RAF at Rucker
 

If any RAF Puma crews at Rucker fancy getting their hands on a possible replacement 'contender' this weekend - and a slice of Alabama hospitality then please PM me and I'll put you in touch. Open invite

EESDL - might be worth posting on the mil aircrew forum, quite a few lurkers hang out over there but less frequently in rotorheads. Sounds like an interesting project whatever you've got going on!

Sounds like a thinly disguised p&ssup:ok:

Crab, it probably is, but doubt you will make it seeing as its 4500 miles from home, plus you would then have a language problem if you ever go to Alabama or anywhere in the Deep South ..... firstly even with the finest middle class British accent 75% of people I meet ask if I’m from Australia and the other 25& generally reply “what did you just say” all that aside huge respect over here for the British Military that work side by side with American forces.

At this time they are at NAF El Centro for Exercise Imperial Leather sorry Zephyr


https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....b74c1b151.jpeg

cheers

Nomorehelos - I know what you mean, on our last holiday in the USA we stopped for a coffee before crossing Death Valley and I asked for a Mocha (pronouncing it mocker) - the lady behind the counter looked absolutely blank and after a couple more tries I pronounced it mowker and she instantly understood:)

So shouting 'Make way, British Officer' doesn't work then?

Once after a long pax trip on a VC10 to Washington, self and team were (despite the efforts of InFlight Catering!) starving, so having picked up hire car we stopped at the first fast food - Wendy's IIRC - for a massive order.

Order acknowledged then: "EE dinner Go" from the burger flipper.

After much repeating and speaking slowly, we discovered it was a question, asking if we wished to partake of the culinary delights on the premises, or have it as a takeaway.

Got it yet? "Eat in or go?"

Divided by a common language, as nomorehelosforme observes. I've had the good fortune to spend time in a dozen or more States over the last 25 years, and have quite a few friends over there too. Greatest exposure time has been in Virginia, Arizona and Arkansas with very few communication difficulties. Not to mention many years controlling USAFE ac in UK/East Anglia! Perhaps my ears are more attuned to US accents? My most common reaction when speaking what one might call 'proper English' seems to be "I love your accent", which is quite sweet! :)

The biggest confusion (and great mirth) I encountered was when trying to explain how I wanted my breakfast eggs cooking!

(In Schofield Barracks, Hawaii. Just wanted to name drop that one.... It was a hard life, but someone had to do it at the time ;) ).

[Edit: Oops, just remembered...I'd actually just left the RAF by then but was still on a government payroll :8]

Shytalk, was your answer "Bay you lurvey, at six ayum like, wit you where'n me socks an yo 'air inna bun, anna cuppa tea."?

Never made it across the pond whist serving. However, in my second career I had cause to make numerous trips to exciting locations such as Iowa, Minnesota and N Dakota. On my very first sortie, jet-lagged to the eyebrows and in deepest Iowa the waitress rattled off a list of accompaniments and hearing the word "chips' I nodded. Somewhat discombobulated to find a large pile of crisps alongside my steak - doh!

The only other time that I found significant differences in social offerings etc was in South Carolina. Iced tea instead of a cold beer - come on!

In a diner in Portsmouth, NH, with an Australian mate, having flown with him from Sydney and arrived in BOS the night before...

Waitress: "Where you from?"

Us: "We've come from Australia."

W: "They've had some real nasty avalanches over there, ain't they?"

U: "Well, that's Austria"...

And I also presented a world map once to the head of the HQ support centre, so the team could work out where Austria was in relation to Australia and allocate support tickets to.

Brits can be a bit challenged geographically too - I was on the Canadian Waterbirds course in Halifax back on 2004 and the big story on the local news was the newlywed Brit couple who hadn't checked properly on their honeymoon tickets which Sydney they were travelling to - and ended up in Sydney, Nova Scotia:)

How was the short flight time not a clue???

Chums at the Ramada Inn, Bellevue during an Offutt Ranger were engaging the barmaid in conversation....
"Where ya from?"
"Lincoln, Engand"
"Wow - did they name the town after our president?"

I enjoy the geograpically-challenged conversations!
Them: “Where you folks from.”
Us: “Jersey.”
Them: “Oh, I have a cousin in Trenton!”
<groan>
I produce a little map I carry for this specific purpose, with a tiny dot on it called Jersey, and explain how Noo Joysey got its name in the 1640s.
Cue glazed expressions, as this involved geography AND history.

Once met a charming young lady in Jax, who thought that Europe was a group of islands off the coast of Floorda.

Standard answer to the "Gee, I love your accent" conversation was to point out that I didn't actually have an accent.

Mog

With regard to ordering food in restaurants in the USA, we had crew competitions to see who could complete the order and avoid any of the long list of supplementary questions ( eg what sort of dressing would you like on that?)

There were times when even "I'll have what he's having" didn't work

At the end of a meal in TGIF in Fort Worth (Bell factory), I filled in the 'Tip' section with "don't eat yellow snow" - cue very confused expressions. Conversely, when I wrote "mange pas de neige jaune" as the tip on the bill in the Sofitel bar, in Marignane (Eurocopter factory), the bar staff cracked up! (Both got real tips...)

There was a similar competition running at the Burger King on Aviano Air Force Base in the 1990s. One chap thought that he had it licked and went into his five minute order only to be asked "Do you want to pay in Dollars or Lira?"

A ‘no question’ competition in a bar in Fort Worth: “I’ll have a whiskey please, Scotch, single malt, Macallans, no ice, no water.” The smug look resulting from the assumption that this was totally unambiguous was met with: “Would that be 12 or 18 year old, sir?”. It really is not possible for a Brit to win!