14 Feb 1991 - Air war still going on, ground war not started so not the recovery phase Smudge

Speed tape
 

Good one Sycamore !, most of your Wessex were held together by speed tape, PH.

November 4,

Thanks for that, it was a long time ago and I'm sure that was taken by one of our accompanying line tradesmen when we were sent to operate from Bahrain when the Riyadh detachment returned to Lyneham. I believe we had 4 crews, each with its own allocated GE and 3 Aircraft with around 20 Line tradesmen to support the detachment. I was allocated to Flt Lt John Woods 30 Sqdn crew ? Probably much to his dismay, but to my delight. As fine a bunch as anyone could hope for. It was taken with my camera, so the date stamp might be inaccurate (I can't ever remember setting it), or as you suggest, it might have been taken in Riyadh earlier on !

Just looking at my records ;

DATE From/To DAYS Away SQDN. HOURS FLOWN TASK

4-Feb-91 26-Feb-91 23 Various. 85.25 Op Granby Riyadh
31-Mar-91 - 3-May-91 34 30 Sqd 129.05 Op Granby Bahrain

That would tie up with the photograph being taken at Riyadh.

Smudge :ok:

Smudge,
I have previously posted a copy of my Op Order and it says six crews, six GEs plus two MSS teams erc.
Put myself on John Wood's last Hercules trip to Dijon and back. Then had a slight altercation with the then OC 30 as to why this had not been suitably celebrated by the squadron.

AA62,

I would certainly not argue with your records, both my memory and my own records are sparse. It was certainly heavy going as ISTR we flew 3 days out of 4, usually a round robin of the Gulf Bases. Captain Wood was certainly a great pleasure to work for and I consider myself lucky to have been constituted with his crew. Happy days.

Smudge :ok:

During GW1 my crew was lucky enough to have the assistance of a GE more noted for his gruff demeanour. That is until we were detained by the religious police (muttawa} en route to a party in Riyadh with several evian bottles of "water" in a cold box with appropriate mixers. When challenged to open the box S***e M***e leapt to the fore, literally. "Why do you doubt our word?" he demanded. "We are guests in your country and you disrespect our military assistance". "But" said the bearded one. "Do you wish to search our pockets...our bodies!" ranted S***e and unzipped his fly. The muttawa fled. He smiled a lot more after that. Especially after a few "London waters". Great bloke

Albert's contribution to Global Warming
 

4 smoky Allisons 'turning and burning'. Low Level Xctry East Coast Malaysia 1971

https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....10f524283.jpeg

You were there while I was in Riyadh then Smudge, I arrived 5 Jan and left 25 March

Albert and QE2 drop
 

aeroid

Ref Posts Nos: 3977 & 3979

Managed to download a few memory cells and I think the navigator was one Roger Howe. He was a tall chap who did not need to use the astro stool when using the periscopic sextant.
With Paddy Quaid we have nearly got the complete crew, if I am right.

Rog Howe, when asked his height, used to answer " Five feet twenty inches" He reckoned it was easier to understand. When he was on a comms squadron (Doves, I think) he was the Nav, and the payload.

Roger Howe
 

Greenwood Nova Scotia. Very tall but thin lad asked him how tall he was and he answered 6 foot 12. Lad went away happy then figured it out.

Dougie M #4006,

Epic, SM was one of my course of GEs in 88. I met him recently at Jim Hunters bash, he has returned to dour. But it was all explained when he said he had moved back home to Wales :eek: it explains it all.

Nov 4, we must have shared an Evian or two then mate :rolleyes:

Smudge :ok:

Gents , thanks for your BBC like commitment of informing , educating and entertaining us civilians , concerning the Herculean world throughout 2015 .

