Op Fabulous / QRA / Battle Flight 1950s - 1960s
 

I have been doing some reading around the above subject and I would love to hear any ideas about what aircrew did during the quiet moments between scrambles. I am particularly interested in the time from say July 1950 to the arrival of Q Sheds.

In OP Fab or 2TAF when aircraft were said to be at 'two minute cockpit readiness' were pilots actually in the cockpit or perhaps seated close by? I'm imagining (quite probably unrealistically) sprawled out on deckchairs or the grass beside the ORP!

Without activity as such, how long do you think would they each be required be at cockpit readiness?

For later periods were there pilots' crew rooms or similar, maybe caravans by the ORPs?

No source seems to provide a definitive answer!

Interested to hear your thoughts...

BB

Just realised this is probably in the wrong part of the forum.

:O

Sorry.

Bob,

Your post is in exactly the right area, just wait for replies. I can't offer anything for the period you're asking about, I'M FAR TOO YOUNG!!!

But you will get some interesting answers, I'm sure. And they will stretch beyond the 50s/60s for sure. This could be good. Depending on how honest we can all be.

Hi BB-I'll start the ball rolling if I can dredge fading memory for basic experience at the game. I joined the Javelin force in 58 and served on 85 Sqn until 61 as a Nav/Rad (actually an NCO Radio Observer but we did the same job in the back seat).

I seem to recall "Fabulous" was also termed "Halyard" at times but cannot remember if there was any specific difference.

We held cockpit readiness at 2 mins reaction through the night period with crews rotating at 90 miinutes intervals. The readiness aircraft were position on the ORP at the end of the duty runway plugged into the "telebrief"- a direct connection to the GCI unit (Bawdsey in our case) through which, if required, the scramble order was passed. The crew had "cocked" the aircraft for instant start up and could easily meet a scramble to lift off in 2 minutes. A scramble order was top priority whatever else was happening and ATC/Ops also received the order from the GCI station.

On liftoff we tuned onto the directed vector and climbed flatout for the required altitude contacting our control agency on the way. The rest was standard interception/recognition procedure.

After 61 I transitioned to the front seat and the low level attack/interdiction/recce game and only returned to air defence in the 80s with the Chivenor Hawks playing the mixed fighter force concept but the basics were still the same.

Hopefully former colleagues will have better memories (more grey cells around) and can add further to the story.

Happy days.

I can only offer stuff after the arrival of Q sheds (late 60s).

Bob,

I only have experience of 2ATAF Battle Flight in the 70s. We held a 5 minute state 24/7 in the Phantom. We held the 5 minutes out of the cockpit, sitting in a crew-room near the aircraft, which was challenging during a night scramble. Our limiting factor was the INAS align that took 100 seconds. Our highest state was Cockpit Ready which would equate to 2mins. We were allowed to maintain in the cockpit for up to 4 hours at a time. Our normal duty time for Battle Flight was 24 hours, after which you were supposed to get 24 hours off.
There was a very strong directive from "on high" that we were to make our scramble times at all cost. This led to some bizarre stories, some of which will hopefully be told on this forum.

Fantastic thanks chaps!

Fixed Cross, what would you be doing during the 90 minutes you were held in the aircraft at night? Dozing? It must have been quite tedious after a while! Do you remember how many crews were in the rotation per aircraft? I mean how often would you have to complete these hour and half stints? Did you go out to Germany during one of 85s temporary deployments? Do you recall if there were any differences to the stand-by procedure?

Sorry just realized that is a list of questions .... its a fascinating, rarely touched subject.

Lightning Mate - Happy to hear your stories! What period did your service cover?

Thanks Dominator, I have a bit of a soft-spot for the Phantom, quite the beast. I seen some footage of Battle Flight F4 launches. Very impressive! When all else is ready to go and the INAS align is chugging away must have been frustrating. I have heard elsewhere that the American Zulu alert sometimes took off before it had fully aligned in order to reach readiness time.


BB

1968 to 1973 - Lightnings.

Battle Flight scrambles in the F4 were always hectic. On one night launch the jet wallowed airborne; sorted that when I remembered to turn the Stab Augs on! :O

The Lightning FMk2As at Guetersloh would regularly be airborne in under 3 minutes from a scramble call - unlike the Phantom there was no INAS to align.

