I remember one silver 'K' arriving at Colerne at the end of the Hastings era. I think it was XV 179.
My first flight in 192 was on March 12 1969 from Muharraq to Akrotiri as part of the famous 'Changi Slip'.

Brian 48 Nav,

Yep, well aware and never saw a silver bird live myself, I'm far too young. As witnessed by the fact that "old" AA62 was flying the beast around 6 months after I started my apprentice training at Halton, aged 15 and a half! I can claim having worked on the beast in "crud and custard" dress, and, enjoying the company of Colernes cowboy hatted Lockheed rep, in many a bar across Wiltshire and Somerset. To this day I wish I had applied for aircrew at that time, they seem to have been the days. Never mind, being SLF as a GE was also most enjoyable in my later years. At least I can say I was a Corporal :eek:

Smudge :ok:

Smudge,
I held every rank from B/E TO S/L except C/T !

aa62,

Eric Dunn (ex Chief Engineer) held every rank in the RAF except WO and MRAF! He was the only air officer I ever met who had a BEM, which was awarded when he was a FS.

Lord Cameron, for one, must have started as an AC2 in training, sgt on qualifying for wings, probably missed WO, and ended as MRAF - not bad

Brian 48nav
Nice to see you at the last 48Sqn reunion. Amazing number of attendees for a long defunct squadron. Possibly a sqn with a lot of shared happy memories. I certainly loved the Far East flying- every trip was an adventure.
Do you remember this island overflown on LLXC East coast of Malaya. Looking at Google Earth, I think I have identified it as 'Pulau Seri Buat' (N2.67538 E103.91353)



https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....75b94791f.jpeg
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Regarding nav eqpt on ferry flights: Apart from Astro there were no long range nav aids, as you say Loran A/C was fitted later. The return legs were relatively short as well and no worries about staying on track in those days. Legs were Marietta to Bermuda, Lajes and Cambridge. I believe the first flight went direct from Bermuda to Cambridge at night- Nav was Dolly Gray who instructed at Thorney Isle on Herc 'A' flight, so astro was his main aid. As for the other eqpt-VOR/DME/TACAN/ADF &E290 radar. Luckily the Doppler eqpt, being new, was quite good. Decca rolling map display, again fitted later, was a wast of space with very distorted maps and lots of map changes.

C130K Mt. Everest
 

https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....a01b72c08.jpeg
AA62

Were you on any of these trips?
With OC 48 Sqn 24th April 1971. En route to Calcutta from Kathmandu. V.cloudy flew IMC to safe alt (34,000ft) thinking that we were not going to see it and then it appeared. Awe inspiring!!

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Tried again with our captain, Dave Peet, on 14th Oct 1971. En route to Calcutta. Beautiful day circled the mountain at 28000ft.
XV307 at Kathmandu before flight. Don Grange in foreground displaying the ultimate in nav bags. (Notice PT exercise in front of the DC3)

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@ DeanoP
 

Thanks for sharing those wonderful photographs :ok:

smujsmith wrote:

I remember a Hercules arriving at Fairford with the handle of the crew door lashed by a chain and tensioner to the steps up to the flight deck. That would have been late 1969. I thought the aircraft had arrived from Cyprus - it was carrying a number of demijohns filled with some sort of liquid and some baskets of oranges. I seem to remember that there were a number of people, including the station photographer, waiting for the aircraft when it arrived.

Dean,
on your first date mentioned I was on a trip the 'other' way to Edinburgh via Darwin. I assume you have seen my pics of Scenic Departure One from Kathmandu The second date I had the pleasure of flying with 'android' all the way from Lyneham to Colerne and back in different frames.
I was crewed up with Dave P. at Changi. I was not too keen on the OC at the time although I was the ALM on the flypast a/c at his funeral.

When we first got the 'K' we did have lots of crew entrance door problems in flight. Hence the agricultural reinforcement you see around the exterior of the door. The sytem 'cured ' most of these by removing the 'door locked 'microswitch and just leaving the 'door closed ' microswitch in place. I have commented on an earlier post my thoughts on this engineering masterstroke but if anyone needs a recap I will do so.
As for chaining the door , the weak link was on the door itself where the chain would need to go. A mot point whether it would have retained a door bent on doing a runner.

