Yes, PR Mk.XIX PS853 I think...

-RP

Smashing shots as always RP, thanks for making my week.

Smudge :ok:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/prestw...hy/14016274975

https://c2.staticflickr.com/8/7447/1...5954ce7de8.jpg

She is now safe and sound at Bruntingthorpe where she will be well looked after!:ok:

XR713
 

She's in here somewhere (box?) ..........1972

http://cdn-www.airliners.net/aviatio.../1/1233145.jpg

Always wondered how the airspeed indications fluctuated when they pulled out of the dives [target against the cold sea] when the pitot probe bent down.....:8

Pitot probe only bent down when someone swung on it instead of just ducking under it!:ugh:

74 @ COLT, 56 somewhere else
 

http://www.lightningpilots.com/74sqn...ishall1961.jpg

http://www.lightningpilots.com/siteb...0-1178x813.jpg

Doesn't red look good on any Mk of Lightning ? Great shots Minnie B, the 56 one being your best this week in my humble opinion.

Smudge:ok:

No credit claimed
 

Thank you Smudge, but I claim no credit for them.
They are lifted from Ed Durham's website: index
But I agree: A different era altogether.

Pssst

The Man Shed Visits The Lightning Preservation Group

And just to add to Nutty's cracking link ... Some great nostalgic images of the awesome Frightening :ok:

https://mobile.twitter.com/lightningotd

XM 173
 

http://i253.photobucket.com/albums/h...02d1afae6a.jpg

XM 173 on display at the Dyson staff canteen.

The people at Dyson are interested in hearing from former pilots of XM 173 (56 Sqn, Firebirds mount, 226 OCU).
As they have a collection of jet engines they would also like to get in touch with "early Harrier" and Vulcan pilots.
PM me and I will pass on your contact details....you might get a free cup of tea!

But I don't fancy AVTUR dripping in my tea...

Avpin is worse.

Ah, but you wouldn't have AVPIN for tea. You'd have it for dinner.

It's a starter.

Leftover fuel? In a Lightning?!?

I saw the hardback copy of Lightning Boys on sale at The Works yesterday for £3.50

Last November's twilight Q-shed double QRA scramble of LPG's 2 x F.6's. :ok:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yn_NdtZxA9I

Bosseyed.....
 

.....nice one matey, I groaned and laughed out loud at the same time.
I wish I had that Lightning in some of the spaces I inhabit. I once almost got a ride in a two seater. I was actually booted and suited and walking out to the aircraft with the driver. His flight commander, walking in, stopped him and demanded to see his maps then announced "Well you can **** off" ( to me) and declared that he was taking the jet and my driver "to check him out". Bloody rude I thought.

The Ancient Mariner

Flying into the sunset.

Nice pic, and I am not of the Faith (ie a WIWOL)

And a poor sense of direction... ;)

Sad Farewells
To Keith Williamson, Al Martin & Gus Crockatt.

index

More in hope than optimism - on 30th September '71 one of the visiting Lightnings at Akrotiri had to 'bang out' in Epi Bay ... standard back end fire, apparently. The pilot was recovered by 1563 Flt S&R Whirlwind and deposited at PMH. I was on the wire for that pickup but cannot recall ever knowing who the 'victim' was. Very unlikely, but might anyone have the identity - just idle curiosity :bored: That, oddly was the only sea recovery of military aircrew I ever had to do (oddly, because that, theoretically, was our raison d'etre!!) I was also bollocked by the Big Cheese for sinking the dinghy, not bringing it back with us ... having an inflated dinghy in a single engined , small cabin with an injured survivor for the over water return transit didn't seem too clever to me ... I'm claiming octogenarian privilege for irrelevant queries! :p

Cornish Jack, this is most likely the Lightning/pilot combo you describe...
XR764 / 56 Sqn, Flt. Lt. R. Bealer.

-RP

Jack, he's probably contactable through Lightning pilots website via Ed D, as Dick Bealer (56 and 226 OCU) is still listed on the website.

Rhino power and GeeRam - many thanks, both, for a remarkably fast answer!! :D Not wanting to contact - just satisfying a sudden nagging thought prompted by this WIWOL thread. :\ My other abiding memory of the Lightning was a newsreel shown at a Bangkok cinema which showed a Sqdn formation takeoff in the early days with the classic rotation to the vertical. The audience burst into spontaneous applause - never experienced before or since!! Ah well!, back to the memory bank! :)

Lightning Radar

In the early ‘70s I was fortunate enough to get a couple of rides in the T5, firstly with Pete Chapman and then with Mike Smith. It was a bit of a blur at the time, but Pete did try to show me how the radar worked, a big job in 45 minutes, although I do remember him putting a ring over the target, which locked the radar in a narrow scan.

I recently watched Ian Black in a video and something he said about the Phantom radar caused me to wonder about the mental arithmetic which went into calculating the altitude of the target. On the last generation weather radars, using the one 1 in 60 rule we used to work out the tops of CBs with the simple formula of 100ft per degree of tilt per nautical mile, so if the radar was tilted down at 2 degrees with a cloud 40 miles away the tops would be 2x100x40 or 8000ft below us. I am assuming that the Lightning mate had to make a similar calculation. My recollection is hazy to say the least, but I seem to remember horizontal bars across the screen. Were these radar tilt bars?

Would any Lightning mate like to explain the target acquisition process and the mental calculations that had to be made to determine target altitude and speed? Thank you in anticipation.

Mike Smith, my Gnat QFI after Vic W went back to Africa. Anyone know if he is still with us. He had the biggest Alsatian dog I ever saw. Would let you into the house, but not out!

Mike Smith (ex-29 & 92) is still listed on the Lightning pilots directory, so if the same one, then yes.

One peep is worth a thousand sweeps.

GeeRam - thanks - will try to contact him there

Looking forward to lots more entries coming up from Marham in the coming years! :}

insty66! There is no connection between WIWOL stories and that ridiculous aircraft due to arrive at Marham!

I found the 180 crossing behind the most difficult.