When I handed in my kit . . .
 

Following on from "In my last 12 months I will" Teamchief said In my case a lot of stuff was written off except one thing. A rare piece of nav kit which for some reason was not C Class - A Rude Star Identifier. Issued in 1961 and essential piece of kit when standing in the astrodome of a Lancaster or Varsity and never used since.

Had great trouble convincing the storeman that it was obsolete. No idea where mine went. I see you can buy them on eBay for £100!

Stores wanted all my rulers, protractors etc which were issued at Finningley and Cottesmore, they had gone into some communal box on a squadron years ago but the corporal would not budge. I went back to the planning flight that was part of my 'empire,' gathered a set from the box there and handed those in, stores very happy. "What are you going to do with them?" I asked, "probably give them to one of the squadrons" was the reply, "I have a planning flight in my section" I said, "you can take them if you want," so I did.

In the cadets, we once tried to hand returned clothing and unused round neck wooly pullys back to clothing store. They didn't want to know and asked if we had a nearby car boot sale.

On clearing from stations, you were supposed to check and sign your clothing card. Most of us trusted the stores bashers and just signed the things....

But in 1983 I had to clear from Wattisham on posting to Finningley for a METS refresher course. The stores chap discovered that I was deficient one Gnat oxygen mask and one Gnat g-suit. I hadn't even sat in a Gnat since 1975 and the last RAF Gnat had been retired in 1979. Both items were specific to the Gnat - the g-suit hose was on the opposite side to all others and the mask had integrated microphone cables running down the oxygen hose. The storeman wouldn't accept that I must have returned them at Valley 8 years earlier (yes, my fault for being lazy) and wouldn't budge.

Fortunately I'd been volunteered to be Oi/c the gliding club, amongst whose members was a very helpful Flt Sgt who worked in the Supply section. He found the solution - a couple of 'Scrap' labels were produced for the missing items and I dutifully them handed over to the storeman who was then content to clear the card. But what a silly faff!

And no, I don't dress up in a Gnat g-suit behind closed curtains!

Dear old Uncle Joe L'Estrange once told us about the time he'd decided to get rid of some old flying clothing which had been issued years earlier. Furry boots and goggles were handed over, but when Joe produced his ancient Sidcot suit and tossed it onto the counter, the young stores chap jumped back in alarm as though he'd been attacked by a bear. Joe told him that it was indeed a flying suit (he'd probably had it since being an air gunner in 1944) and that it was probably almost twice the lad's age.

One advantage of having made a Martin-Baker assisted fast exit was that all kit worn during one's escape was written off. As a result I still have my aircrew watch (Seiko chronometer type), a useful pair of gardening boots and gloves as well as a CWW jacket. and much more.

I had a pair of aircrew sunglasses from my brief time in the RN. When they finally broke, I tried to exchange them at Supply Sqn. No chance, as they weren't of course on my RAF clothing card. So I got an aircrew mate to do the exchange for me ... no problem. He was then given the old pair in case he even needed to do another exchange!

Exactly the same, plus we were starting on the "3 blue long sleeved shirts, 3 pairs number 2 trousers, one pair DMS shoes" palaver. Fortunately this was all from the stores Sgt who had come out to "help", he was soon distracted by the offer of a bacon roll from one of the civvy ladies who worked there and the Cpl took over. As he watched the door close behind the Sgt, "sorry about that, Sir, he doesn't know how this works, anything you want to keep?" as he signed the whole lot off in one go (except the watch :mad:)..

We had a Whirlwind 10 on 110 Sqn. that started off life as a Whirlwind 4 until it was re-engined with a Gnome. It was our oldest and I had a project to fly it back to the UK when it's decades of Far East Air Force time was up. The final, major exercise in 1970 was Basatu Padu which was a reinforcement exercise from the UK. Whilst en-route to that XD183 had a too often engine rundown and John, being a QHI, successfully landed it in a coconut plantation with minor damage.

I was the inventory holder for the squadron's aircraft so when the aircraft disappeared off to the MU at Seletar I was expecting it back. Weeks passed, months passed and no communication. I investigated and found that the airframe had been passed on as a ground instructional airframe to the Singapore Air Force and it was still on my chit.

Round I went to Stores with the inventory and told them the story and to sort it out.

A couple of days later I was called and asked to go there and sign off the aircraft. At this time they were posting people in for short tours owing to the deadline for Changi's closure and in the office was a stores Warrant Officer and a WRAF Plt. Off. on a short tour. There then followed half an hour of signing conversion chits where large quantities of aircraft components both in numbers and weight from various squadrons were brought on to 183's inventory. The final items were all my flying clothing.

It followed that as the aircraft had been Struck off Charge then all these items were written off.

Though there was the case of a baby pilot whose aircraft was a smoking hole in the ground. OC Admin, spying the column of smoke guessed the cause and thought to see if our hero was OK. There in some corner of a farmer's field was our hero burying his aircrew watch.

Fareastdriver wrote: No doubt it was your normal practice to fly in full tropical mess kit :E ??

It's amazing how much kit went down on the Atlantic Conveyor.............

Regarding the Atlantic Conveyor, I think it was calculated that the total added up to more than 5 ships worth of equipment. I remember some years after the event there was still some memos being sent out to ensure that the very long list could be finalized and signed off.

One Beagle will no doubt remember, I did possess for a number of years a nice cardboard cut out of the old Bulldog cockpit. Not sure where that ended up. I still have in my possession an x CFS chums MK14a, which I was hoping to 'slim' into, it hasn't happened yet!

Pontious

While searching just now for my Green Line book ( see 'How Heathrow used to look' in Nostalgia thread ) I came across my unused Rude Star Identifier and my trusty nav' computer and slide! What stories the latter could tell of my 6 years route-bashing in the Herc'!