bluetail

The were certain controllers at ISK of a particular vintage who took it upon themselves to provide sustinance for the long Moray Firth winter nights. All In-Flight staff were required to hold a vaild airside driving permit, issued by ATC and requiring a re-validation signature from ATC each year. Said driving permit would be endorsed by the venerable controllers using a primitive form of bartering. One signature = 1 x Dairy Cream sponge. I don't recall it ever failing. :E

I also recall when the fleet was bolt-holed to Lossie, additional rations would be provided for the demanding coach journey from ISK. All 8 miles of it! :suspect:

In terms of non-ration related stories, the one call that would send a shiver of dread around the Tower was "Aircraft returning with hung-up sonobouy". One prayed to any God that would listen that the skipper would perform the gentlest of landings, thus preventing the sonobouy from dislodging and spreading liberal amounts of ball-bearings all over the asphalt. There was thousands of the little bu66ers in each sonobouy and they would scatter for miles if it burst. I swear I have even seen OC Ops (can't recall his name) out in his little Metro scouring the runway for any trace of a ball-bearing.

Bag Man
 

Struggling to find a role....

If only.... we're fighting them off.

somebody say rolls

:hmm:

................With a deep fried Mars Bar in it!!!!!!!

YS

"It was in fact 18 hours, 2 prods, one of which was (I was told at the time) the largest offload ever from a Victor K2. 206 Sqn crew, A.M-J capt, Tony Banfield the AAR pilot."

You know I,ve allways wondered what you got up to on that trip, because I recall Eng Ops wanted to Turn It round, I saw the thing in after the trip but when we opened the back door the Stink was horrendous, so on the advice of the medics we put it U/S, the word we got on the line was that you just flew round and round the UK bored out your skulls
(By the way the stink was from the spare Thunder bucket down the back).

I wonder YS did you do any of the FI to ISK one hop jobs, after the war.

BT

Bluetail, I never implied that I flew on it, but I do know a great deal about that period. It was mounted as a proving flight. It had not been envisaged that the Nimrod would be refuelled in flight and although it was expected that everything would work for long enough it had to be demonstrated prior to operational employment.

The limiting factor for the length of flight was the oil system. Using the allowable consumption rates, the maximum flight time was fixed at ca. 18 hours. The proving flight was not "tasked" as such. The aim was to fly for 18 hours and operate the systems for extended periods throughout that time. If you think about what was being envisaged as the operational profile; 5 hours out, 6 hours on task, 5 hours back; then the boredom factor could be quite high.

Ah the heady mix of Racasan and OF14!, a potent recipe if allowed to mature for 18 hours. The Elsan was installed, not because the capacity of "normal facilities" was considered inadequate, but in case of failure of the "forward rest room". If the toilet jammed 1 hour into a 16 hour op sortie, it would be prudent to have provided a back up, however basic. It wasn't popular with the crews either.

After Corporate I went back to the day job. I don't recall anything about non-stop flights to FI. Not really sure why they should be considered necessary. Maybe someone else can provide chapter and verse on these.

YS

FI flight info on a previous thread here.

Orac

Bluetail and I are referring to post Corporate flights. The thread you have linked to refers to operations during the war.

Bluetail

Have just re-read your post. I do recall the FI-KIN operation, but had no involvement with it. I am pretty sure that we never did it the other way round though.

Is there anyone reading this who did FI-KIN direct and can provide details?

YS

I've never heard of anybody doing the FI-KIN in one hop. Well lets face it, you wouldn't want to and what would be the point!

Been there a couple of times and we've always night stopped at Ascention. Came back one year via Rio.........which was nice;)

RR

You are quite right RR, not a lot of point to it. But when did that ever stop 18Gp?

It may be that old age is muddling things, and if it did happen, it was a one off.

YS

YS
I'm sure your not muddling things up as before I went down there in Nov 84, I am certain there was a 120 or 206 crew that did the full Port Stanley to ISK in one go. Think some politician was onboard.
Our boss was plugged in behind a Herc on the trip back to Ascension for 40 odd minutes, if I remember correctly. Had arms like Popeye afterwards.
That was the same trip that we landed 6 ft short on the port undercarriage at Port Stanley, and all to allow us to pull off into the pan, rather than going to the end and turning round!
The hot brakes and holes in the flaps put pay to that idea in any case, and we had the afternoon off.
Brilliant flying down there mind you, looking at all the places mentioned during the war.

IIRC It was Exercise Southern Rain when the ac did the direct transit FI to ISK.

IIRC, the nonstop ASI-KIN effort was to fly one Michael Heseltime back to the UK following his visit to the islands as S-of-S for Defence.

Not sure if there was more than one nonstop trip during the 80's ???

RAY

It was Heseltine alright, but it was Pt Stanley to ISK direct, not ASI to ISK, and it was early 1984. I was down there on Sea Kings (another story) at Navy Point, we had to fly behind the S of S to make sure he didn't get captured by the Argies!!!!

If I recall the trip was done twice, each trip taking 17hrs odd, cant remember who the crews were though. There might have been a claim made about the longest ever operational trip once they got home so they could justify it for Heseltine, I can,t really recall.

On the Heseltine trip, I believe all the ground crew (even the Crew Chief) were kicked off at the last minute to allow Heseltines tribe get on (and no doubt a couple of Journo,s too) the groundies ended up getting home by Herc.

Small Spinner

Check your log book, I reckon it was "27, the flaps fix job took rolls of Speed Tape, still at least you stopped before the end.

BT

BT,

You are of course correct in that it was a FI-UK nonstop. Typo on my part I'm afraid.

But if the trip were only 17 hours, it would not stand a chance in the 'longest operational' stakes. I can recall doing 19 hours+ trips (and three AAR slots) in theatre; I am sure others did longer.

BEagle mate! If only what you said about water water everywhere was still true!! I think a lot of the the guys/gals would appreciate those days once more.:O

At least we have something to look at these days. Not that I enjoy flying over sandy !!!!!holes.
What did happen to the DCS? still havent seen one of the legendary items.
Whilst we're on the rations stories, just did a det out of a Dutch base in a sunny place, and the rations consisted of 13 Stews...nice....oh and water.

Ummmmmm, all day breakfast, Ummmmmmmm:E

Big Tutor

The sonobuoy sack was (and still is), filled with lead shot about the size of small ball-bearings

Yellow Sun

Allan Bone and CXX crew 6 flew Stanley to ISK non-stop in 18hrs
5mins with a nightmare Victor support tanking operation out of Ascension

Oh, for an AFC for trashing the Mess !

Happy days

I cannot recall, ever, eating a pie on a Nimrod ... a lot of other things, but no pies. Reindeer steak out of Andoya, barracuda tails out of Masirah, Maltese ham sandwiches ... best rations were out of Luqa...