When I was an instructor on IOT I had a photo of Sgt Wilson behind my desk, he's my ideal SNCO.

Ah, Susannah York. Came over all misty eyed for a few moments there.

Because of "that woman" I am only allowed to watch the film once a year. Its either Zulu or BoB, and usually Boxing Day, but I squandered BoB a month ago.

You missed out eating but, other than that, no change over the years then. ;)

Back now to lapse by the production team failing to include a caption saying this is a documentary about the contemporary RAF... as this appears to have led to some confusion amongst several contributors.

if armed with live weapons, yes. Late arm point on taxiway where armourers remove them. Seen on most hot ops and stateside in my time.

Again, it is a documentary of the Air Force 23 years into the 21st century. Not one with Victor K2 Meldrews. The AS1 techie does grate me, but young lad and no different to many I worked with.

Understood and thank you. I must have missed the bit about there being 6 jets there.

On a 'sort of related' note, I stumbled across the 'Rescue' tv series yesterday on YT.
Only watched the first episode (Budding Rose) so far but it stands up well- no overblown heroics or bigging up- just professionals doing a dangerous job, outstanding crew cooperation as you would expect.
The only 'fault' so far is that it's quite aircrew centric.
My 15 yo daughter who is an avid watcher of 'Top Guns' was blown away by it.

Speaking of jogging, a voice in the background speaks of how close to Russia they are, and that a wrong turn on a run through the woods could take them over the border. Looking at the map, the border's about 150kms away. :hmm:​​​​​​​

Marham - home of the F-35B.

It’s not as if we have a lot of front line air bases left to maintain, is it?

Hello mate, considering the channel 4 documentary following the RAF at Lossiemouth and how great it all is, I just thought I’d give an honest insight to what it’s like at Marham, if you do share this then please keep anonymous.

There hasn’t been any hot water across most the junior rank blocks, gym and messing facilities for over a month, this was due to annual boiler maintenance. The deadline has been and gone and now Vivo are claiming there is no time frame for a fix, but the rumours are it could be as far away as November which would mean nearly 3 months without hot water.

Temporary showers have been placed in a couple of carparks, but these are of shocking standard, covered in mould, not draining properly and running out of hot water themselves.

On top of this, occupants were told they would not have to pay for accommodation, but this promptly turned out to be complete bollocks and any mention of unpleasant living conditions or knocking off the accommodation charge are swiftly ignored.

The accommodation and infrastructure are a shambles with blocks that were “condemned” over 2/3 years ago still being used and not enough rooms for new postings in. The solution to this? Stick the lads and lasses coming out of training into hotels up to 20 miles away which is a great idea seeing as most are fresh out of training and can’t drive so therefor can’t get to unit.

Just in case you thought it was just the juniors getting shagged up the arse, the SNCO/WO mess has been closed for over a year, yet members are still being made to pay mess bills, despite not having access to any of the facilities.

Not to be outdone though, the junior ranks mess has been closed for the best part of 2 months without even a rough estimate as to when it may open.

Sounds like a lot of whinging but the extent of the problems and the lack of communication and progress is beyond a joke.

The RAF does its best to paint a nice rosy picture of putting its people first, but one of its largest bases is essentially a construction site that you have to pay for.

In my time I put a Gen App in for substandard accommodation due to a broken window that was holed ( on a second floor ) and dangerous, that had been like that for over a year, have they no recourse like that these days?
It’s a shame that the military does not have the facility to sue, I bet the water is hot in 10 Downing Street and the heating is on.

Perhaps we should encourage a particularly successful wordsmith to write a book on this abysmal mess - Neglect, Neglect, Neglect!

​There were also German aircraft deployed too.
​ (A jet with Luftwaffe markings is shown taking off in one clip)

The Lossiemouth documentary does its best to hide the cracks. You don't see the building sites that are the new accommodation blocks for JRs, SNCOs and Officers that are being erected on the site, nor do you see all the temporary portacabin JR accom that has been built on a car park. (That will be nice in a Scottish winter)

Nor do they show some of the blocks were the drains back up and human excrement bubbles up through the shower drain trays, or the ones were the water pipes burst and destroy the possessions of the guys away on Ops because no-one goes into the block for months as all the occupants are all deployed.

Or the refurbed JRs bar that was closed for the best part of a year because it flooded (and indeed the roof in the other part of the building from a previous refurb that has leaked since the building was reopened 6 or 7 years ago)

Or the rubber tent that serves as a gym, which is always freezing in winter but acts like a sauna in summer - when all the seagull **** it is encrusted in reeks to high heaven, just to make the fitness experience more enjoyable.

Talking of the gull problem - the noise they make disturbs sleep patterns, their excrement (and their perching) causes damage to cars, they cause millions in damage due to birdstrikes and the get aggressive with people during mating season.... but they are a protected species so 'nothing' can be done about them.

And lets not forget the weeks and weeks when we were all provided bottled water because the water supply was contaminated (and that happened more than once)

I'm betting other MoD establishments all suffer similar problems!

And then they wonder why retention numbers are so poor...

Thought I was reading about 1918 ORAC, time for a mutiny.

https://www.petertatchellfoundation....strikes-riots/

"Or the rubber tent that serves as a gym, which is always freezing in winter but acts like a sauna in summer - when all the seagull **** it is encrusted in reeks to high heaven, just to make the fitness experience more enjoyable."

Hey Lomon

That rubber gym was there 40+ years ago when I was a Jag liney. I went in it once and didn't like it so never went back. You should be more concerned if they start building a new gym as that usually signals the end, as per Gutersloh.

Temporary portakabin accommodation in the car park, can't be any worse than the Temporary accommodation Swift Plan blocks of the 80's.

So after three years and probably very few frontline hours……the Station Commander just steps back into a single seat Typhoon! Why do they let these TV people show this? He must have done simulator details and dual checks? Plus a bit of extra ground school. Then to let him sit QRA!! I don’t believe it! How many Station Commanders sat QRA back in the day……..very few! Glad the wine bottle is not yet empty!

What would you do a dual check in? There are very few twin seat Typhoons left and none at Lossie