Always love seeing this post return to the top of the pile...well deserved!
:ok: Yippee Ki Yi Yay! :cool: |
Damn, I wish I'd been more interested in what the teacher was saying than the girl with nice legs beside me at school.
Is it true that if Americans decend that low its officially classed as a crash? ;) |
A couple of times I've stood in fairly close to fast passes not much higher. It's an unforgettable experience.
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I just cant believe all this information on Omani Jags and not a word from Beagle!! Is his computer broken or has he given up on us?
They were fun days!! |
Well, I for one am shocked and dismayed at the unprofessional attitude shown by the SOAF pilots.
To condone such spectacular, wonderful, fun, amazing flying is totally out of order and might encourage our British RAF boys to try to pull similar incredible, adrenalin punching, whoopee flying indulged in by those irresponsible Omanis .....:rolleyes: :} |
You mean 'Omanis', I think.
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That'll be the ones Jacko !! :)
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LOW LEVEL OMANI JAGS
In the bar at Colt on Friday I met the pilot who flew the waist-high Jaguar featured on the front cover of Flight magazine. He says there are more and better photos around somewhere. Why not here?
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USAF LTC was saying that there are some good Strikemaster pics too. One is of a line of Strikemasters on the flight line, only one has his wheels up:}
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Mike,
That was the latter of the two posted above by SPHLC. It generated a bit of a stir and we could have filled the letters page for about six months. Jerry Connelly had a nice one of an RAF Jag flying between two lines of parked USAF F-15s in GW1 |
Jaguar - Cover of Flight
Originally Posted by mike rondot
In the bar at Colt on Friday I met the pilot who flew the waist-high Jaguar featured on the front cover of Flight magazine. He says there are more and better photos around somewhere. Why not here?
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Mike,
Are you going to do a painting of a low flying Omani Jag?I have a few good ones but they are in store!! We may not all be flying Jags these days but there are still plenty of us around who enjoyed the experience of flying with no min limits. Great fun!! And there were a few of us present at Colt on Friday and Saturday night!! |
To skip back a little to the question of who was flying the Spit that ruffled Alain de Cadanets hair - The late great Mark Hannah.
Cheers |
I've always understood it to have been Ray Hanna, not his son. Both of them, of course, sadly no longer with us.
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Wasn't me, sir...I didn,t do it.
You might be right. I was chatting to John Pym, a very fine pilot who I always understood was the guilty b.....d. The subject of his last flight from Thumrait was a frequent topic in the bar at Colt on bad Fridays. It must have been special to generate the level of admiration from those lucky enough to have witnessed it. Nice photo, whoever it was. How long did the photograher spend in hospital?
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I know John Pym well when he came to Oz to work for a short time in the CAA before going off to fly for Royal Brunei (B747) and now in Hong Kong with Cathay.
He has told me stories over a few sherbets about his time with the Omanis on Jags. Wouldn't be at all surprised if it was him. If you read this John - all thebest from the Canberra gang. |
"FLIGHT" cover photo
Just in case there is any doubt, it was I who believed/assumed the pilot of THAT Jaguar was John Pym, He is far too modest and polite to have claimed shouting rights over it, or even to have mentioned it in conversation. He did sign a new piccy for me though, while he could still hold a pencil and write. What a nice bloke; last seen following Craig Dalgleish back to their hotel at 0200ish to open the bar...
Newt, I would like to see your photos. |
Mike you old devil, haven't heard from you in ages!
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...the hunters used to fly lower...:}
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Totally off thread. I have a copy of Mikes 'Top Cover' sitting above my head as I speak.
Just thought I'd share that! :) |
Hunter used to fly lower?
Originally Posted by Stitchbitch
...the hunters used to fly lower...:}
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But that would have been in the days before we could afford cameras.
Seriously, my first 35 mm camera was a simple point and click Boots Birette circa 1967 with a separate light meter at a cost of £7. My next was an Asahi Pentax SLR at £120 in 1970 and that bought in Singapore. We just did not get the dosh to afford non-essential consumer items. You even needed a Singapore Det to buy a decent watch - £10 down Change Alley. |
Low Flying Hunters
PN. I thought the discussion related to Hunters in Oman but I completely take your point re the costs of half way decent cameras and watches! I remember haveing a Yashica copy of a twin lens Rollei which I think cost £15 in Bahrain and a very nice yellow faced Seiko from Singapore. There are stories of very silly recce competitions in RAFG in the 50s, Hunters at the time Pictures of clock towers with 'Who could get the face filling the whole frame', a train on an embankment photographed from below and that sort of stuff. A Hunter was damaged by hitting a 4 ft high concrete plinth at Wombleton(?) Airfield while 'burning off fuel prior to a precautionary landing'! That was certainly low and I make no claims for any Jaguar superiority in the field of silly low flying!
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A2QFI, that was my point, when Hunters were in Oman even though the prices were duty free the cost of items like cameras, to capture the evidence made them a rare luxury.
The rest was to remind the young 'uns that we did not live in the same consumerist society that we do now. Returning to the fly low topis, the USAF ran a trial with F105s in the 60s to see if they could incapacitate with a low level sonic boom. They could but the Thud was as likely to decapitate as incapacitate as it had to fly at about 5 feet. Gainsy might remember the photos in Flight. |
I'm not that old.:)
I vaguely remember reading about such trials but can't recall any pictures. That would probably have been in Humphrey "Footnote" Wynn's era at Flight. (Guess what I'm reading at present). Talking of low level, wiring an airfield is one thing, but how about the Buccs wazzing Beirut High Street? Talk (probably just talk, at that) of returning with clotheslines/TV aerials. |
Originally Posted by A2QFI
I doubt it and I've never seen any pictures to prove it either!
I remember watching a USN airfield attack at thummers in the late eighties, it was quite a sight to see. However, there were a number of Tomcats/ Corsairs/ Intruders that became the meat in a Jag/Hunter tag team sandwich.:) :ok: |
Airfield + Carrier Group Attacks
At Thumrait we would take it in turns, one day the Carrier Group would attack Thumrait and the next day the Thumrait 'Wing' would attack them. One day an USN aircraft diverted in with some minor mech problem and the pilot was taken to the bar. In the meantime his aircraft was searched and we found a strike plan for the next day. As a result we were able to lie in wait, or fly in wait, and catch a load of aircraft, short of fuel and queuing for the tankers somewhere about 100 miles South east of Thumrait. Lots of easy 'kills' that day!
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Mighty in-decent of you A2QFI.......... :hmm:
Meanwhile..... the field of silly low flying! Or if you hit something. |
USN vs Omani Jags and Hunters
Originally Posted by A2QFI
At Thumrait we would take it in turns, one day the Carrier Group would attack Thumrait and the next day the Thumrait 'Wing' would attack them. One day an USN aircraft diverted in with some minor mech problem and the pilot was taken to the bar. In the meantime his aircraft was searched and we found a strike plan for the next day. As a result we were able to lie in wait, or fly in wait, and catch a load of aircraft, short of fuel and queuing for the tankers somewhere about 100 miles South east of Thumrait. Lots of easy 'kills' that day!
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John Pym's 'paramour' a loverly Aussie woman friend of ours has been visiting from Hong Kong this week and has asked for links to this thread so she can show John when she gets back to Honkers next week.
She has asked for deatils so we should know whether John is prepared to own up to this event! Cheers |
Originally Posted by A2QFI
I doubt it and I've never seen any pictures to prove it either!
http://www.canberra.plus.com/pics/thum1.jpg http://www.canberra.plus.com/pics/thum2.jpg :cool: |
"we called Star Wars Canyon"
It scared me in a helo, let alone on a fast mover. |
Very Low Level hunters at Thumrait
Excellent pictures! Thanks for posting them, I agree that they are as low as anything else in this thread.
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loman
The Hunters possibly did fly lower... I was pulling up to miss the station photog who had scampered out after the first pass. Thanks for your remarks Mike - I wish I had gone back with Craig at 2 am but instead allowed Rushton to drive me back at 6 !! And we think we only do those silly things when we are young and drunk! There were some other wrinkly hooligans there at Colt on the friday it was good to see...;)
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I met, in the loosest possible sense, the Omani Jags in the Sumhail Gap a couple of weeks ago whilst on holliers. Whilst not flying as low as anything posted, it was lower than anything I have ever seen that wasn't gear down! Typicall, the camera was in the glove compartment! Mind you, by the time I'd switched it in they would have been in Izki.
Hope they will oblige again in December, and that Fox3's film project comes off. |
Not Omani or Jags but some barking mad German in an F-4.
Not too polished.:uhoh: (26.5Mb BTW) http://www.patricksaviation.com/avia...an_F-4_Phantom |
Nice one Gainesy:ok: :ok:
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Seems Alpha Jets can have gravity get the better of them also...
http://www.metacafe.com/watch/61434/...ly_low_flying/ Ps Watch the #3 |
Back from another few days down Thummers way, got some great flight line stuff...but got caught at Baite 71 bar and missed the nuts and bolts of "Glittering Rug" but as usual always worth it.
The revamped and restored Jag vid will slide a bit as we missed the A/A content due to the last verse of "Piano Man" at 3 Am on the last few days of the bombex! Jobs on, tapes on, fights on! ;) |
A few more...
Having had to suffer interminable war stories over the last couple of weeks from two co-workers (ex Thummers), both of whom were adamant that Hunters flew lower, I demanded evidence.
I enclose herewith the duly submitted evidence..with a few more Jags thrown in. (click the image for a bigger version, if available) http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b1..._hunter_02.jpg http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b1..._hunter_01.jpg http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b1..._jaguar_11.jpg http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b1..._jaguar_10.jpg http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b1..._jaguar_06.jpg http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b1..._jaguar_05.jpg How low can you go ? Part of a railing I understand. http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b1..._jaguar_07.jpg car bit by both strakes ! http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b1..._tcar_02-1.jpg |
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