Ripping Yarns : Strange But True
 

The last couple of "Ripping Yarn" topics seemed to be well received by many ... so I thought it might be about time to start another yarn topic :ok:

Now I can't offer personal stories of high speed/altitude daring dos ... but here's something to start us off ...

On one early morning in December 1976, I was airborne in a Chipmunk (WZ845) with S/L John Shelton doing a weather check out of RAF Manston ... more to do with checking the X-Wind than the cloud base as I remember. We had just departed the circuit and were working the Approach Frequency in readiness for a PAR recovery. All of a sudden the Approach Controller called us on the vhf ... "Alpha Three Zero from Manston Approach ... we have a request from London Civil Air Traffic Control to "intercept" a dirigible heading towards north Kent". The Boss responded requesting the characteristics of the target for possible visual ID purposes ... "Err ... Roger ... Alpha Three Zero be advised you are looking for an inflated Pink Pig, I say again Pink Pig ... acknowledge".

I think John thought it was a wind up at first ... but responded positively and requested Radar Vectoring on the the "blip" that, by then, had appeared on Manston's Search Radar. This was well before RAF Ash came in to existence, so we had no Air Defence Radar help with altitude on the target. So off we trundled at 90 Kts towards Chatham Dockyard to try and find the flying Pink Pig. A Police helicopter had also given chase. John had decided that given various "unknowns" (like was a tether rope still attached) that it wouldn't be wise to get too close ... in any case shooting it down wasn't an option (mores the pity) :}

Fortunately the viz was good below cloud at 1500 feet ... when we arrived within the target area we couldn't find the bloody thing for love nor money. After about 10/15 mins John advised the Approach Controller that nothing found and that we were returning to base.

Later that day we were told that the target was in fact the inflatable Pink Pig being used on the photo shoot up at Battersea Power Station for the cover of the Pink Floyd album "Animals". Apparently it had become untethered in blustery conditions on the second day of the photo shoot. It was no wonder we didn't see the target as apparently it had burst at an estimated 18,000 feet shortly after we had left the scene ... falling into a local famers field.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...ls-Frontal.jpg

It was sad to learn later on that the final Album Cover (above) incorporated a superimposed pig graphic rather than a photo of the actual flying pink pig :(

Unfortunately the original 8mm film of the photo shoot at Battersea has been blocked on YouTube by EMI ... but here is a clip of the recent reenactment when the PF albums were remastered.

Pigs Can Fly: Pink Floyd Animals album cover reconstruction - YouTube

Strange but true ...

Coff.

And the next one please ...

"The BOI determined the Mid-Air Collision of Chipmunk WZ 845 and a Pink Pig was the cause of the accident which was happened when a Pink Pig descending from a higher altitude escaped from its Owner."

A Fleeting glimpse and a beer.
 

I was a member of 4 Counties Gliding Club, an RAFGSA club operating out of Syerston. Close by, RAF Newton operated Bulldogs, East Midlands University Air Squadron (EMUAS), at the time and we often saw their aircraft in the airfield vicinity. We had been having a "flying week" since the Monday morning, where our QFIs tried to bring on the pre solo pilots on toward soloing, and getting a few Bronze Certificate qualifications. By Thursday all I had done was pre flight the gliders and drive the winch. At the time, I desperately needed the height climb segment to achieve my full Silver Certficate. Obviously I hoped to get a launch at some point during the week and an opportunity.

So here we are, Thursday and I've got an hour or two away from winching and the duty pilot asks me if I would like a launch in the K18. Resisting the urge to kiss him :eek: I duly strapped in and headed uphill. So, around 800 feet on the launch and there's a real lurch (upwards), and I decide to pull the bung. A swift turn onto reciprocal finds the lurch again, and its a beauty. It's going up at around 6 knots, and although tight, I'm staying in it. I need a height gain of 1000 Mtrs from release so hang in there. It's fairly windy so I swiftly pass downwind of the launch point, and accept he ear bend over the radio from the duty pilot, "it'll be worth it for the silver height". As I pass through 4000 feet I start to hear a familiar noise. Having spent 3 years on Groundcrew with Oxford UAS the unmistakable sound of the Bulldog. Problem was that by now I was definitely intermittent VFR at best, lots of cloud and unable to pinpoint the location of the Bulldog by sound alone. Seconds later EMUAS Bulldog passes around 20 yards away immediately in front of me. My stall turn into cloud would have impressed the finest real pilot, and I hoped that nothing was heard of the instance again. My height climb didn't count, the barograph trace could not establish my release point as the thermal was going up at the same rate as the winch launch, it looked like a continuous climb from the ground.

A few years later and I'm a GE on Albert. We are doing a live drop near RAF Ouston, and gliders are launching from the airfield. From experience I was able to give the co pilot the correct Gliding Ground frequency to contact them and clear our run in. In the bar that night, the Co asked how I knew the frequency etc. I explained my previous with gliders and my flying from Syerston. You guessed it, he said, "ahh, them blighters. One of them nearly took me out when I was a stude on EMUAS". I bought him a beer and kept schtumm. What a small world it is, aviation. This may not have happened at Mach 2.3 in an "Aloominum death tube", but it did some ripping to the yarn in the seat of my underwear.

