Certainly don't recall steak sarnies at Topcliffe!
Food was pretty ordinary from what little I recall, but everything served with not very good chips and Culdrose a big come-down as you had to return to the wardroom and change out of flying kit for lunch!

Ah, the Topcliffe feeder. Chips with everything 5 days a week. One of the serving ladies (married for the first time at age 58, went to the local quack and enquired about birth control pills, I digress) slipped me the wink to not eat the Sausage Lyonnaise (bangers and onions) "The sausages smelt off" she whispered. 70% of ATC ignored the warning. It made for a very interesting Landrover trip back to Leeming.

A '+1' to Huge 72's shout out to the TISWAS guys during BANNER...especially the guys in Omagh. It was amazing what they could rustle up from the rations they were given/acquired. Surely some of them must have ventured onto 'Masterchef'!! For the officers on the crew it was nearly always preferable to eat in the TSW Crewroom - even with the 'eclectic' mix of reading material, 'wall art' and, ahem, 'art house' films - than to dine with the officers of the Resident Battalion. I always found that sweaty flying suits were 'tolerated' in their Mess, rather than accepted.

Then there were the self-catering facilities at Y453 with the rations gifted by TSW in the next door hut. Many's a good Sunday lunch and full fried breakfast was cooked by the Wessex 2 crew in that manky kitchen. Just as well the Aldergrove SMO didn't pay too many visits around the bazaars. Just don't mention the cockroaches.

And, finally whilst not strictly a feeder per se, who could forget the butty boxes at BBK? Where they got the sausage rolls with the unfeasibly long 'best before dates' was always a mystery to me! Chernobyl, perhaps? And then the ubiquitous 'Tunnocks Caramel Wafer'! Allegedly over 5 000 000 sold every week...and at least 4 999 999 to the UK military!!! :}

But who remembers those awful Robirch pork pies? Shake them and it was like hearing a dice in a cup as the congealed lump of once-was-bits-of-pigs rattled around inside the concrete crust.....

Salute!

You RAF and RN folks crack me up.

Were some of you serving when you had a 'bat man" or whatever they called the "assistant" to officers? We lowly colonists did not get someone to "help" until we were a brigadier. So we foraged, picked berries, shot and skinned a deer or muskrat But my friends on exchange tours with the RAF had a batman!! The lucky dogs.....

Gums whines...

IIRC, 'batting' entitlement disappeared in 1970 with the advent of the 'Military Salary Scheme'. Thereafter, although there were still some Officers' Mess 'servants' (the official term, not mine), the level of 'service' provided was extremely variable. (Yes I know about navigator students and the 'teasmaid' at Finningley). But we were still entitled to wake-up calls and a cup of tea first thing until the bean counters stopped that, promising that rooms would be provided with tea making facilities instead. Which didn't last long.....

SAC 'flight kitchen' in-flights were...OK. I hated 'buffalo wings' wrapped in miles of cling film though and never did develop a liking for 'sour cream flavoured ripple chips', but the 'po boy' sandwich (if it can be so described) option was incredible. A large baguette filled with various cold meats, tomato, lettuce, pickles, spiced mayo etc. which was virtually impossible to eat in one hand, but very tasty!!

YES BUT!

word was that studes doing long high level as baby navs were force-fed baked beans, thus provoking, at best, eructation or the Elsan. [Thinks: was there such provision?] Either way, the Dominie night high ish levels were said to be noisome and gaseous.

Meanwhile metman, having sampled feeder and avoided beans slunk off to his pit.

Never witnessed that in over 1000 hrs of flying the Dominie.

I can certainly vouch for the Ark Royal one.

BEags

We still had batting in the mess at Marham in the early 80s. Some of us can still remember batting in MQs! That went (for JO's) with Military Salary , if memory serves it hung on for a few years for SO's.

The phrase …’only a Flight Sergeant’ offends me. If I recall correctly it was achieved after ~ 11 years as aircrew, and normally far longer as ground crew. In both cases denoting considerable experience.

Shack, I often found that my offence was ameliorated when my flying pay hit the bank each month!

CG

Omagh absolutely the best, massive quickstop into the HLS, TISWAS at the ready, fill the cab to the desired weight. Walk across to the hut in horizontal rain. Curry night in full swing,

Baby nav having time for a pre flight meal ? : Flight planning, fixing plan, fuel planning, ODM, F2919, pre compute Astro, crew briefing etc etc. Food? Not a chance!

The one at the petrol station on the Andover road, along the MQs end ?

My mother worked there. I shall,let her know her efforts were appreciated.