Shouldn't that be airborne for under 3 minutes?

:p

Now, now Beagle.It is the season of goodwill:E

The Phantom FGR2 INAS (QRA) fast align was 105 secs I recall. As long as the 28v DC power supply was plugged in this kept the IN platform heaters on (and powered up the intercom/telebrief?). You first had to get AC online though, I think, following the first engine start/genny online. You then got the IN into fast align and waited for the 'align' light to stop flashing (and go out) before taxying. Considering that this was technology that came from the TSR2 era Ferranti did a good job at coming up with a way to 'short-cut' the align. It relied on doing a very good 'normal' align to get the IN platform alignment set, and then setting this into a stored heading mode.

I got pretty good at 'cocking' Battle Flight jets in RAFG, especially the 'extra' jets for weekends.

- a minute late again................:D

Not much had changed when the Tornado F3 came in.
"Beep"
Remember that the GPU only kept the IN platforms warm, not the aircrew.
"Beep"
Sitting out on the pan for 4 hours at 0-dark-hundred on a winter's night was bloody cold.
"Beep"
If you put the canopy down, it just became misty and still as cold.
"Beep"

After 3 hours on one exercise
Nav "137!"
Me " 137 what?"
Nav "137 crosshead screws in the back cockpit. (pause) I'm going to count the slotheads now!"

"Beep"

BOAC,

I said "under 3 minutes" - I could have added "often in under 2 minutes"! The Lightning would always beat that awful triumph of thrust over aerodynamics: the Phantom!;)

Cockpit Readiness
 

Once total boredom set-in, many a Lightning guy would start to dismantle bits of the cockpit or, more usefully, go around and tighten up all the loose securing devices, attempt to bring dead P-Lamps back to life etc.

There were several tales of people being embarrassed with bits of the aircraft all over the place when out of the blue the Telebrief requested them to get airborne http://images.ibsrv.net/ibsrv/res/sr...ies/wibble.gif

Of course, faced with such little problems, both engines always started first time so off one had to go and sort things out somewhere around FL360. For non-Lightning readers, it often required witchcraft to get the Lightning AVPIN engine starting system to fire up.

lm

Lightnings Binbrook 66 to 68 mostly holding southern Q. At first we held Q from the hangar, and as such we were at 10 and I think 5 mins (cockpit). During a week day normal work went on round you, and on occasion pilots were swopped to get the daily task - as we flew 0830 (woe betide the first pair if the burners didn't light as the boss sat down to met brief) till late pilots could easily get to 4 trips and so need 'resting' on Q. At weekends it was quieter as in those days weekend flying did not happen. At one stage us bachelors used to go up to the hangar to race Scaletrix cars round the crewroom and have a coffee with the Q team. For the aircrew it usually meant 24 hours sitting around in flying kit - goon suits in winter. The squadron used to fly all the time in pressure jerkins and so we had to learn to don this garment quickly if needed. Our MRS was Patrington and, as alluded to above, the telebrief used to beep all the time in the ops room. Usually the alert came unannounced over telebrief: 'Binbrook alert 1 Lightning' - more rarely via land line. This led to a rush to the aircraft on the line, hitting a hooter to alert the groundcrew enroute. Once strapped in a check in was made and scramble instructions issued as necessary. As this was all going on the duty ATC watch were also alerted if this was happening out of normal hours. Usually we got airborne and headed east. Sleeping was in a small room in the hangar and I think food was from the mess - so usually not hot! At the time our aircraft were brand new (they were new when I arrived, but without hooks and we replaced them with more new hooked ones half way through my tour) and so usually there was a spare - a request for a scramble to offset boredom was normally accommodated. To sleep or not was always a dilemma. I slept. but a scamble at 0245 showed me how difficult it was to go from sleep to airborne in 10 minutes fortunately adrenalin helped. Mid tour we moved to the Q shed. Will post more later if interested

The 5 mins from hooter to airborne Battle Flight Wildenrath Phantom FGR2 requirement could be somewhat of a 'tester' at night. Either sleep fully clothed with all flying clothing and boots on or leave boots in the ac! There was more than one tale of people not waking up fully until in the climb.

Just one word "gloves"