Smudge

That's the ticket Smudge ... Just what we are looking for :D:D:D:D

PS ... Now let's see if that former EMUAS pilot is on PPRuNe :ok:

Can I slip this in as an example of a near miss, swear word used..

Two crackers to get the thread started. Do you guys do autographs? :ok:

Edited to add: The expletive in your click, Nutty, if totally justified.

Or as the Daily Mail reported:

" To avoid collision at terrifying speed the pig 'bunted', an aerobatic move where the pig is forced into an inverted loop and speeds away upside down."

sorry no graphic.

TJ ... Brilliant :D:D:D:D ... I love PPRuNe :ok:

So pilot bails out of the pink pig and is almost hit by Coff who's still looking for the pig.

Mystery sorted.

I had flown up to Sherburn to meet a friend for lunch. We got talking to a guy in the restaurant who was there as a guest of someone. He had been working in the Congo doing some research into tropical diseases. There were only two people in the country doing this work.

About two weeks later I'm flying back from somewhere and decide to stop at Gamston to try out their restaurant for lunch as it had a good reputation (well deserved too). I'm sitting at my table when two guys sat at the adjacent table. We struck up a conversation and it turns out they were driving down the A1; one of them knew about Gamston eatery and they had stopped for lunch also. Turns out that one of them was the other guy doing the Congo research.

I bought a lottery ticket that week. I didn't win.

Lufthansa were taxiing out at Heathrow when ATC advised them to stop and allow BA to pass and T.O. first.

The LH pilot asked "Vy dose BA hav ze priority over ze LH?"

ATC responded "Coz they came out this morning and put towels at the end of the runway."

This refers to the German habit to reserve deckchairs at holiday resorts. They often send one holiday member down to the swimming pool early to hang towels over the best deckchairs.

Nutty ... Not me :eek:

Davila, Thing ... many thanks for your contributions ... love the "beach towel" banter :ok:

Belize '78. Every so often we had to go up country for some reason; I vaguely remember that it was something to do with hurricanes. Anyway, there's a little village with your usual corry iron shacks and one has a coke sign outside. We go in and there's a white guy with a Yorkshire accent behind the counter. Turns out he was born two streets away from me and lived in Belize for 'legal' reasons...

On Tambourine Mountain in Queensland, which is a favourite haunt of me and mrs thing, not exactly on the tourist route, we were looking around a crystal shop when I heard a familiar accent. I made conversation and quickly realised I was talking to an old primary school classmate from 50 years ago. He was on holiday and had stuck a pin in a map to decide where to go on that day.

Many years ago, looking through a then girlfriend's bookshelf I came across a copy of "Blues Fell this Morning" by Paul Oliver -slight shiver - he was my art Master at grammar school in Harrow. Took another book down and read the name of the previous owner inside . "That your ex-husband?" I asked. "Yes, why?" "Small guy, brought up in West London?" - a few more questions and established it was the guy I sat next to in primary school in Pinner. Avoided her book shelves after that.

Great stuff guys :ok:

Back in the early 1980’s I was an engineer working for an oil company in the Sumatran jungle (Indonesia) and, due to the copious free time available and the lack of alternative entertainments ( this was a location known as ‘The Green Cage’ !), I was the Hon Sec of the golf club. As such it fell to me to liaise with the various sponsors of the, almost weekly, golf tournaments (there were some compensations for living there) and when they visited to take them out for a few holes of golf.
On one such occasion, I was entertaining a visitor from a service company based in Singapore who happened to originate from the NE of England in Gateshead, I mentioned that I had lived in near there at Whickham quite recently, when working there on a previous job. He remarked that it was, indeed, Whickham that he hailed from and the street that he grew up in was in close proximity to the street where I had resided.
Strange coincidence.
He then mentioned that his manager in Singapore also came from the very same local area and gave the name of the street where he owned a house. I asked his manager’s name and when told I recognised it as it was his house I had rented about two years earlier!
It is, sometimes, a very small world we live in.

Johnny Johnson and Laddie Lucas wrote a book called Winged Victory. When my father was alive I thought I would buy him a copy as I knew he had met Johnny on several occasions.

I drove up to his house and said I had a gift for him, he said he had one for me.

I gave him the copy of Winged Victory. He smiled and gave me a copy of Winged Victory signed by Johnny. It is now obviously one of my most treasured possessions.

Deci, first night there, told U.S bars out of bounds due to fights etc, so naturally we made our way over and had a wicked night of drinking, followed by back to the U.S block to continue shooting cans, In case you do not know, puncture the bottom put to mouth, pull ring pull and time how long to drink it.. Following day at work see these Americans worse for wear and swearing blind they will never drink with us again...

Roll on a few months and detached to Jever, reverse the Sherpa (remember those) up to the block and we are unloading crates of beer we brought with us when we hear a groan and a NOOOOO, who should it be but the same Americans and another session ensued...

About a month later, bimbles into a bar in Münchengladbach and who do we walk into, the same Americans, needless to say a rematch took place and they failed again :)

If i didn't know better i would have said they were stalking us, as we saw them on several more detachments after that. :E

All good stuff chaps ... great to see a few new "names" joining in :D:D:D:D

Keep em coming ... and if you're worried ... I'm sure the Statute of Limitations applies :ok: