Jag Shoot Down
 

There were other factors involved. Far from flying regularly with live weapons at the end of a generation exercise wiser heads recognised that the F4's weapons system wasn't exactly safe. Therefore after aircraft generation with confirmed serviceable Sparrow and Sidewinder systems the exercise stopped while live weapons were downloaded and acquisition Sidewinders and sim plugs fitted. On the fateful day the Station Commander for whatever reason skipped the downloads and launched the wing live.

The crew involved manned up late. They had both recently moved off base to local hirings and the recall plan did not reflect this. Another crew on local leave stood in while they were found. They scrambled soon after taking over and concentrated on coping with new unfamiliar Supplan Mike departure and arrival procedures. Beside the pulled cct breaker in the rear cockpit, armed aircraft were supposed to have the armmament master switch in the front cockpit immobilised with orange dayglo tape. It's 24 years ago but I'm pretty certain that the tape wasn't there. This is understandable as our armourers did not expect the jets to be launched live. They then met the Jaguar pair at Borkun (the largest POL in N Germany) at 1000' QNH and shot down No 2.

There was an interesting sequel. On the next generation exercise the CO decided to launch us again with live weapons to prove that we could operate safely. However there was a slight variation on the theme. Instead of mounting the usual autonomous LL CAPs. we were to survival scramble on vertical dispersal and carry out ML PIs under GCI control with the controllers chanting 'Check switches safe' at about 15 second intervals. These instructions were passed on telebrief to all HASs before the mass scramble. Unfortunately one crew were sunning themselves outside their HAS because an EOD exercise was going on inside. They manned up about a minute before the scramble and got airborne blissfully unaware of the plan. The R/T on Clutch was bedlam as everyone vied for handoffs to GCI, so spotting a VFR area below, the unbriefed crew stopped their climb and told Clutch that they were off to low level. Three aircraft behind them assumed that our heroes knew something that they didn't and followed them. The four then set up the usual LL CAP and spent a pleasant hour or so chasing sundry 2TAF aircraft around the N German plain. Apparently the CO was not best pleased at this apparent flouting of his cunning plan as he could see his smooth inexorable climb to ACM possibly checked. Of course it wasn't.

Some years later I met the Jaguar leader who became a good friend despite my, to him, dubious background. He told me that as they approached Borkun, Clutch reported a fast mover in their 12 o'clock so they widened to look for it. On roll out he looked back for his No 2 in time to see his tail fall off. He immediately shouted at him to eject which undoubtedly helped 2's decision making process as he was low and slightly confused to put it mildly. Incidentally that Jaguar pair eventually shared 3 ejections between them.

This sorry tale has a relatively happy ending. I fully second the remarks about what a good bloke and operator the pilot was. I too flew with him on the OCU as a student and later on the squadron. He left the service for a short while and then rejoined. He did in fact get his scraper and some time later was commended for an outstanding contribution to aircraft operations.

Hang on a minute, the taping up of master arm switches came about as a result of the phantom pilot forgetting to see the 8 !!!!!!! big missiles and a gun hanging underneath his aeroplane, same guy not reading the armament state of his aeroplane, and for all I know same guy's gung ho attitude causing him not the armourers to shoot down a friend:=

Trying to shift the blame even a small portion of it on to guys who sweat blood arming your mounts is quite simply out of order but sadly it is expected.:=

you might have guessed by now i was an armourer on phantoms and quite prepared to accept my share of a f*ck up if merited. In this case the blame lies solely with the trigger presser

Yes it would have been "P" of UCM fame. also remember "c" serving time by the aircrew crewroom for a couple of months.

I too was on 23 79/82 Are you the jockey who still owes me for a visit to tacky ton and a few extra red holes in his banner to ensure qualifying at Akrotiri:ok:

Remembering said incident very well, lets not get off track.

Mr McDonnell spent many hours designing sim plugs and aq rounds that simulate precisely what you should see from an armed aircraft when its carrying only training rounds. The eminent psychologist explained this very well at the CM.

