RAF Northolt & Typhoon
 

With the safe arrival of Typhoon at Northolt....do the pilots have to press the brakes a little harder and handbrake turn at the end of the tarmac?

Its reassuring that these aircraft can land so close to the festivities of the exercise taking place, albeit from a much smaller airfield than they are used to.

Bring on the sonic booms which will sure to be caused by a secret RAF fighter traveling backwards at mach 4 and at 50ft above Buckingham Palace thereby waking the Royal Corgis as will be reported in the Sun.

Coley

cc

You beat me to the draw, slow typing on my part I guess.

I think at 1687m (about 5500 ft) that runway could be a challenge for both take-off and landing, especially as there's not a lot of real estate at either end (for aeroplanes that is), unless you count the A40.

Mister B

Presumably for the olympics the Typhoons will need to be armed / rearmed, if so have they done a safety plot?

HTB,

Great minds think alike I guess!! Was it 6-7 minutes apart we both posted the same thing??

Im just the village idiot around my rolling Dorsetshire countryside but it would be nice to be strapped into the cockpit of a Typhoon on finals and feel the tension in the thigh muscles as you cross the threshold!!!

Im sure everything has been worked out and that a sufficient 50 knot headwind will be available from the wind machine at the end of the runway!!

Great noise for all the aviation enthusiasts around London....must bring back memories of Concord to them.

Hope the exercise goes ok in all honesty.

Coley

Ah, that would explain the touch and go.

BBC were televising the landings live and didn't know what to say when one Typhoon touched down and took-off again after about ten yards, so they hastily cut to something else.

Gevans 35,

The touch and go was instigated as a result of the Typhoons sensitive radar picking up a field mouse running across the active runway as will be reported by a Sun reporter.

On the flip side, this will result in all the "Anti Olympic" and "Save a Field Mouse Movement" breathing a sigh.... going home happy and contented.

Coley

Can't they just sit in a CAP rather than put them in London.

Do you have much experience flying Typhoons? If so, please get in touch with the team at RAF Coningsby - I'm sure they need your expert opinion...

Kpax

Did you think before typing:-

So instead of being on immediate readiness at Northolt you would have them airborne for 24hrs a day doing a CAP over London - and the cost of that would be:confused: - were you ever a planner in the military? Were you ever even in the military:ugh:

HF

(Miltary Aircrew Forum -A forum for the professionals who fly the non-civilian hardware, and the backroom boys and girls without whom nothing would leave the ground. Army, Navy and Airforces of the World, all equally welcome here.)

The locals must be going bananas. As Orderly Orifice one evening at NHT I was subect to a tirade of angry noise complaint phonecalls following the departure (straight out & no shenanigans) of a Harrier that had been in for a static display. The temptation to point out that it was they that had bought a house by an airfield was almost too much. I bit my lip. :rolleyes:

Sorry chaps, civilian rotary pilot, just interested in the touch and go and thought this the best place to discuss.

More splendid reporting by the Beeb
 

From BBC News - RAF Typhoon jets arrive in London to test Olympic security

"The Typhoon jets .... will put pilots through their paces, .. "

It's good to see who's in charge up there eh :p

Any complaints in the Summer of 1940?

It would be nice to think that the chaps could sit outside the front of the authentic WWII Officers' Mess and 'scramble' to their trusty steeds on hearing the Mess Steward ring the bell.

Unfortunately, it looks as if they will be living in a plastic tent next to the radar antenna :(

Only 37 and a half years, apologise if I upset one of the two wing master race, my point was if the target gets to London it might be too late

I think Merlins may have made a lesser and - I dare say - a more pleasing noise than a pair of EJs.:)

"The locals must be going bananas."

And some locals have been looking forward to it. :D

I just love the smell of burnt JetA1 in the morning, or any time come to that.

Indeed, my 80+ year old mother certainly has :ok: and she is desperately hoping for some excitement in the form of some loud and low passes over her house….. but I’ve told her not to hold her breath on that score as the fun police would have already put a stop to that.

She’s lived within a stone’s throw of RAF Northolt all her life and as a child witnessed the arrival of 111’s first Hurricane’s and Sqn Ldr ‘Downwind' Gillan’s arrival over Northolt from Turnhouse on his record breaking flight, and so many scramble’s from there during the summer of 1940 and later.

