I think only the very early F104s had the downward firing seats. Just from stuff I've read- I have no experience on Starfighters.

I was once told the story about a bored Greek conscript who was guarding a line of F100 Super-Sabres one night... to relieve the tedium he started doing pull-ups on the pitot tube on the nose of one of the aircraft but unfortunately it broke and bent downwards. To cover up his crime he then went down the entire line and bent all of the pitot tubes down to the same angle so no-one would notice.....

Wensleydale, it is a true story. Except that the aircraft were Mirages on thir way from Bordeaux to Jordan.

Wensleydale, it is a true story. Except that the aircraft were Starfighters on the line in Deci, and the conscript was Italian.

;)

P1

There was a sqdn of Belgian Sabres detached to Wahn. At night they provided their own armed guard. One night a guard riddled a sabre from nose to tail. He said he saw someone climbing in to the cockpit, though it was probably the cockpit cover flapping in the wind! During this detachment another Sabre landed wheels up, skidded along the runway on it's underwing tanks but managed to take off again. It landed safely at the next attempt.

Going off at a Tangent as usual - I always thought how silly it was to have an airman guarding critical points during the Cold War while armed with an SLR that he had perhaps fired 5 times during the previous 12 months. We were always told how this weapon could kill at well over a mile and yet was being used for short range point protection against a well trained potential enemy armed with a very effective assault rifle. I always thought that a multi-round shotgun would have better stopping and deterrent power and run less risk of hitting friendly targets at the other side of the airfield - especially when fired by a guard who had probably not seen a target range for nearly a year.

Ah Middy on 228 OCU, that brings back memories.
Middy sitting in the crew room in front of the fish tank, recounting tales of daring do from his long and illustrious career. A young pilot, entranced by the tales asks Middy when these deeds took place. Middy gives a date. Said young pilot reflects for an instant and says "my mum was 11 then."

All I was ever issued with was an Enfield rifle...sans ammo! Or a pick-axe handle.:(

Ahh but Goudie, our 100 rounds were in mags that were sealed in plastic bags with nothing to cut it with, such was the sense, and you signed for those 100 rounds.
However when going on the range they would use up the near life ex stuff, trying to get into it was a nightmare even with scissors and when we finally did they would often be rounds short, the armour I knew telling me that it was normal as whoever got the fun job of filling them would often skimp on it.

I had visions of if the Ruskies ever invaded, there would be loads of dead RAF blokes with semi unwrapped magazines in hand lying about the Squadron sites.

Wensleydale,
I wouldn't worry. In my experience we rarely had any rounds in them!


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Re: the F100 pull-ups. The version I heard was that they were Turkish ( the Greeks not operating the type) . The guard then bent the probe back up: afterwards going down the line and repeating the process so that they all looked the same
I think it was F-100's originally and also that it is an old wife's tale. The F-100 had an upwards folding nose pitot probe that was often elevated when the aircraft was parked, to keep it out of harm's ( and presumably bored Turkish Guards ) way.
I have seen a row of F-100s parked up like that and it does indeed look very odd and would likely generate comment, with the usual smart-arse answer.

Sure it was mirages in the news article.. Or jags

Good try Nutters , but the original story was going around long before the Jag came in! . :D

It was fairly obvious that we had no bullets in the SLRs because we had to use them without magazines. So we were then issued with a magazine. Still no bullets, but nobody would know that...

ISTR that Black Mac, SATCO at Binbrook, used to have a shotgun in the tower during station exercises, on the grounds that in an emergency it would be more use than a rifle or SLP

Sheesh, where did he fire the other 4 times?

And packs of double wrapped NBC kit too.

Still, aircrew were OK, until they took away the point on the knife.

His four daughters do the same for me.

Mind you, watching The Bridge the other week, when they set up a decontam area with plastic sheets and bodge tape, brought back some memories

ISTR Black Mac had a vey attractive daughter too