Similar situation when the RAF OCU I worked on became short of airframes. Our Sqn boss decided that to make best use of what we had, to catch up with the course backlog, there would henceforth be an early shift and a late shift.

Almost immediately we all ended up working both shifts! To make it even better we worked weekends, too. If we worked over a full weekend we got just a single day off in the week instead, or sometimes not at all.

After an AOCs visit myself and a colleague were called into the Boss’s office to explain why we hadn’t taken all of our leave. I hadn’t taken any at all for 18 months (it had been noted by the AOCs team that some of us hadn’t taken our full leave entitlement for some time and he’d obviously had his ear bent). I reminded him that he had personally refused my last three leave pass applications over that period (much to the chagrin of my wife). Still, it didn’t do his career much harm because he subsequently went on to gain air rank. I eventually chose family integrity over my career and chucked it in at my 38 point.

Nothing changes! Remember the Wednesday Sports afternoons? Mid-1960s, Manby/Strubby regularly had to work that, and often Saturday mornings as well, to keep the student flow going. It only took a day of lousy weather to bring the pipeline to a halt.

In the early days the JP Sqn at Finningley was a bit of a punishment posting for FJ pilots so it had rather more than its share of “characters”!

Meanwhile "Sergeant Mac" valiantly papered over cracks, backfilled, improvised on his mighty wall displays to keep the Ground School programme more or less at the right stage for the flying. This would be about 1974. I wonder if he got the recognition he deserved. Cheerful, unflappable, flexible ................ super bloke.

I was never on an RAF station where there was a Wednesday sports afternoon (late 70s till mid 90s). It was up to individuals to keep themselves fit in their own time.

Hence it’s infamous Sqn Ldr Boss in the late 1980s.

Not sure it was ever fitness-related. It just gave a mid-week break, whilst allowing Sports teams to do their thing.

I remember when Linton-On -Ouse tried to get the students a little more sporty and so had the senior course organise a competion in the Gym. Sadly the posters for this event were worded somewhat ambiguously:

"Intercourse Sports Afternoon
Wednesday in the Gym"

Perhaps it was an introduction to the famous typo "Marital Arts Demonstration".

Church Fenton (63-65) - Weds Sports pm was for Stn teams only with Sat morning working being standard for all support personnel and Stn parade every fourth Sat.

Do you mean “Tommy” - the deaf, dumb and blind kid?

Many an officer took his hat off when he came by.

There's always been a question about what the correct designation for the 6 FTS tanked JPs was. I've seen the term T5B used for the aircraft fitted with Mod 1791 (tanks and the nose strakes removed) but I was led to believe this was unofficial.

T5A was the designation given to aircraft fitted with the improved avionics in the late 70s (some sources say this also removed the ability to carry tip tanks, which had been available but not used.)

We certainly must have crossed, I was there 85 - 87.

Steve

The original JP5s were mostly converted to JP5A in around 1974-5. A few JP5s were allocated to Finningley for navigator training; these were fitted with tip tanks, the moustache strakes were removed as was the roughened material on the wing leading edges. These were the only JP5s left in service and were never officially designated JP5B.

Spotters persisted in referring to them as JP5B, just as they referred to the F-4J(UK) as the 'Phantom F3' - but neither were officially used.

The fin spar cracks were, if memory served, tracked down as being caused by icing on the fin-mounted VOR antennae causing antenna flutter and stress to the fin. One pilot saw this when looking in the mirror once! One aircraft was nearly lost, but the solution was simple enough - bracing wires limiting antenna movement.

Yes, it was G***f St****ll who noticed movement of the fin when looking through the rear view mirror. I can't remember which phase of flight, but I know the aircraft was left at Llanbedr until a spare fin became available.

That makes sense, they remained JP5s!

Just to add to the fun, there were 5 replacement JP5A aircraft delivered in the late 80s which had the strakes removed and the tip tanks fitted!

Always thought the T5 with tip tanks looked more 'warlike' even in red and white!

I never did understand why low level nav at 300KIAS was approved for the JP. At 240KIAS the aircraft flew very nicely, but at 300KIAS it bounced around like a pea on a drum and needed full power in any signifcant turn to maintain the speed. Also the standard timing correction technique for late ETA really caned the aircraft and its engine. 10 sec late at 300KIAS meant increasing to 310KIAS for 5 minutes; anything more could easily exceed max. continuous rpm....

OK, 300KIAS was more fun as was a 300KIAS / 300ft agl VRIAB. Quite how the little Viper stood up to such abuse I don't know - but it certainly did.

Strikey would have been more fun.....

Before the Dominie was introduced (circa 1966?), we trainee navs were given a dozen or so trips in Meteor NF14s to get us used to going faster than a Varsity. One of those trips was at low level, but we still planned it like any other sortie, preparing a flight plan using our Dalton computers. By the time I did the Nav Refresher course in 1971, they'd set up the low level squadron at Finningley, using the JP4. I actually did that course three times in 1971/72 ; once on the Nav Refresher, once on the Phantom Lead-In Course (from which we were sent home and re-posted when the F4 fleet had Spey engine problems), and once on the Buccaneer Lead-in. The JP flying was great fun, and we were taught proper LL pilot navigation. 420 knots in the Bucc was still a bit of a shock initially after the JP's 240 knots!

-- Tim L

Intrigued by the query of what type of JPs were operated on LLADTS I checked my logbook - I was a stude on 362 ANC between Feb 88 - Jul 89. I see that I was on 'Basic JPs' on LLADTS between 3 Nov - 21 Dec 88 - I finished 'Basic FNT' the afternoon of Lockerbie! - and again on 'Advanced JPs' between 23 May - 29 Jun 89. I flew 40 sorties in total ('Inky Swot' -no reflies!!! :8) and this was broken down as 28 in the JP5, six in the JP5A and six in the JP5B. Interestingly all of the JP5B sorties were on 'Advanced JPs - twice in the AD Phase and three times in the SA Phase.

And indeed LLADTs was staffed by characters - I saw that Bill Brandie and 'Tommy' got a mention, and I see that I flew with them both. But the one I recall mainly with trepidation (and strangely a lot of professional affection) was John Abell aka 'Johnny Abdul' (Paula Abdul was big at the time - 'da yoof' please Google her!!!). To paraphrase Stravinsky on Rachmaninov - 'Johhny Abdul was six foot two of English gloom', but he had a heart of gold!