I do hope the have sourced some battered leather chairs, some deck chairs, a copy of the Sketch, a bell and a black Lab.:ok: Have I missed anything?

HF
 

Well that's just fine so long as you aren't tempted-ever- to pass your superior experience/ knowledge onto any other of the PPrune forums.

S

Might be a good thing-given your attitude-if military aircraft were scrapped-think of the savings.

It won't be called nogger, nagger, nugger or negger, though, will it?

A we now supposed to PM all submissions to HF along with a potted history of our careers for his approval before posting????

No, but it will jump into the back of Sqn Ldr Canfields car on demand.

Not to forget this incident...!! (From the BBC Radio 4 Website)http://www.bbc.co.uk/furniture/tiny.gif



The Rooftop Dakota


On 19th December 1946, a Dakota plane crashed onto the roof of a house in Angus Drive, near Northholt Aerodrome in Middlesex...
Over the past three weeks, Home Truths has followed the story of the rooftop Dakota. First Irene Zigmund, whose house it was, told us of the incredible escape of herself and her 4-month old-son David, who was asleep in his cot upstairs when the plane landed on the house. Next, the air hostess, Bobby Pilbrow, and the son of one of the passengers on the plane, John Livingstone, got in touch with us, to tell us their bit of the story.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/hometrut...kotaonroof.jpg Railway Air Services Dakota G-AGZA

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/hometrut...dakotanose.jpg
The Dakota - nose first

And to round things off nicely, this week, Audrey Hawkridge emailed us to tell us how she and two of her friends stood transfixed as the Dakota appeared to be flying straight for the window in the upstairs office where they worked at the British European Airways headquarters. "But," said Audrey, "the Dakota gave a nerve-racking little wobble upward, and scooped itself in a painful sort of limp over our roof..." It crashed a few hundred yards away. Incredibly no-one was hurt. Our thanks to Maurice Wickstead, from Newton Abbot, who told us about the existence of the dramatic photographs of the Dakota after it had ploughed its way into the rooftop of 46 Angus Drive. The house, by the way, is called 'Dakota's Rest'.

Now what's the chance of a Hurricane and Spitfire, turning up on the final day of the exercise? Go on BBMF/MoD, you know it makes sense! Please

To the Typhoon pilots, from a local, don't spare the re-heat, please!

To all the mil personnel taking part in the exercise, great to see and hear you, and of course, take care.

...Irvin.... scarf..... and if I may be so un-PC.... a pipe?

This is from the BBC news page.............

So, I'm just wondering..... which Fighter Jets were based at Northolt during the second world war?

Meteors?

.....

Meteors............erm....nope. Not according to the official RAF Northolt web site.

Well that's the BBC shot down in flames again then, unless some non-operational jet paid a visit.

According to The Sun, this is the first time the "Fighter Jets" have been based at Northolt since the Second World War! It would appear that there is still a lot of stuff about WWII which has yet to come to light.:ok:
Warplanes over London for Olympic exercise | The Sun |News
FB:)

So.......... did the Sun get it from the BBC or did the BBC get it from the Sun?


Making mistakes is bad enough, but to copy someone else's mistake is worse!

What are the odds of them ever being given the order to shoot?

Any one know what size of shrapnel Sidewinders fragments into? And where I can order armour plating for the roof?:ouch:

During Obama's recent visit (under 23hrs in OZ I think) to Canberra the RAAF provided a CAP above Canberra from RAAF Williamtown during his entire stay.

The RAAF provided the same service when Bush II visited during his second term.

Google Earth tells me its just over 200 nm as the crow fly's one way from RAAF Williamtown to Canberra.

I'm sure the RAF could mount a CAP with the Typhoon if the RAAF can do it with 'Classic' Hornets.

23 hours isn't really comparable in terms of manpower, costs, fatigue etc than a period of well over 2 weeks though.

I wouldn't be worrying about sidewinders...

http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a3...69/SYork03.jpg
Section Officer Harvey?

That has put me off my stroke stroke stroke suspenders thigh white flesh.

Off to make a healthy cup of strong tea.

Suggest we all do the same.