Global Aviation Magazine : 60 Years of the Hercules
 

For those interested ...

The latest free edition of Global Aviation Magazine contains some great articles featuring iconic images of Royal Air Force aircraft past and present as well as articles on the RAF's No1 School of Technical Training based at RAF Cosford and 60 years of the Hercules.

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Image Credit : Global Aviation Magazine

On-Line edition ...

GAM Issue 23

Coffman,
thanks for the link. Ah the memories of the 'K' ! Nice cover pic of the RAF 25th anniversary scheme. Been to a few airshows in that one.

Excellent link ... thanks for that. Great photography too.

Oh yes 292.

Flew her in that scheme on many occasions, happy days.

I believe she is now flying with the Austrians.

xv292,Marietta and the Royal Review
 

When 292 was painted up for the 25th anniversary of the Herc in RAF service I was selected as the GE to go with the aircraft to visit Lockheeds at Marietta on a little jaunt master minded by OC 30 Sqn, Wg Cdr Main ( also known to many as the Fat Controller ). We took a random selection of bods from round the station on the trip to represent the people who supported the Herc operations but didn't get much recognition.
Whilst at Marietta we had a tour of the plant, a briefing on the future of the Herc , mainly to do with the HTTP frame they were trialing things on,( leading edge slats for one ) and a burst of air to air photography with a B25 Mitchell as the photo plane. Trying to get the Herc in frame over the plant was a bit of a struggle until the captain, (Paul Obourne if I remember correctly ) told the guy flying the B25 to fly straight and level and we would do the positioning. The B25 had had the tail fairing removed so the photographers could shoot out the back and Oby tried to give them so real good close ups by getting the probe within about 15 feet of the B25.
During the trip we took the airframe to Denver to pick up some Marines back from an exercise and then brought everybody home.
I also went with 292 to the Royal Review where we were fortunate as although it was raining we lined up to meet Her Majesty and Prince Phillip under the tail of the aircraft in the relative dry, a bonus that was appreciated by more than just us judging by Prince Phillips comments at the time.
I often wondered why I got selected to go on these trips and thought it might have been that I marshalled the first Herc onto the Farms dispersal at Thorney Island way back in 1967, you never know.

Is my maths bad, or is that not more than half the period of powered heavier-than-air flight. Amazing.

gopher01,

I did a UAS summer camp at Thorney Island in 1969 and had my first trip on a "K" to Gib and back. Seems like yesterday!

Gopher, you had some luck with 292. My records show me "accompanying the frame" on a couple of air display days, Waddington being a real treat. A Deci Sched or three and that was about it. I'm sure we may have overlapped as GEs but 21st anniversary would have been 87 ? A year before I did my course. The K was the "bees knees" though, can't imagine what they see in these new jobbies:rolleyes:

Being an Ex Halton Apprentice, 1 S of TT has only one meaning to me, but then, I'm a philistine !!!!

Smudge:ok:

gopher01,
I was on 30 when W/C Tony Main was the boss and the anniversary a/c was his idea brought to fruition with the assistance of, I think,
OC B Line. As I recall the cargo compartment was set up with a display of the 'Labours of the RAF Hercules' . I did not go to Marietta (wonder who I sent !) but did lots of UK airshow trips in it. May even have done one with yourself or smudge.

Ancientaviator,

I suspect my time as a GE may have been a bit late (88-95) but I certainly went to a couple of displays in 292. Most of my time as a GE the "Air Display" frame was XV210

http://i1292.photobucket.com/albums/...ps9670136e.jpg

An A Line frame I believe, but we may well have done an Air display or two :ok:

smujsmith,
the entries in my logbook are for XV 292 as the anniversary a/c as is my pic. I must learn how to upload pics and bore everyone ! I was on Hercs from 1968 until 1997 so our paths will have crossed. I have all the 'Alberts' logged.
Very nice pic of 210. Do you have anymore ?

Ancientaviator,

Unfortunately, that's not one of mine, but a shot taken and uploaded to airliners.net, copyright Gareth Horne, which I "borrowed". I've a few good Albert shots from my days as a GE, but not many to do with Air displays. I could bore the pants off most with Albert photographs. I started my RAF career, out of Halton in 1971 on the aircraft, was injured in a flying accident during GW1 in an Albert, and was employed to my medical discharge date on Albert. I regard myself as lucky in working on a great aircraft, with seriously professional crews and top ground support. Only people who have experienced a long time on the RAF Hercules fleet will know what I mean. Oops, perhaps a tadge sentimental. Here's one of mine;

http://i1292.photobucket.com/albums/...pseff6f2a9.jpg

Winter deployment Norway, many moons ago. The big tall bloke is the boss of Hereford. He's talking to our small Captain, who was a giant in his own way. Me, I went to get warm in the tower, hence the snap.

