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