Luverly-grub on the ground is all very well, but if you had to partake of a lunchbox whilst flying en-route I thought you'd be interested in what we fliers had to endure whilst travelling out east in the late 1970's, as witness this lunchbox provided by civilian caterers at Khartoum in July 1979.
A couple of ropey rolls and two dead bananas - so awful I had to photograph it for posterity. Mind you it wasn't too bad because ISTR none of the crew had to be hospitalised afterwards!

https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....e37d5afd55.jpg

IIRC correctly, the Stn Doc at Lyneham commented that if you were given a lunchbox, the best thing to do was throw the contents away, and eat the box...it was more nutritious :ok:

The pilot's kitchen at Jever was very good during TLP mid 80's

My daughter, who is 28 now, still remembers me taking her to the 72 Sqn crewroom at Aldergrove when she was about five or six. After her first visit she knew exactly where the ‘aircrew energy rations’ (ie chocolate (or ‘nutty’ if you’re a Naval cove)) drawer was, and it was always jam-packed with goodies!! And, IIRC ‘Curly Wurlys’ were definitely her ‘weapon of choice’!!!

Much surprised you found any - they seemed to migrate to "Fat Sgt" ----- sports bag!

lsh
:E

There was what looked like, and probably was, a bucket behind a curtain on the starboard side almost opposite the crew entrance. There was at least one pilot who felt the need to 'go' on most sorties he flew. I can recall being Nav 2(?) in the rhs with the screen engineer watching over my shoulder whilst the captain reduced his gross weight.

Must be a tale there...

CG

Thinking back, the worst meal I ever had was actually at an RAF Officers Mess (not naming names but it was in South Wales). A chicken curry lunch had more in it than intended.

About two hours after eating it I felt very strange indeed and almost collapsed walking out to my aircraft. My colleague suffered in the same way, having eaten the same thing. We were both very ill for some days and it could only have been food poisoning. We were asked to provide samples ( :yuk: ) and I was later informed by the doc back at base that I had been suffering from at least three different bugs, any of them dysentery inducing, the worst being a form of botulism!

The worst I ever felt while flying was after eating a "Burrito de Luxe" at the Base Cafe at Nellis ahead of a Red Flag sortie.

One of the most boring trips on Dominies was a 2.5 hr trip to Sola Stavanger. All so that the baby Navs could practice a 3 Position Line Fix!

The offset was that a 5 minute walk from where the aircraft was parked was Sen Thai on Solakrossvegen 4. Sola.

Not strictly an "Aircrew feeder" but they did feed 6 RAF aircrew at a time. Fantastic Thai food which made the return trip all the more enjoyable.

Charliegolf,

I cannot believe you would ask about tales of the Fat Sgt! lsh & I knew him well and the stories are legendary as was his bag!

I strongly suspect that more than one 3 position line fix was required!

Timelord, That may be true but often not much more was achieved. Any way, the Maritime Instructors knew all of the best eating places. Seemed to make it all worthwhile!

[QUOTE=ExAscoteer2;11119942]Never witnessed that in over 1000 hrs of flying the Dominie.

My tale was of Finningley in the 1970s ............. shared an office with two Nav instructors/ screens. [I was there because I was double-hatted, doing my stint as instructor.]

Their story, not mine. Perhaps winding me up, but I do know that beans combined with lowish outside air pressure can be interesting. Never guest starred in the Dominie, only the Varsities at Topcliffe.

It got worse after the DAU (Dominie Avionics Upgrade) aircraft entered service - they took the elsan out.

The worst for me was the pizzeria at Diego Garcia. I got a bad case of food poisoning from there (probably Campylobacter).

Would SAS Det (Soup and Sandwich Detachment of Catering Sqn) at Stanley qualify?

I was pleased to be able to arrange, via a PMRAFNS AeroMed friend, some Italian Herbs to enhance their lunchtime Pizzas.

https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....d5c40fd995.jpg

The aircrew feeder at Kinloss was so fantastic we used to take it flying with us!

Yes agree with Sharpend on the Strammer Max, just like Germany.
The RAAF feeder at Butterworth in the 70s was great, steak every lunch.

And for breakfast in the airmans' mess.

...and for weekend breakfasts at the O/M in Laarbruch, steak & eggs always on the menu as "The Australian Breakfast" !!

RAF Wyton 85/86, was superb , with a great corporal in charge if I remember correctly.

”Would SAS Det (Soup and Sandwich Detachment of Catering Sqn) at Stanley qualify?”

Luckily the SHAR det lived in the Upland Goose, dining on 365 (lamb!) and liberated Argentine wine.

Swing the lamp!

Mog

Mogwi - 365 was mutton. They would never kill a sheep until it was old and bald, although the family I was billeted with in Stanley did once have lamb, but only because it had been run over. The 365 man used to stop his van outside the house and open the back, which was stuffed, floor to ceiling, with quarters of mutton. In the afternoon you would see the same man with the same van, the inside piled with peat. I don't think that anything was washed out in between. We did once have an Upland Goose that had been shot by an RAF Regt officer with an SMG - there's style!

Old Bricks

Shot? Or clubbed-with?