I drove to work today with not a cloud in the sky wondering how beautiful the UK would be from the sky then fought 2 Typhoons over the the North Sea for 45 mins keeping a watchful eye on the Lake District for a nice way to empty the tank if I had any fuel left. Is it fun? I could tell you however............. its my secret!!!!!!!

Even better on tankers. I was on a Valiant tanker squadron at Honington in company with two Main Force Victor squadrons. I would be overseas more often than at home. Being young, single and unattached I used to do my crew's trips and all the expectant fathers, sick lame and lazy trips too.

The poor sods who were in Flying Training with me who had been 'specially selected' for Victors could only get one Lone Ranger a year.

I flew the routes again as a contract helicopter pilot. Slightly more northerly as BA fly over Russia but this time the company were paying: business class.

PN,

I was not very happy with my posting to Vulcans, initially. However, you are absolutely correct in what you say and, after a few months, I had a great time (especially in Akrotiri!)

Bill

'It's still fun?' try telling the rotary crews that whilst they're flying around the Caribbean delivering aid, helping people, far from the long handled screw driver. 😉

Bill, I think the initial posting was a shock to many.

I WAS NEARLY chopped at Cranners, when I told my BFT Sqn Cdr (Richardson?) that I only wanted to fly helicopters. "Wrong attitude, should've joined navy etc" thrown at me, so I lied and said "of course, what I really mean is Jaguars" which hadn't actually arrived yet! Actually, my only motivation for joining the RAF was to fly Mountain Rescue Helicopters, as I then thought of them - I was a keen climber/mountaineer. I realised my mistake on day one at Cranners but stuck it out, paid the price of two SH tours - Germany tick VG, N Ireland not quite so, but got the medal (unlike any 'mere FJ types' at the time...!) and then 22 great years in a select club that might as well have been run by the Salvation Army - although discipline and bull**** might have been more onerous if it had been. That only got ruined when the VSO's found that their train set was shrinking at an alarming rate and SAR got up-ranked so that instead of the whole SAR Wg being commanded by one Wg Cdr and two Sqn Ldrs (for nine flights with Flt Lt OC's) it then became SAR Force, which required a Gp Capt, three Wg Cdrs and six Sqn Ldrs to command six flights (we lost three flights as part of the 'improvements) - and as you say, it's now civilianised (in UK at least). It was, indeed, too good to last, but I was fortunate to get 22 years of the best of it! :ok:

[QUOTE]But in the military you do NOT get to "hop into a turbine helicopter more or less at a time of their choosing" you do it, infrequently, when told to do it.

Again, nobody flings anything about in the military "as often as they want" it just does NOT work like that.[QUOTE]

It does actually. Maybe not in your world (strange how you don't seem to know everything despite having done 2 FJ tours ;) ) but I am lucky enough to be in that exact situation.

We 'had' to do things for the Army and others for about 15% of the time. For the rest of the flying task we just used them as an extension of our social life.

The RAF during the sixties and seventies in the UK. The greatest flying club in the world.

The other great thing for aircrew is the log book. You have many memories but the log book serves as a reminder.

Some times it was not good at the time, often in retrospect it was what they whole job was about. Just one - leave finished at midnight Friday. Got home from holiday in France and phone ringing at 1630. At 0600 the following morning west of Rockal. Still remember 37 years later.

TorqueOfTheDevil,

No it does not! How many hours a month do you fly? You don't do as you're told? You get to fling an aeroplane around the sky when YOU want and as often as you want? Whose military are you in?

My tours were a LONG time ago, and it didn't work like that then either.

Most of the times that I got airborne I flung it around the sky as often as I wanted and when I wanted.

jindabyne,

I'm sure you did. No training objectives, no Flight Commanders ticks, no OTT within 30 seconds for you then?

But my original, admittedly trivial, point was that you don't do it when you want to and as often as you want to. You do it infrequently and when you're scheduled to do it.

From your posts in this thread pr00ne, one wonders why you suffered it for as long as you did.

melmothtw,

I didn't suffer, I left when it ceased to be a challenge, when the trivia and the naff outweighed the fun and I rather lost my interest. I wasn't going to hang around and be a crew room whiner, so I cut and ran. I was also aware that I would be f**king dangerous with that mindset so it was time to go and do something else.

Something (body) tells me you left before you were pushed.

That said, you've now become more than tiresome, so, as is said elsewhere, I'm out.

jindabyne,

Er, the exact opposite actually. Bye

You were pushed before you jumped?

Mil-26Man,

Ha ha!

No.

Can the thread get back on track please?

Preferably without trolling.

Posts and stories from our current serving military colleagues here on PPRuNe are always welcome, and are always encouraged (all OPSEC considered).


Give us more! I suspect you all make your own fun just as we did when things aren't as fun ...