Harking back awhile , we saw The Green Barrows as late as 1997 -98 .
DeanoP , thanks you for some more super shots . Particularly the S. Sandwich series , where as Postman Pat you truly were going through the letterbox in some of those shots .
Now we’ve had some interesting North – South maximum latitude tales ; but may I put forward DeanoP for the highest low level record , probably activating any self respecting GPWS through the Everest coll . Are there any tales of the lowest low level [ perhaps along the Dead Sea ] ?
2nd shot of the Far East sequence woke me up .
‘’ Wot’s this ? A shot of the Secret Shackleton Biplane , nay Sesquiplane ‘’ …. Following an eng prob …
‘’ Flt Eng shut down No.3 please ‘’
‘’ Wilco , No.3 , Er , No.3 Top or Bottom Guys ‘’ ?

Rgds condor ,

Imperial Valley
 

This is a "DZ inspection" near Calipatria California. "Calipat" is 180 feet below sea level so if the aircraft is 30 ft AGL we are still 150 ft below sea level.
Calipatria has the highest flagpole in the U.S. so that the flag is flown above sea level.


http://i1299.photobucket.com/albums/...ps9jo3uumk.jpg

QE2
 

DeanoP Can't recall any of the crew, it was just the Name George Bain that caught my eye. He was my Teech when I first joined the Transport Command Global Pub Crawl on Hastings in '65. Will we see you at the 48 bash in April?

This is a wonderful additional dimension to RAF Alberts service exploits ... Not forgetting his gallant crews who took him to these wild, exotic and 'low' places :ok:

Standing by for the 'highest' 'lowest' claim from Al's Gentlemen ... or any lower than Doug's 150' BSL ;)

Death Valley anyone 282' BSL or the Dead Sea 1,371' BSL ?

PS. Doug's flagpole reference ...

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikiped...triaPlaque.jpg

Image Credit : Wikipedia

John Stapp sighted
 

In true "twitcher" style I am very pleased to report that I bumped into John at Sainsburys Bridgemead Swindon on Thurs 10 Dec. He looks no different from when I last saw him at Hullavington in '93. Had a great chat and told him that he had followers here. Afraid he's not into the net. A great shame. He must have a host of stories if you could press the right button after a few Harvey Wallbangers. I remember him as the arch dispenser, from a galley flask in a room party, but frugal consumer! When did they go out of favour/flavour with the fleet? Was it the switch to N/S Atlantic, instead of E/W, in '82?
1066

1066,

Oh my goodness, Harvey Wallbanger ? Was it not the "electric orange" that was the tipple of choice from a well iced galley flask ? Perhaps the same beasty. Looks like you and I shop in the same place though, perhaps we might compare notes one day. I'm sure John Stapp would find a warm welcome on this thread.

Smudge :ok:

Vitamin C Party Drink
 

Through our contacts with the British School in Addis Ababa whilst on Det. an invitation to participate in an evening of Scottish country dancing was received by our crew. The Flt Eng who always said that we were twins because we had the same first name (allegedly only our mothers could tell the difference between us), decided that it would only be courteous to bring some liquid contribution to the "Jockanese country dancin'" as he put it. Armed with a flask of electric orange and another of 321 we arrived at the private home of one of the teachers. It was warm in Addis and the iced refreshment slipped down during the long direction of the dance steps.
I recall it was in the strathspey reel that the first teacher spun out of control into the coffee table and shortly after in "Postie's Jig that the main clusterf*ck occurred in the middle of the room. The crew stood by sipping beers as the cultural event subsided into hysterical shambles.
D****e J*****n the Eng lit a tab and declared that he always enjoyed a good punch up. It reminded him of Saturday nights in Sunderland. We weren't invited back.

321
 

Now there's a blast from the past. Still make it once in a blue moon. Looks like punch, tastes innocuous then just takes your legs away.

Electric orange - Thule - there a week with a broken window, last night invited to a private bar in one of the blocks. We took electric orange but ran out of orange and still had vodka and Galliano so made a flask with grape juice - horrible, but after 3 flasks of electric orange nobody cared. On departure ATC's last message to us was "Thank God you guys are going home".