And I agree, both guys were top chaps and did what they were trained to do. Just eternally grateful that the Jaguar pilot landed safely, albeit not as planned.

And it was quite clear that they meant no harm to the Jag mate because otherwise they would have strafed his parachute!

I am not getting off track. Sim plugs fit neatly into the palm of the hand and Aq sidewinders look nothing like live sidewinders, so that clears that bit up, the crew should have seen the difference on the walk round. For an unarmed ac the role state would have said Aquisition S/w either stn 2 or 8 and sim plugs stn 3 and or 7, the weapon state would have been blank but this A/c had the correct load of 2 sw on each i/b pylon and sparrows on 3,4,6 and 7 and a gun with 1000 rounds entered, so either the pilot was distracted when he signed the book or careless or more likely simply forgetful when actually in the air. It was implied that the whole accident wouldn't have happened had the plumbers put a piece of tape over the master arm switch as they should have done. HOGWASH it became SOP to put tape over master arm switches only after the Jag was shot down because it was patently obvious aircrew had the attention span of goldfish and couldn't remember seeing big pointy things hanging underneath their aeroplane and so needed reminding every 15 seconds or so. Once it became SOP I can never recall a single instance of the tape ever being omitted whether on excercise, QRA or any other occasion the plane was armed.

I have no doubt that the pilot involved in this unfortunate accident was a top bloke but it seems unfair to shift a share of his blame onto the guys who armed the aircraft when they were not at fault in the first place.

I thank you for interjecting the required shot of humour.:D

this is one event which really rubbed a lot of plumbers up the wrong way at the time. There was always going to be a certain amount of blame shifting after an incident like that and we seemed to cop an inordinately unfair amount considering all our bits worked and the guys on the ground did evrything as per. After all the missile did growl, it did go whoosh and the Jag jockey will vouch for it going bang.

I'll rephrase my remark

Mr McDonnell spent many hours designing sim plugs and aq rounds that simulate precisely what you should see in the cockpit whether armed or carrying only training rounds.

There could be no blame attached to the troops loading the missiles. And we all know how procedures changed after the event.

Have to correct you on the bodge tape. It was SOP to tape the master arm from Day 1 when we put the FGR2 on Q.

Out

Wonderful stuff..............keep it coming.....!!
 

These apocryphal tales and memories are fantastic..........
I have one.....

I arrived at MPA Officers Mess 'fresh' from the Tristar to grab a stiffner prior to settling down to my first tour in MPA on the 78Sqn Wokkas. Next to me at the bar drinking was a guy on his own. I said
'Hello mate - I'm blah who are you?'
'I'm Kenny Ev@@@@t he answered.
'You been here long?'
'No not too long' he replied.
'What do you do around the bazaars cos you're not the comedian' :suspect:
'No I'm a Phantom driver on 23 Sqn'
'When you due back then?'
'Today on the Tristar - the barstards are short touring me'.
'Why's that then?'
'Well they didn't like the low flypast I made at Saunders cos when I landed back here I was still wearing the HF aerial from the house!' :uhoh:

'That's why the flag flies when Seniors are visiting the house!!' ;)

Well I was 'kin impressed with that and there proceeded two months of unmerciful ribbing and p@ss taking of the 23 Sqn attempts at low flying during 'Firey Crosses'. This led to lots of low-ish wazzes of the 78Sqn hangar, leading to a magnificent inter-Sqn p@ssing contest, with lots of 'Wokka 23 re-joins' which hugely improved moral and gave everyone (including the blunties) a reason to live!!

Who could ever forget (esp 23 Sqn!) the dousing of the BBQ by Wokka firebucket!! :D

I bet the 23 Sqn exponents reading this still haven't fathomed how the Britania birds preferred occasionally to visit our 'Big Choppers' as opposed to their Phantoms when they arrived wide-eyed and soon-to-be legless at MPA........that's definitely need-to-know!!!!!:E

I presume that must have been a local SOP in that case, certainly not the situation at Wattisham until after the jag incident. We did use A/c armed notices in the side of the cockpit prior to the tape instruction but obviously these were removed on Q as soon as the a/c was accepted. I remember well the look of amazement on our chief's face when he was told that in future master arms were to be taped as part of the load.