1.3VStall,
I once met Sir Eric. I knew he had been an ex wartime Aircraft Apprentice but had not realised he had risen to the rank of F/S before being commissioned in the Engineering Branch. As you say he did well.

Mahe Visit
 

AA62
Ref your Post No 199

I was with you on the Mahe visit and the subsequent flypast. A bit daring to bank at 90deg about 100ft above the sea with 60ft of wing just above the waves. He was the Wing pilot and would know it was reckless, irresponsible and illegal. There have been so many crashes with this type of scenario, remote location and no chance of being reported.
The flight back to Gan was in beautiful weather conditions and very smooth air. Upon landing the flight engineer asked how he should explain the very high fatigue meter readings to which the Wing pilot said 'put it down to severe turbulence en route'.
I believe his flying expertise caught up with him at St Athan in 1993!

At the time it seemed to be good fun but it could have been quite different.

Yep, had something similar with Andy L** who did a run and break over Masirah with a pull up and a 90° plus wing over.

He was showing off to the two ATC guys who travelled down to Salalah with us. He said 'Just like a Spitfire' - I said 'No, a Spitfire had a crew of one . . . '

The guy was an arse, I have no sympathy for those who whimsically overstress aircraft. The payment was often levied on someone not associated with the abuse.

Often, I've been accused of being a kill-joy, but the Hercules gave most of us enough memories without busting the very limits that were there for our safety.

I suppose my 'finest hour' was when I reported the Falcons Hercules for overstress when at Lyneham's Families Day the aircraft overbanked to in excess of 100°. There were a few 'private' chats going on, including veiled threats and aerodynamic explanations that a wing-over was part of a barrel roll which is 1 g all the way round.

That was flown by Jeff B***** whose strong suite was drinking several pints to everyone else's one especially when a kitty was being ran.

My answer was that presumably Lockheed knew that too and still imposed a 60° flapless bank limit.

Eventually, I had to drop it due to 'pressure' being applied. Just part of the world we live in I suppose.

I daresay this might attract incoming too. It wasn't all good fun . . .

Dean, Brian,
My heart is warmed by responsible attitude in the two posts above.
On this day particular I always spare a thought for Private Game who was needlessly killed on duty by someone having a bit too much fun. Must be 20 years ago now.
Nuff said.

Just had a look through an old movements log and noticed several Australian C130s visited Woodford in late 1960 /61 in and out of Lajes. This must have been some of the earliest C130 movements in the UK.

Canard, those moves were before my time, and you may well be correct on first C130s. I know that the blokes at RAAF Richmond saved my, and Doug M's bacon some years ago with a rear gitz replacement. At least he got the day off !!!!

Smudge :ok:

Dean,
I vividly remember the Mahe flypast and the 'G' meter readings. Yes the captain, Roger S. was rather prone to that sort of thing. As I recall he had done an exchange with the USAF on the 'Ski' 130. Later on he did another tour with the USAF on the F111 before becoming OC 35 on the Vulcan.
He died as Group Captain Air Cadets in a Chipmunk crash. His passenger was badly injured I believe.
I believe my pic on an earlier thread shows Jeff B. at the Lyneham families day and the extreme angle of bank mentioned.

I wonder if the first C130s to visit the UK were those of the USAF.

Drag.
There was actually a flying exercise at JATE called Regal Mount where u/t staff were subjected to a profile of steep turns and application of positive and zero G to demonstrate the necessity for correct load restraint. It was also an excuse for Flying Section to "horse it about a bit" which was deeply gratifying.
This, however, in no way gave an excuse for dangerous low flying. I was guesting on JATE some years after leaving and remonstrated with that pilot after a DZ inspection on an MSP at Larkhill which put us below the surrounding terrain, and on Salisbury Plain that was V. difficult. He countered by saying that he was a QFI and knew his job, until South Cerney.