Smudge:ok:

A second fave shot. XV200, after ops in to Sarajevo, having a rest at Falconara (Ancona). this aircraft was a real workhorse. I did many trips and routes in it, and had very few snags. Note the MAROC pods on the wings. I understand that MAROC simply stands for MARshalls (as in MARshalls of Cambridge) Orange Crop, stolen from the Vulcan, as was the refuelling probe. Perhaps someone ex V Bomber fleet could confirm that for me. Certainly, during the Sarajevo airlift we carried an AEop and heard lots of funny sounds on intercom.

http://i1292.photobucket.com/albums/...psc123feb0.jpg

I wish I had straightened the No4 prop better though.

Smudge:ok:

Isn't that XV200 in the photo above??:confused:

Apologies Wizard, the perils of a good evening and posting on an IPad. I've corrected my mistake, and thanks for your observation.

Smudge:ok:

No worries, I too have both in my log book so suspect our paths have crossed at some point :ok:

Happy days (or daze) Wizard. I'm sure we probably have.

Smudge:ok:

Smuj,

The probes were ex V-force (as were the probes on Nimrod). MAROC/Orange Crop on the other hand wasn't. Orange Crop (Racal MIR-2) was originally fitted to the Navy's Sea kings.

Great pics Smudge :ok:

AA62 ... Would you like some help with pic uploading ? ... I'm sure we'd all love to see some of your collection :)

CoffmanStarter,
thank you for your kind offer. I have been reluctant on 'will I bore the readers grounds' and and also to 'learn' how to upload pics to some third party site, which I believe is the only way to do it. Perhaps it is time I got a grip and did it.

I'm sure we'd all love to see them

Upload !!

Arc

GOPHER01
Were you at the Thorney reunion on saturday (10th)?

70 ex Thorney personnel turned up at the sailing club for our 3rd annual reunion and talk dirty about when we were 18 and falling over on the Big E pub crawl, and lots of El Adam, Luqa, Akrotiri night flying dets due to the restrictions at TI.

Mostly Linies and covering around 67-74ish, but also a sprinkling of other ex Thorney Islanders from Bevs, Argosies etc.

We had a very moving ceremony in the adjacent churchyard when a lovely lady laid a wreath in memory of her brother, tragically killed in a Bev accident in Singapore in 1967 aged 25 and buried at Thorney; made everybody think a little.

The (former) Nuffield club is not in great condition, doesnt seem a great deal of interest in the place. best bar on the island and a facility most camps would have dreamed of, but getting rather tatty.

The farms dispersal is long gone and they dont seem to know what to do with the airfield in general.

Restricted night flying, short night shifts; the Thorney Flyer at 10 old pence each way, left the station 10 minutes after closing time 7 days a week. legging off into Sussex to get the extra 1/2 hr boozing, window cleaning, apple picking, sprout picking (all in season) then off onto night shift and into the Coal Exchange (Coal 'Ole) for 9'clock.

Considering the forecast, the weather was great, sunny but breezy but as we all know, it never rains at Thorney.

Us youngsters never realised what a holiday camp the place was, and to get posted out to a place where someone on the tannoy kept saying things about a bloke called Michael Finn came as a bit of a shock.

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m...ps527b9e27.jpg
With the expert assistance of CoffmanStarter I have ventured into the black art of posting pics. Hopefully this will encourage others to contribute. First the small print. Almost all of the pics will be my own work. However should an intruder appear then I beg forgiveness from the copyright holder. Due to the decay of some of the original slides some pics are better than others. Not all are of the Herc so if the thread drift is too great I may have to decamp. First pic is of a 48 Sqn Herc on the approach to Changi. (sigh)

Well played AA62 ... :D:D:D:D

My pleasure to help ... :ok:

Update ...

Just PM'd AA62 to help recover the pic ...

I did not remove the pic ! So I know not what happened. Will try again later.

AA62 ...

I've just had a look at your original Image Link above ... it appears to have corrupted somehow.

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m...ps92c59079.jpg

So I've had a go at repairing it for you :ok:

We are all looking forward to seeing more of your pictures :)

Best ...

Coff.

AA62
 

Sorry to disagree, but that's not Changi - Flt Eng' in KD though (naughty boy!). I remember one of our skippers having a big fall-out with a nav' who insisted he would fly in KD - as the nav' was a Flt Sgt the skipper won!

Keep at it AA, meanwhile, I offer a prod in progress, en route to MPA from Ascension, mid 80's (taken from the cupola). As an aside it was actually the Captains birthday, he achieved the refuel in one attempt, and we had a proper party with jelly, cake and all the other party stuff in the following 10 hours to MPA thanks to a very well organised Loady;

http://i1292.photobucket.com/albums/...ps864cfa4e.jpg

Keep putting them up there AA.