From the plumbers perspective the bodge tape was always regarded as a bit of flim flam used to excuse the jag incident, . It was never accepted that the lack of tape contributed to the incident, what else were we to believe when taping the MA was not included on an OTR?and I still find it incredible that the jocky "forgot" he was flying an armed A/C, after all it was a fairly major slip of the mind!

SOPs at that time varied between squadrons at pre-grunt Wattisahm. On the superior squadron, 56(F) we were always meticulous with our procedures....

Not so the 'Crows'. Taxying in one night, I once saw one of their jets get airborne with sheets of flame coming out of the back end. Not just a/b, but something more. The crew staggered round the pattern and made a single engine landing. The cause? The alert state had changed from RS-something to RS-something else and the crew hadn't bothered to go out and recheck the jet. So when the hooter went they rushed off with the intake blanks still in. One was partially ingested, the other lodged in the intake duct.....

Another time I stood 'Q' for them during a handover, went out to the jet and was appalled to find all the pins and blanks still in despite the mandatory Q RS state. So declined to accept the thing until it was properly cocked. Much grumbling from the Crows' JEngO, but they finally sorted it after the DFC threatened to ring Neat MC and take them off state......

Wanquerres!

I remember the singeing chickens slightly differently being of the Red Eagle persuasion myself. Always regretting showing their QWI how to drop centre lines in deci after he somehow managed to "help" his groundcrew by waiting till on was refuelled before he broke it :O

This might be an opportune moment to reflect on the real cause of the shooting down of the Jaguar because the correct remedy has yet to be found. It is a very simple safety precaution that is inbred in those who regularly use live weapons that one never points them except at those targets one intends to do harm to.

Now the AD role has for decades blessed the act of contravening that basic rule by dictating to aircrew that they make all switches live in training and achieve a kill solution using the trigger to confirm a shot within parameters so it is surprising that not more inadvertent ‘kills’ have been achieved.

The main reason for the scarcity of accidental ‘kills’ is that air defenders do not normally train with live weapons aboard but, on occasions like Gulf War 1, they did so for an extended period. The difference then was that all training in theatre was conducted with live weapons and the crews remained aware.

The best remedy is to teach crews that they never select a weapon together with all the arming switches and press the trigger/bomb release unless they mean harm. For training purposes a better alternative than that currently used must be found that will still enable evaluation of the correct procedures.

Soddim - I disagree.

quite right!! As you say first rule of any live weapon handling. I know I have probably come across as over critical of the aircrew in my recent posts but having had that simple drummed into me from in my case the age of 11 I find it incredible that the pilot and to a lesser degree, much lesser degree in fact the nav forgt it was a live weapon they were pointing.

As to how to avoid his happening again, you won't while ever live weapons are carried on training flights, well at least not with 100% certainty.

I didn't mean to ruffle any feathers but blaming the absence of that little bit of sticky tape has ruffled a lot of armourers feathers for a long time.

It is a pity that if as everyone says the guy who fired the shot is a good guy he will be remembered for that one misake rather than something good. All I can say is that I am glad I didn't drop a goolie as monumental as that, but if I had I am sure I would have tried to wiggle a little bit.

Loved the F4, wish I had seen more of them "in anger" as I didnt get into the "sydney superspotter" mode of visiting ranges and more interesting places for piccies until after they left service.

Best ones I saw were the Alcock and Brown, the all black 111 Sqdn a/c and the blue a/c, which I think were both used by 92 and 74 sqdns.

Knucklehead
 

Knucklehead, check your PMs

jf

Dundiggin

Kenny & POD certainly received a huge wiggin - Mark Hanna had waxed the same gaff but avided washing line - fantastic photos - Only bit of an F4 you can see above the one storey gaff is the RWR aerial atop the fin! Mark - U are the Garcon - RIP!

Oi!
 

