Redsetter, Tinribs, thanks for the details on sight usage. PR00ne, the only reason I inquired about the T.19 having them was to see if they were possibly leftover from the T.11 days. As it has now been made clear, they were indeed removed.

WD935 sounds interesting. Les Bywater's old site has this to say on it:

CANBERRA - B.2 - WD935

Shows it was involved in the Red Dean trials which might account for that extra weight. Also a shot of it in the old Bomber Command scheme you mentioned.

NS - interesting, thanks. I had always understood that the delivery to Wroughton was to have been WD935's last flight, but obviously not. Another domestic myth banished.

Looks like she was fairly hard to kill off and still had useful work to do. Interesting to see her painted up in that fake Suez scheme, very fetching although did not last as we can see. At least nice to know her nose cone still exists.

I think Wander00 is right and the website is wrong. WD935 went to to 15 MU in Sep 67 and then straight from there to St Athan in Nov 71 (presumably by road). So the delivery to Wroughton was the last flight.

CANBERRA B(I)8 No 3 Squadron
 

Anybody out there who flew the B(I)8 with 3 Sqn?

I beleive my old UAS instructor Rod Newman (Ex-MASUAS) was an RAFG Canberra man and was possibly on 3 Sqn.

Hi Guys, well you know I flew B(I)8s with 14 Sqn.... a far superior outfit to those up the road :ok:

Think Tag Taggart was on 3 Sqn B(I)8s

3 Sqn Canberra pilot
 

Thanks sharpened. Request is to help the respected writer Denis Calvert with a piece on 3 Sqn B(I)8s for an aviation mag. He says he needs 100 words but I would have thought anyone with a few strafe and bombing sorties behind them would find it difficult to restrict any description to 100 words. Maybe he meant 1000 words, I'll check. In the meantime I'll try to contact Tag.

Mike R

Canberra
 

I served at Benbecula from 1981 - 83 and remember the Canberra Target Tugs well. One helped us out when we were flying back from St. Kilda in a Wessex and one of the crew informed us we were lost and the Canberra was guiding us in. Not too sure whether they were winding us up but good fun all the same,
Regards,
Bob

Canberra T4/T17
 

I was a Nav on 360 between 1984-1986. Safety speed on a T4 was 140kt, T17 was 150kt. EFATO was 10 degrees towards the live engine after reducing power to avoid uncontrollable roll. Never forget B Cornes saying "Oh, f*ck" at 130kt during departure - after some 1980's CRM, it was established that Gringo's comment was due to leaving his sortie charts in Sqn, not an Imminent T17 disaster!

Icing letdown was carried out with 6000rpm+/-50 from entering the icing layer until assured of touchdown(flaps etc, no bomb doors on T17, and cleared to land at start of procedure) - except for Ken Robson at Bodo who was cleared for an icing approach, broke cloud at 600ft to see a civ jet lined up for departure). Ken executed a (very careful) missed approach to join a low-level circuit to land.

I recall during IRT that the "pilot student" had to slow down, single-engine, to establish max asymmetric control speed (individual to each driver, but still scary down the back). This established the strength of the driver's leg to hold the rudder.

Can any former Canberra chums tell me what happened to Lt Cdr Ken Lamprey, Sqn Ldr John Ritchie, Sqn Ldr Bill Purchase (T17 legend), Dave H-E, or any other 360 Sqn/ 231 OCU staff between 1983 - 1986, I'd love to hear it.

I remember arriving on 360 Sqn and asking about leave to sort out my quarter to be told by Andy Anderson that two things didn't exist on 360 - "lunch and a leave pass". Then he laid back, in his flying suit and slippers(!) and went back to sleep....... Simon Blake ended up as OC Scampton, but Gp Capt Blake still owes me £20 000 after a "slightly tired" snooker game during the Leuchars Air Show in 1986, I think. Still have the cheque somewhere..... :D

Hi Tommee - I was on 360 from 1980 to end of '84. Might be able to fill in some of the details!

PM me - cheers

Don't remember doing crit speds on IRT - did them with my Bassingbourn instructor on the Bedford Levels at 200'

tommee hawk
 

Please see PM

Crit speed runs
 

We used to do ours on that nice straight bit of road between Spawn and Balding

tommee_hawk see yr pms

Only just found this thread, very interesting.

Re the concrete filled noses. I recall as a civvie instructor with the ATC of being on an annual camp at West Raynham in 1976 when I overheard a short conversation between a nav and a cadet who was known for his single cell brain.

"Mister, whats that funny shaped nose for" pointing to a TT19.

"Its fitted with Blue Circle"

"Cor, whats that"

"Can't say without shooting you afterwards" (At this point we hoped he would)

Net result was the cadet always thought he had seen a top secret aircraft.

For some great Canberra stories I can strongly recommend www.wingedwarriors.co.uk

Clicker,

good story, I take it you're referring to the Blue Circle cement joke that was the ballast in the T.19 nose cone. Hey, at least the cadet came out of it chuffed, quite ironic really considering the T.19 was nothing more than a B.2 with a pointy nose!

Laarbruch hooligans....
 

Can anyone corroborate the following story which I remember my UAS QFI relating? His previous tour had been on Canberras at Laarbruch. One winter the RAFG ski champs were at Garmisch. On the opening morning the officer i/c the championships was on a chairlift escorting the AOC RAFG to the top of the mountain for some opening ceremony.

Suddenly there was a roar from behind them. One of my QFI's mates had taken it upon himself to open the championships in some style and was flying up the piste, below the level of the top of the pylons. Don't believe he was drawing flying pay for much longer after that....

That chap was Johnny Wilson. He got Court Marshalled. His sentence was a mega rep from the CinC. The day dawned rather cloudy, typical winter on the North German Plain. We were all in the crew room on 14 Sqn playing Uckers. Johnny's b*llocking was at 10:30. At 13:00 he wandered in with the typical 'I could not care less' look on his face. 'How did it go Johnny?' we asked. His smile disappeared and all he said was ' Oh f**k'.

Last heard working for M&S.