Taking friends up for a joy ride
 

I've been meaning to seek opinions on this story from my dim and distant yoof. Many years ago a (then) teenage friend of mine was woken early one morning by his father and bundled into a car with a family friend who was an officer in the RAF. I'm not sure exactly where he was taken but he was treated to a private flight up the coast in the back seat of a Hawk, I seem to recall him mentioning that they overflew Blackpool Tower (so Valley then ?).

I was of course immensely envious, especially as he wasn't even interested in aviation, while it was all I ever thought or talked about.

So the question is - did the RAF allow such things, or would this have been one of those under the radar deals perhaps due to the officer's seniority ?

I too was immensely jealous when a good friend of mine took another friend up in a Hunter at Yeovilton and exceeded Mach 1. Apparently he qualified for this treat because he was a school teacher. Some years later I managed to get him to give me a trip in a JP5 because I now qualified as a civilian gliding instructor with the ATC. Not quite the same but great fun.

The friend who got the Hunter trip was not particularly interested in flying which made my jealousy more justified. He had only ever flown in an Auster and, when invited to take the controls in the Hunter, he applied the same control movements he would have done in the Auster. He then unwittingly discovered the roll rate of a fast jet and frightened himself silly.

No, No and No

The guy is an absolute fantasist.

Arc

Hmmmm
At a certain airfield where I used to work,a visiting RAF Hawk came in one day,our usual VAS guy was away - so I 'saw him in' .
He was closely followed in by a Tiger Moth,the Tiggie pilot was the Hawk pilots father.
Father was then taken for a ride in the Hawk :)
Seemed to work out OK and the Hawk home base were none the wiser !

Then there's the story of the glider pilot who took HIMSELF up for a joyride in a single seat A-4 Skyhawk.

LINK

Yes it is possible, but only with the requisite approvals (including medical) and authorisation (which is held at quite a high level). There are even guidelines on family members flying together when there are dependants.

During my time I have flown with my wife, flown in the same formation as my wife and, quite independently of me, she also flew in a Harrier T10.

The rules and regulations surrounding such activity are there for a reason and I cannot imagine a situation where someone would breach them or even attempt to do anything 'under the radar' - military aviation is just not organised in a way where this would be possible.

JTO

You put more detail around it than I did but you were spot on.

No way that a ride over the sea, on a bang seat would ever be entertained without authority and a medical and a briefing on dinghy drill etc

IMHO

Arc

Damn! :eek:
At least he didn't get shot like that guy that borrowed a tank and took it for a spin on the LA highways.

But what about 'needs must'? As a Sgt ATechA at Valley on Gnat Rects in the Gaydon Hangar, I was called into the office on Friday lunchtime to be told I was being sent to Macrahanish asap to sort out one of our Gnats (XT....) that was there on a landaway exercise. The student pilot had managed during his turnround checks to top up the hyd reservoir with OX-38 - doh! Instructions had been passed (supposedly) that he was to remain there someone arrived to drain, flush & refill. That would be me...
Mode of transport? Back seat, of course. Never having flown in a fast-jet, and being aware of some height / leg length restriction in Gnats, I queried the safety aspect (6' 3" with very long legs) and whether or not I might find myself leaving my knee caps behind should the worst happen. The response left no doubt - " go get yourself kitted out". The office window looked out over the pan and as the conversation came to a halt, I asked to be reminded of the a/c number and on hearing it I said (with relief) "problem solved, Sir. It has just taxied past!

It's far less easy to take a non-military mate flying now than it used to be. Limited airframes/flying time, DH appetite for risk to 3rd parties etc etc. It all counts against it happening today.


However, in days gone by I have taken my wife, son and several good friends flying, all non-military.

At the risk of annoying Salad Dodger, a Vulcan in to Fairford gave a number of KC135 crews quick trips. At Goose Canadian nurses were given a close look over the aircraft :)

More recently ANS families were given air experience in Jet Streams.

Most frighteningly, not flying I admit, but Mrs PN was given an SMG to fire
She hit the target, except it wasn't hers

PN, it's always been easier to give military folk trips, especially so in larger ac, even if they were not British.

With your (ahem) chronology, you're lucky it wasn't a STEN ....

"I say Chief, it's jammed ...."

..............

Lfh, true, we had Sten in ITS. I had a misfire, the next round cleared the misfire down the barrel and itself through the breech. Fortunately I was on the right of the line.

A naval friend of my late father fixed up a trip in a fast jet for me when I was 15... (yes, there really were fast jets back then ;) ).

But I was a CCF cadet - unfortunately a pongo as the school didn't have any other sections.

The jet was a Sea Vixen FAW2 - and the occasion was the Farnborough Air Show. An unbelievable experience when the RAF wouldn't even sanction an AEF Chipmunk trip for a non-ATC CCF/RAF cadet.

As for Sten guns, we had a couple in the school armoury plus blank firing barrels which had a restriction to provide gas pressure to work the mechanism - one of which had broken. One day I went with another CCF chum to collect the repaired barrel from the local gunsmiths - the look on the locals' faces when my chum produced a Sten gun from his brief case to fit the newly repaired barrel was hilarious. We took it back to school and tested it on the lower sports fields, but after a brief burst of fire the barrel failed again.

The joys of the 1960s!

Whilst JTO and Arc are quite correct in that it would never be entertained I think they rather miss the point. Logistically yes this would have been possible 'under the radar', morally would the individual have taken the risk? Reading some comments on here and going on personal experience then yes.

I used to know 2 almost identical brothers - one in the forces - the other a civvy.
Both glider pilots,the serving brother arranged a fast jet flight for himself - and his brother came to visit the airfield on the same day - well who would have known the difference :) ? I would have struggled to tell them apart.
If something can be done we can all rest assured that it has been done.
Slightly more difficult these days of course !Most things are more difficult.

And then there was the SAAF Pilot a couple of years back who took a civvie for a Pilatus ride. The individual spotted a yellow and black handle, wondered what it did, and pulled it!!

Ever remember the Christmas tale published in air clues in the I learnt from that section, in which in order to get a band for the officers mess Christmas ball a junior officer agreed to take them flying unofficially in an Anson, which on being discovered was told on pain of death if anything happened to the Anson he would be well and truly screwed.
He took off with the band and all went well until landing when the gear wouldn't come down. Cutting to the result, on finals he chopped an engine then flicked the prop around level on the starter, repeating the process with the other he dead sticked it onto the runway coming to rest on the wheels that sit semi retracted in the bay's, the groundcrew raised it, pulled the gear down and then pushed the undamaged aircraft into the hangar.

Seems it can be a whole lot easier to get a flight as a civvy if you are some kind of 'celebrity' - happens, or used to at least, down on our side of the globe quite a bit. A smiley-faced photo of the individual in question on the front page of the newspaper was seen as a good bit of PR, although not necessarily the used spew bag when they were back on the ground!