Smudge :ok:

Brian,
you are right it is not Changi, for too many bumps ! One of my problems is that most of the pics were of slides which have not all stood the test of time.
So I had them copied to disc and alas during this process the captions and the order were corrupted. My struggles with the uploading made me careless about the location. I shall try harder in future but one or two will be 'where on earth'.
CoffmanStarter, thanks for your help once again. I may have to consult my 4 year old grandson in future (count to 100 in three languages, capitals of the world etc) He is positive proof that the intelligence gene can skip a generation.

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m...psaa46e4c4.jpg

Hopefully this will appear correctly, after a major computer crash . I do know where this is do you ? Any future pics may appear in a less than chronological order . Nice pic smudge, you must have some more ?

AA62,

Looks like a shot from a VC10 (no prizes there then) and the Herk next to the RAF Albert, looks to have the RAAF camo scheme. Where it could be is another matter, but the RAF Albert looks to be in standard finish for 80/90s. Hope that helps AA.

Meanwhile, mid 90s and the conclusion to a fighter affil session in Norway. This very obliging F16 pilot pulled alongside for a photograph. After the G's he had put us through, I'm surprised I could hold the camera;

http://i1292.photobucket.com/albums/...ps368f1863.jpg

Another shot from the same trip. A nice flight up the fjords taking in the sights from the Port Para Door ;

http://i1292.photobucket.com/albums/...ps11b03f93.jpg

Smudge :ok:

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m...ps51b31a2a.jpg
smudge,
excellent pics. Here is on more clue to the location of the two Hercs !

Sorry AA,

Missed your post there. I will bite at Easter Island ? Seems we have this thread all to ourselves. Meanwhile, another Albert on another Airfield, no quiz this, its Ciampino circa 1990;

http://i1292.photobucket.com/albums/...ps22d60363.jpg

A bit of a story, we were heading home from places East (from memory a trip to Madagascar) and our last nightstop was Rome. We get to the aircraft the next morning, and duly B/F it. The "front end" were taking their time arriving and we watched as the Thai B747 loaded, taxied, aborted and returned to the pan. Once the pax were offloaded, blimey don't they carry a lot :rolleyes: my fellow AGE and myself sauntered over to see what their problem was. The Flight Engineer was very chatty and explained that they had a hydraulic leak on one of the engines, and would have to wait for engineering support from base. All those passengers in hotels, crikey did they have a problem. Would he mind if we open the cowling ? A quick look showed that the hydraulic pump coupling had vibrated loose, allowing it to leak. Spanners, a clean up and then get the captain back for a quick engine start to prove the fix, were we happy AGE's, you bet. When we got back to Albert, our drivers had arrived, we shared all our illicit spoils with the crew, Thai Airways Card packs, and other marketing paraphernalia. The B747 got away, less than an hour after its abort, the company saved a lot on hotel bills, and I still have my pack of cards. I often wondered if I could have been useful to a civvy airline.

Smudge:ok:

Great photos chaps ... keep em coming :ok:

OK Coff,

Not strictly one of mine, but surely, for those of us old enough to remember, the iconic paint job;

http://i1292.photobucket.com/albums/...psab958f6c.jpg

I had a Morris Oxford in exactly the same colours in the early 70s.

Smudge:ok:

The end of the K's;

http://i1292.photobucket.com/albums/...ps2636db3c.jpg

Stacked and awaiting sale at St Athan. What a journey these aircraft went through. I bet there are some great stories out there of operating this aircraft in the RAF. I've been lucky to have followed Albert from 1971 to 1997 as a mere techie. Come on gentlemen, I have only one question of the "drivers", didn't you find the rudder a bit on the heavy side ?

A final pic just for Ex Ascoteer, 292 in all its glory, Prestwick 1992;

http://i1292.photobucket.com/albums/...pse1eedd69.jpg

Smudge :ok:

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m...ps40029f8c.jpg

smudge,
great tale and super pics. This pic is from the very early days of the 'K' as those in at the start may recognise. Unusable autopilot no anti skid etc and the G/E for the Herc had yet to be invented.
As you say we seem to have this thread to ourselves but I do not think Coffman Starter who set it going would mind,

You might have then thread to yourself with posts but I am thoroughly enjoying the photos and stories you post.

Keep up the great job.

And DECCA Moving Map Navigation :eek:

The Decca Moving Map system did not last long as I recall. Lane jumping, restricted coverage etc. We once did a blind drop trial through cloud, not a success. The paras landed well away from the DZ. Thankfully without injury.
Smudge forgot to mention that you are correct in respect of the pic. T'is Easter Island !