Soddim - Post #23

Actually - There is one shiny operational sqn at Coningsby.:p It is definitely not a 'phoon sqn :E (and the Q birds are detached from elsewhere)

You have to look at the date of that post, OCCWMF.

However, it is good to see 6 back and Coningsby reverberating once more with the sound of freedom.

Awesome.........!!
 

Hi Sadbloke,

Seems like an ideal time and place to post a piccie of le Garcon RIP pres de la maison......?? :E :ok:

Doh!:* :O Retract......

Hello
 

Just found this site by accident. Never knew it existed! This has brought back many memories of the F4. It was possibly the F4 that made me want to join the RAF, as I vividly remember watching the Simon Dee show when he went for a supersonic flight in one of the first Tooms to be delivered to the UK and I was awestruck. The thing looked like it shouldn't have flown at all. I arrived at 228OCU in '74 as an Nav Inst mech after training. The aircrew I remember are Middy Hopper (my mate married his daughter Liz), Nick Ireland, Bob Prest, Arthur Vine (I was strapping Arthur in once and he made the wry comment after watching some Luftwaffe Tooms taxy in that he'd been fighting the buggers 30 years earlier, I think he flew Tempests) and Mike Shaw who was OC at the time and I remember him as a very nice bloke.

The chief in charge of my line shift was the amazing Jock Hickey. Jock was one of the great characters of the RAF, they seemed to die out towards the end of my service. If I remember correctly he was banned from the mess for not wearing a tie in the bar. When his ban ran out he turned up wearing a tie and nothing else. Banned again. We used to chain the back mudgard of his bike to the bike rack so that we could see him come crashing off it after he'd gone 5 yards. Sadly I believe Jock died a few years ago.

Other characters I remember vaguely were Master Pilot Egan, who was taken up for a jolly in a twin sticker before he retired and apparently flew it like an expert. Which I suppose he was. There was an aircrew guy with a beard on 41 which I always thought odd, how did his mask fit? And another aircrew guy with an eye patch, which really fills you with confidence.

Also at the time Bob Prest was flying on the OCU, the hit 'Oh, We're Going to Jamaica' via coconut airways was doing the rounds, which of course led to him being dubbed Coconut Airways One by us. I don't think he appreciated it. We all thought that Bob had seen to many Bond movies as he used to pose around in a black TR6 and was never without his designer shades.

There were also a couple of US Marine exchange navs there at the time who were really great guys. One of them had been filmed doing a wheels up in an F4 somewhere in the states. The other guy had flown his twin sticker after the stude pilot had flaked out after pulling some ridiculous amount of 'G'. That was one bent aircraft when it came back. I believe one of the characteristics of the Toom was that it pitched up as it came back through Mach 1 and he was already heaving some as it happened.

CO's I remember were a guy called Allison, I think he was replaced by a guy called Clark who was a really nice bloke. I also remember one of the Wg Cdrs there was called Danny Lavender, maybe OC29? We said hello at some beer call or other and finished up spending the rest of the night talking about flying (I fly gliders and George Lee the then World Glider champ was a Toom pilot) Top bloke.

The F4 was a cogs and knobs kite, it was pre IC electronics which made it interesting to work on. You could actually figure out faults without plugging the bloody thing into a computer. I used to alternate between working out on the line where my main raison d'etre was to run up and align the INAS before the crew arrived, and working in the shed which was more interesting technically but not as much of an adrenaline rush as standing next to 2 speys when they are winding up and you are 'Man 1'. Some of the boxes were a pain to get to, I remember the rear bang seat had to come out if you wanted to change the Weapons Computer, and a lot of time was spent upside down inside the rear cockpit which was the only way to get at some of the stuff with any degree of success. The rate gyro's needed an enormous panel taking off inside the wheel well which was a real pain of a job. Another bad one was harmonising the ODU for gun shoots. There was a device called the BIL (Boresight something or other) which had to be fitted into the nose gear compartment. There were 2 bolts holding it place, the bottom bolt was easy to fix but the top one needed the fingers of a child to squirm through the pipes to get your hands on it. Sometimes the thread would just start immediately, other times you would be there for 15 minutes without any luck, grinding the skin off your hands. As a result, most alignments were done without the top bolt in place, so some of the ex pole stirrers here may now have a new excuse for not hitting the banner..........oddly enough, in later years I was at 30 MU, Sealand and my job was to refurbish and repair ODU's, including the little joke thing that was fitted to Navy Tooms, the OSA. You would have been better off with a chinagraph cross on the windscreen. So I suppose as I was the only guy in the RAF doing that job that most of the jocks here have at some time or other looked through one of my lovingly rebuilt masterpieces...!

Prangs I remember were the CO being killed just before I arrived. Hit a crop sprayer. Several jets came down during my time there but as I remember, all the crews banged out safely. One that springs to mind is a jet that lost it's outer wing, maybe in a mid air. One that I saw was XV415 that crashed after a roller. I was strapping somebody in and I glanced up as it lifted off, there was obviously something wrong as it was leaving a trail of crap behind it, then two parachutes appeared. I remember thinking that they must be dropping flares, you just never expect to see a plane crash. It slowly rolled and crashed into the Witham round about Tatty Bridge. Apparently bits of it came to rest in an old dear's garden and when the fire crews got there they realised she was as deaf as a post. 'An aircraft has just set your garden on fire' shouts head fire person into her ear, 'Oh, I thought I could hear the dog barking' says old lady.

I was there in '76 when the Queen came to visit, can't remember why now but it was that blazing hot summer and her plane was late. Guys were flaking out all over the parade ground because no one had the wit to stand everyone at the easy and relax for a while. As I remember a jock called Dave Roome was the officer who was standing right in front of me on the parade ground. He was trying to say to us out of the corner of his mouth 'Sway on your balls lads, keep the circulation going'. I whispered back 'Well if you're going to flake out sir, fall forwards not backwards because your scabbard is pointing directly at my balls.' Some of the guys were making soft farmyard sounds to try and set Dave's shoulders shaking but he stood stalwartly, defender of the realm.

Anyway, some great memories on here, glad to see the plumbers are still shirty! (would that be Graham Marriot perchance?....) It's about 5 years since I last poled a glider around, as something called Golf came into my life. Also my son lives in Oz now and the yearly trek out there cattle class is enough flying for anybody. But I would like to leave you with a little tale of synchronicity...Since leaving the mob some years ago I became a professional musician, yes you say, a natural progression from aircraft engineer, but I digress. I became aware of a custom guitar maker called Neil Morgan who makes the most superb instruments. I finished up getting to know Neil and have done the Wembley Guitar show with him. He's not a musician by trade, he's a senior 747 captain. Which I thought closed some kind of circle. Strange uh?

Right, now I must search out the Lightning and Harrier threads.:)

F4s + Coningsby
 

Thing - check your PMs!

Its a Small World
 

It all comes flooding back

Sebastopol
 

Someone mentioned the Sebastopol earlier on. It closed a few years ago but has now reopened if anyone's interested, they do an excellent steak and ale pie. I remember the Seb from the early 70's when Adrian and Pixie ran it. Adrian was an ex Sqdn Ldr and had the largest array of weapons I've ever seen hung up inside the pub. Every type of gun you could think of with it's attendant ammunition. Wouldn't do now of course but I have to keep reminding myself that this was 30 odd years ago.

Also does anyone remember Paddy Doran who ran the (White Hart?) at the end of the camp road? He was ex WO of the airmen's mess and had two gorgeous daughters one of whom I had the pleasure of escorting out at one time. What a dream that was, having a girlfriend who's dad owned a pub within staggering distance of your pit. The other pub I frequented was the Windmill, mainly because of the splendid landlady and the Black Horse in Tatt village, it being a motorbyke sort of place, and I was heavily into my bikes at the time. I can still smell the Autumn air riding back from the pub which started to tinge with burnt Avtur as you turned off the main road to the camp. Great days to be 18, own a fast bike, be solvent and have the whole world at your feet. Is it just me or was life more exciting back then?

Thing,

I enjoyed reading your piece. I must have been there at the same time, as student pond life, as I fondly remember all the names you mention.

I can't say I enjoyed 228 OCU as a stude, partly because it was very hard work and it took me a little while to get up to speed with the jet, but when I went back a few years later on the QWI staff I had a great time. I certainly don't miss all the cold war exercises from the time - running around in gas masks and the hooter going off at 2am every other week. However, I did enjoy the mighty F4. In it's day it was THE jet.

Stay well.

Fascinating post there Thing - this is a great thread for someone like me who has always loved the aircraft but saw it from the other side of the fence as it were.

When I was a kid Robert Prest's fantastic book was rarely in the library near my home and it was usually yours truly who was reading it over and over. I'm interested to know what the background to the book was, if anyone can shed any light? Did you guys all know that he was going to be publishing the book? Does anyone have a photo of the man himself?

It's a wonderful read and still one of the best books about flying full-stop I believe.............damn, I might just have to read it again now!

Thanks

Gareth

Mark Hanna
 

Some of the guys mentioned the late Mark Hanna in their responses.

I was lucky enough to go to G Del Colle with 56 Sqn on their exchange with the Italian F104s. My SATCO (Big Fat Moff) thought that as I spoke 'some' Italian, I could be of help to the sqn! Ali McKay (top guy), who was then OC 56 Sqn, thought that was a good idea, so off I went. Ended up being the ops clerk/assistant for the det and tried to help out where I could on the language front. The aircrew could not have been more helpful or tolerant, as I stumbled about trying to do the best I could. Anyway, I digress.

The last day of the det dawned and the F4s taxied out to depart back to the Wattisham. All proceeded to depart in fairly sporty fashion as was/is the norm with these things. One in particular sticks in my mind. The F4, piloted by Mark, came snorting across the pan, burners in, at v low level. So low in fact, that most of the jet was obscured from our view by the tails of the parked F104s in front of us! Those of you who are faimliar with the F104 will know just how small the tail is. Absolutely awesome, but had some the Italians jumping up and down in a mixture of joy and sheer fright!

Back at Wattisham, we were regularly treated to Mark flying the F4 with style. When an F4 departed RWY05 and at fairly low altitude commenced a perfect slow roll, it could only have been one pilot. The fact that he did it in an F4 in Delta fit made it all the more impressive!

Apologies for the slight thread creep here. I'm merely an air trafficker and rarely venture in to talk about the abilities or otherwise of pilots. But for me personally, Mark and his father Ray, were 2 of the finest pilots I have ever seen. Artists at work. RIP.

WJMcP

Hi
 

MAXBURNER

It certainly was a beast, I was never lucky enough to fly in one but some of my mate's had jollies. Apparently it wouldn't go supersonic in level flight with a SUU-23 fitted, did you have to go into a shallow dive? I remember stude aircrew getting chopped, one day they are there, the next they're not. Mind you, some of them were bloody hopeless. There was one guy I remember who couldn't even taxi the thing. Then there was the hero who decided max mil was the way to get the beast rolling on the pan. I could go on but I don't know who's reading.........:cool:

GARETH

Bob Prest was the son of a Nigerian diplomat I believe, I read the book when it first came out. It is well written I must admit, but as a non operator, I couldn't vouch for the accuracy of it. More than anything I think it captures that period quite well. I don't know what official reaction to it was, don't forget I was a lowly erk and not privy to those sort of things! If you weren't in the RAF then you have to understand that it was very much an insular job, in that we didn't really know what the aircrew got up to, and I suspect they didn't know what we got up to. Not for any other reason than it's pretty intense being a fighter jock, it's also pretty intense fixing them, the Toom shed was nearly always a 24 hour operation, the radar guys in particular working very long hours. You were too knackered for any sort of interaction at the end of the day, although there were always plenty of beer calls where you could get to hear a few flying stories.

