill
 

So here's one to keep the Tiggers happy (note it's not flying though!!)

http://i765.photobucket.com/albums/x...Phamphotog.jpg

However, reverting to type -



http://i765.photobucket.com/albums/x...Phamphotog.jpg

Wazzing along over Millvale Road with Sc***y T******* in the door. Bit high for an east fence approach? All photos posted so far date from the '80s, '90, & 2000s. Anyone out there with Sioux / Scout / Wessex photos / stories from the 1970s. Yeah, I know the first two aren't PpruneRAF, but they were SHFNI.

PS. In fairness to 230, the air/air was taken from one of their cabs.

Anyone got any from Ebrington barracks? Used to distract me whilst waiting for bus to school at the depot on the other side of the Foyle:}

Promise the following won't involve booze and flying and anyone still there...although I don't know anyone still over there....

Ahhhh the phantom Bessbrook 'W*nker'...his retort was allegedly '... it's only natural....'

Thanks for the piccies, takes me back..Dunganoooon looks to be a sorry place, as does R850

One junior joe made friends with the Guards Regy one Xmas by cutting a large wedge of stilton out of the cheese they had been lovingly feeding port for Christmas...I remember being asked to leave shortly afterwards..

Listening to many a Greenfinch being 'tickled' in the Bessbrook sauna, which was right beside our room!

Flying around province in a 'Santa Suit' with tinsle on the GPMG and tree lights around the door - picking up callsigns with a bottle of Bushmills finest on the seat for the troops.

Word soon got round - you could get a wee nip on Wessex 3!

Being bundled into the back of a snatch and taken from the mill to the RUC station for Christmas drinks - almost going blind from recently confiscated potcheen!

3 Happy Christmas's in province:ok:

'Do you ken Bessbrook with it's Mill so high........'

All the best

My arrival interview with Dangerous Brian:

"Don't worry about the terrorists - there's about 450 of them - there's thousands of us!"

"Yes, Sir" :ooh:

Phamousphotographer....
 

The 'eleven years after' photo of Bessbrook reminded me of how it was when we first went there in the early 70's!! But in those days there was a bloody great chimney as well.

Bessbrook, a place I'll be glad never to see again!!!!

Shame the aircrew accom went...much comfier than the old hut..but then they allegedly built the external dimensions as the internal ...so the corridor was a tad tight...muppets..

OJ Intro
 

Yes, that went in the early/mid 1980s, I think. Did it hazard tube arrivals / departures? Intend to return to Bessbrook if this thread continues, but here's another view of Dungannon.

http://i765.photobucket.com/albums/x...Phamphotog.jpg

Killymeal, 25th August 1995, and XV725’C’ arrives over the east fence with POD in the rh seat, accompanied by a shiny new 72 Nav (ex Lossie Buccs) on his first day on SHFNI ops. Couldn’t figure why they were holding off, then copped POD’s black gloves against the rh screen and realised they were waiting for a photo. Wonder if R*** S******d knew who was steering the cab, and what he thought?

I remember long fights with HQ 38 Gp over our white bonedomes, light coloured gloves and the white in our roundels. Sympathetic RAF inbedded in HQ Lisburn sent us several buckets of unauthorised Landrover green paint!

Also refuelling at Ebrington(?) on the Mickey Mouse, the Donald Duck and the Crab - all painted on the refuelling spots.

Then there was Wee Kenny, a mild mannered Highlander who was being irritated by the antics of a short jp in the bar. He obtained a new pint of bitter, and poured it over the head of his little irritant, saying, "That's the best 2 and sixpence I've ever spent." Could that be the origin of the famous call, "Barman, a pint of throwing beer, please."?

Lets clear something up, the Crewman in the Mill was never caught polishing the old man he was just 'interupted' !

Caut us interuptus?

Phamousphotograher.....
 

No not really but it certainly assisted with the nav! ;)