All the best
 

Wish I could have made it today to ISK to enjoy the passing of an era.

You'll be sadly missed old lady but lets hope it's not too long before the guys are enjoying honkers once again :p.

Best wishes from rural Lincolnshire. Hope the heads are not too sore tomorrow :sad:,

Yours Aye,

Wetone

Dave Jenkins
 

A true friend & gentleman, unusual praise for an AEO!

On behalf of all the Navs who have been lucky enough to serve on the Nimrod:

Farewell good friend, we loved you.:ok:

Farewell from me too and davejb it was a pleasure to fly with you and the Bone crew and aye Dave was a great guy who I sang lotsof folk music with in various bars around the world. Good luck to the guys still in when they get the MR4 I am sure you will use your expertise on it to make it sing. Farewell to the Air Engs hope you get gainful employment soon.

Hear, hear Spock!

A wonderful aircraft, with magnificent crews, both air and ground, and those tremendous, noisy RR Speys that never let us down.

Vale, vale, venerable steed.

http://www.augk18.dsl.pipex.com/Smileys/sadwavey.gif

NR
 

Bl00dy sad but proud to have served, eh Charles?

So many good people.
So many good times.
A lot of good flying, Mk1 and Mk2 (even Tapestry!).

All left to decay by the bean counters, expenses-fiddling politicians and the "my men will cope" attitude, compounded by the fact that "my men" DID cope.

"Whom the Gods would destroy they first make mad."
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

The Poisoned Dwarf
 

I hate to disagree, but you must be a member of the 2 winged master race to express such an emotion!

Spock

Dam* right Spock.

So many great memories.
Like when you and I were students on the OCU and helped educate the staff (younger than us) at Akrotiri?
Then the day we got bounced by a Phantom and got into his six! Now that was a crew effort. The sensor operators and the beam lookouts called the shots. Relying on them, I turned into the bogey, decelerating, reversed the turn, full chat and forced the fly through. I could not see the aggressor until he flew past. That was CRM at its best, long before it became fashionable elsewhere!
Taking a huge gull down the throat of #1 just before V1 at Gibraltar, and Mr Spey, despite damaged blades, delivering full reverse.
Being ordered by 'Bog H' to wire Ascension on departure, then dropping down to 'serve' HMS Invincible before spotting and chasing the Bear Delta.
Dropping Lindholme Gear on a stricken freighter in the Atlantic from 200 feet, in 90 knots of wind with the radalt showing 80 foot seas.
Landing back at St Mawgan with a crosswind above the limit, to find that the Boss, who was in the tower, told ATC not to tell us the true wind.
Flying round Bermuda at 200 feet with HE the Governor (ex WWII Spitfire pilot) in the Right Hand Seat, growing horns. Teed off the resident USN Orion squadron, but we had top cover.

I could go on, but the main point is that we were fortunate to fly a wonderful aircraft in an era when men were men with great crews and good leaders.

But that was a quarter of a century ago. Spooky, eh?

Sad day.
Great memories.

A sad day indeed, but a life time of memories and stories to recall. I spent half my 39 years in the RAF flying maritime, enjoyed almost every minute, great aeroplanes, great people who I still number amonst my best friends and that truly wonderful spirit that helped us be the best in the world. Such a shame that the politicions failed to adequately support our ageing aircraft in her latter years.

I attended the functions at KS last Friday and was pleased to see the Maritime/Nimrod spirit still alive and well. Everyone, old and younger, was up beat and positive.

Good luck to those who fly the MRA4, I'm sure, in time, it will be another world beater!

Although only groundcrew on South Line in the '90's, the missus & I loved our time at ISK & miss it a lot. We had some great times & some really gut wrenching ones, knowing many of the aircrew lost on both the recent accidents that have probably led to the premature demise of the most versatile Nimmy. I had some fantastic & memorable trips with you guys, being in the cockpit while the pilots seemingly effortlessly prodded into a VC-10 & then a Timmy while tanking non-stop to Ascension, then having to hitch a ride home on a Timmy after we had to abandon the aircraft on the pan there after it got hit by a flock of Gannets while doing a training sortie, I subsequently tried tanking in the sim, managed to connect once for about 30 secs but would have wiped out the tankers or "my crew" many other times - respect to you guys! I was lucky to get a 6 week stretch in Jax with all the local (& not so local) flying that I could afford from the Navy club there. So many more sights, sounds, even the more mundane deployments such as a week at Yeovilton were always hard work but hugely enjoyable, & then theres the unforgetable smell & taste of Honkers Stew - life is so dull in comparison.
Thanks guys & gals of Kipper fleet everywhere
God Speed
R2

Many thanks to the crew who provided the flypast over the Sgts mess for the NLS dining in night despite the foul weather. The photo looks good to you did us proud. How ironic that the lineys were blessed with the final flight.:D

Not sure that it is ironic - possibly appropriate!

Duncs:ok:

Aye. A sad day indeed. Good party, loads of old faces. Loads of great stories. And the irrepressible Kinloss spirit

A very sad day to see this wonderful aircraft retired. Had some wonderful detachments with the squadrons in the late 70's, probably the most memorable moment was in Karachi listening to the longest, most boring concert you could imagine and being nudged awake by the CO and being reminded that the squadrons motto was 'Endurance' really learnt the meaning of it that night!

Is that what you call it? I thought it was down to all that Smir***f Ice and revolting red and blue W*D the rugby club kept serving all night!!:E

I had the pleasure and privilege of flying the MR1 as a first tourist in the early days (206 Sqn, 72-75) and have fond memories, not only of the great flying (yes even Tapestry), but also the professionalism and cameraderie of fellow crewmembers.

A big day in the life of the Mighty Hunter, but not the end of an era. Hopefully just a comma in the sentence before the MR4 arrives to continue the fine tradition. "ON, ON"!

As an insightful Son (also a pilot) said to his reminiscing father recently "Dad, these are the good old days".

Wishing you all a peaceful and happy Easter from downunder.

Pat

"Crew check for live mike"

pause then intercom goes quiet

"thanks AEO"

"thanks AEO"

"Thanks AEO"

I'll miss it...........................:{

Best wishes

Buster

It seems that the MCGA are now providing "Top Cover" to our SAR crews who do their sterling job 250 miles out to sea...

Statement from them on the recent Chivenor based rescue of a 21yr old Sea Cadet 250 miles west of Ireland.
So, thinking that our Coast Guard only have their Islanders and the Coventry based Atlantic Air Transport Cessna 404 twin turboprops for contract work.... what are they using for long range fixed wing SAR cover?
Or do they mean they asked the Irish Air Corps for help using their CN235 Patrol aircraft?

It was a twin in MCA livery that they use for pollution control and the 2 guys did an excellent job, especially considering it was their first ever SAR job. It was very comforting to have them there, not only to act as comms relay but also to confirm the location of the vessel as we did not have a huge amount of extra fuel to play with (260 Nm out from Castletown Bere and 290nm to Shannon).

Oh, and I've been told not to mention the Nimrod - so I haven't:)