WEE JOCK

Talking about 104's, I was in Decci on Harriers when the 104's were there and there was a tale, whether apocryphal or not I don't know, of the Italian sentry (God those buggers were poorly paid, they used to hang around us for beers in the bar) who was bored early one morning guarding a flightline of 104's and took a swing on the pitot tube of one. Of course he bent it, and Italian logic being what it is, he decided that if he bent all of the other pitot probes then no one would notice.......

Bent pitot heads
 

Not entirely apocryphal! My version is that it was F16s being ferried to Pakistan, night stopped in Greece. Bored sentry etc!

Thanks for the reply Thing - I'd be interested to hear if anyone else knows any of the background.....
Cheers
G

thing, good stuff, and I can add a few bits.

Arthur Vine's son used to fly Shacks at the same time, and I understand that it was a tad embarrasing for him to tell people, when asked what his dad did, that his father flew fighters!

Midi Hopper (nav) had a terrific scheme for avoiding FOD in the cockpit: he tied his pencils, protractors, rubbers, etc to bits of string which he taped to his helmet a la Oz cork hat. Looked amazing but not sure how well it worked.

Bob Prest's book, fun though it was, didn't go down very well with the navs, who get about 2 mentions in all. Good pilot, though. My dad employed and then sacked his brother, who then tried to sue for wrongful dismissal and lost.

The Phantom could easily go supersonic with the gun pod on, and with lots of other things on too.

Was your SATCO's first name I**? If so, he was a really good egg and air trafficker. I have often wondered where he ended up.

The Queen and Prince Phillip were at Coningsby in '76 to review 56's standard as the Squadron was reforming. After the parade Prince Phillip went to 41 Sqn first, where he wanted to change into his second No 1 jacket, it being more comfortable than the parade one. Unfortunately his aide had left that jacket on the aircraft so, while he sprinted off to get it, Phillip was chatting happily to the crews and twanging his braces. Later, in the OM (and you had to pay for the priviledge of dining with HM) we were all gathered up in the dining room and the sliding doors to No 2 Ante Room were opened to reveal the Royal Party about to enter. As they approached the dining room, HRH spotted a medal of some sort on someone's chest and shot off at a tangent to inspect it. HM huffed and said in irritation, 'Now where has that man gone?' They were both brilliant, by the way, spending quite a bit of time chatting to us spread over 2 ante rooms.

This reminds me of Princess Margaret's visit to Bruggen the year before. (Stop me if I have posted this before but I can't be bothered to look.) After the parade and aircraft and installations inspections, we repaired to the OM for drinks and lunch. (Did you know you had to pay for the priviledge of dining with HRH - 3 times in this case to include 2 practice lunches?) So there we were with our warm G&Ts and horse's necks (without ice as that was reserved for the wheels) waiting for the Big Entrance. The chief steward was also waiting, behind the scenes with a selection of spirits in crystal glasses with plenty of ice but the mixers still in the bottles to maximise the fizz - and, of course, the obligatory Chesterfield 100s (specially ordered, min NAAFI order 5000, apparently). Anyway, the Royal Party approached the bar door at which point the mixer bottles were opened, but one exploded all over the tray. Frantic cleaning up began as the Staish - unaware of this ghastly turn of events - turned to HRH and asked if she would care for a drink whilst gently waving in the direction of where the chief steward was supposed to be standing with his tray of chilled apertitifs. Shock, horror, there was nobody there, and a deathly silence descended on the room. Fortunately one of the stewards serving us was sharp enough to spot the CO's dilemma and flew across the room with his tray of warm drinks almost vertical, slopping all over the place. So the day was sort of saved but HRH was stuck with a warm, 45 minute old G&T with no ice until the pukka version arrived some time later. We didn't dare laugh - well, you remember who the Staish was, don't you? :=

Ok. enuff, enuff. You are all kids.
I claim XV431 as my own (although someone else was the ultimate unlucky one).
Anyone remember when that hooligan Harrier reversed into me in 1972? The verdict of the GCM was most unfortunate.
What became of the harrier person?
Blaireau's evidence cannot be trusted, by the way, because is he knows too much...

Had we actually recieved the developed P1154, this thread would never have started would it? Thank you so much, uncle Dennis!

fantom
You have just given the game away and I now know your identity. Didn't you end up flying for Henry Ford? Somebody was asking after you on this site a couple of years back. I remember the Harrier incident well, being based at Bruggen at the time. The Harrier pilot was ..................... well, I just won't go there. Actually he was a good pilot - except when reversing!

And I have a feeling that J.. W..... claimed 431 later as his display steed. Or 432. Probably the latter. He made K.... G......'s feet bleed once when he foolishly went for a ride in the back during a practice.

Golf
Good thread, though. Would the P1154 thread been as much fun? And would the aeroplane?

Simon Dee
 

Thing "quote"

"made me want to join the RAF, as I vividly remember watching the Simon Dee show when he went for a supersonic flight in one of the first Tooms to be delivered to the UK"

Interesting that you were inspired to join the RAF:ugh: after seeing the Simon Dee show. He actually went for a flight in an RN toom out of Yeovilton. In return he invited a number of Yeovilton personnel along to see the show and I was one of them. Good show, both Lulu and Cliff Richard appeared. However the plane made the show and kept me busy for many years afterwards.

Sharmine :ok:

Who in all seriousness joins the Navy? Oh....er....

Anyway, thanks for the heads up, it was just a big noisy aeroplane to me at that age and at 12 years old jets = RAF and boats = navy.

Funnily enough my cuz has just moved across to the Navy from the RAF. She's an ATC type and is marrying a fishead. She was married to an RAF jock but sadly that didn't work out, so she cast her eye seaward. I didn't know you could transfer between services like that. I know you can be attached but didn't know you could do the full cross dressing thing.

ZOOM

Middy was/is a great bloke, when me and my pal were chasing after his daughters he always made us most welcome. I can still see him sitting there in his dressing gown smoking his permanently lit Dunhills. He used to go to work on this bloody ancient moped, most incongruous.

SATCO? I was a jet techy. Didn't know any ATC folk. Wouldn't have spoken to them if I did. Apart from my cuz obviously.

F4 at MPA. 51°49'24.53"S 58°28'5.15"W Looks like they have adopted the unusual tactic of putting the gate guardian inside the main gate! That should confuse the Argies. Good looking facility by the way. Google Earth should give the Argie PIs something look at.

Thing
Regards from another instie Phixer.

Replaced many an ODU when at LEU - pain in the a... of a job. Two people needed to lift it into the cockpit! Same thing with the big bolts on the side of the ODU as the harm fixture, either they took a thread straight away or you were there for ages with cramp in your fingers/hands. And as for the AOA indexer on the 4K's, I was that man with the spanner (11/32" ?)tied to my ovie's. Heaven help you if you dropped it behind the instrument panel. Did it once, lesson learned. Pain definitely focuses the learning experience, PC brigade are definitely missing a trick in today's educational establishments.

Would have appreciated it if more of you growbags had tied your pens and pencils to yourselves. Too many hours wasted doing loose article checks. Also, couldn't you guys just admit you couldn't hit a barn door with a SUU instead of making us harm and harm again with the banner remaining the safest thing in the sky?

Worst job I had was finding and fixing a broken wire on the CADC connector that was causing the gunsight reticle to wander off when the radar locked up on the target for range. Two days upside down in the back LH bottom corner of the rear cockpit. Fun.

Newbie's always got the piss taken by making them jump up and down on the wing to get a signal out of the roll rate gyro when doing AFCS functions - could simulate a signal by wiggling the nose for pitch and yaw channels but no way could the weight of the average JT make an impression on the MLG oleos to simulate a roll disturbance.

It was a good aircraft to work on looking back. Cursed it at the time but it had great systems to learn your trade on. AFCS, AJB-7, INAS - all good analogue sytems that you could follow signal paths through and diagnose faults without trying to read a 32 bit data word or have the machine tell you what to replace.

Enough to bring a tear to glass eye .......