Thank you gents:ok::ok: Presume the colour scheme was to aid formating on the tanker?

The Tornado F2 never had a Q launch so the answer there is no. The F3 was the first QRA pic

Intercept Patches
 

And if you were lucky enough to do 10, you got a 10 Bear patch I believe. One of our instrutors at CFS Valley, Ex 43 with the initials of N.A. owned one if I recall rightly.

DHI
Sparrows 80-83

Only 10?

Amateurs.........................

There's a 10 Bear tie as well.

Victors, when I was on them, took off from Marham not BZN (not as much fuel as VC10/TriStar).

I'll bet Mike Jenvey will have photos of him shadowing a Bear.

I'd have to check my log book, but I think I only saw 3 Bears up close although we saw lots of lights and things at 3am. I saw the Northern Lights more often than Bears as a lot of the transits were carried out in the dark.

Buccaneer too!
 

Don't forget the good old Banana Jet!! I don't have the photo out here, but someone must have a copy - taken I think during a JMC in about 1988. Marvellous!!

Current Position?
 

Is anyone still reading this thread? Lots of stories about TANSOR on Victors are about if anyone is interested. Go to "Were you ever on Victors" thread and ask!! Bob

Well if he's got such photos it's up to him (should he wish to do so) to post them.

"Why has that Bear got an emblem like a box spanner on the door? "... AEO: "That's the door emblem of the General in charge of an Air Army"

There was a long subsequent discussion (after a complaint) from the Russian embassy which cost us all our cameras ... well, all the cameras we (apparently) had with us. ;)

Jenvey didn't 'shadow' anything. On one occasion we were told to 'intedict' a bear.

Nobody could have accused Jenvey of thinking with 'the little head' - had they done so, they would've had to call him Einstein.

You may criticise Mike Jenvey for many things... but lack of balls isn't one of them.

There is a difference between 'interdict' and 'dick' Mike. ;)

MJ regretably is unable to respond to this thread, or any other, as he has been cast into cyberspace after a spat with the management.

If however he reads this :}, I enjoyed the beers at Huntingdon.

I was a Scopie at RAF Buchan in the early '60s and ISTR that the Q was Javelin FAW9 with a Hunter F6 backup. We also had Valliant tankers from Marham [I think]

I have checked back in my log book and can find no record of Dragonfly sorties with the Valiant, AAR was in its infancy then but we may have flown a few. I have plenty of Victor1, Victor2 and VC10 intercepts, often left on our own with the pointy one having gone U/S. Great fun.

I was on 23 Sqn from 1961 to 63 at Coltishall & Leuchars, when the alert state was referred to as the “Unmentionable” as the code words (shhhh! Halyard & Fabulous) were classified. We flew the Javelin9R, but IIRC the alert aircraft were never fitted with the probe, so tankers weren’t involved; later maybe?
On 43 Sqn (1969 to 73) QRA/IAF was quite busy. Would my 13 Badgers, 8 Bears & 2 Bison have qualified for the 10 Bear badge or tie had they been invented by then? If so can I get one now?

What did Halyard and Fabulous mean?

They weren't on Q but, along with the Fins, a couple of Hawks with snappers in the back met the Bear flight I was on. I don't suppose the (Oxford UAS?) Bulldog that we nearly trampled counts though?

I remember one day, late 80s I think, 8 Bear in one day. Did you need a door number tally to get 10 or intercepts with a pair counting 1.

Now on the 'Bear Hunters' I seem to recall we spent rather more time hunting than tracking :( although I still recall one sortie with an initial pickup at 200 miles and finally losing them at 220 miles almost 5 hours later.

Plenty of E-3D AWACS stuff

8 Bears in a day on QRA in an AWACS around 18 months ago (closest about 25 miles away - a few small dots!). I also have a nice picture of a Blackjack from the flight-deck of an E-3D during a nice "90" intercept (unsurprisingly the Blackjack had a bit more smash on than the AWACS - so it was just a fleeting photo opportunity!).

LJ:ok:

On the VC10K, our unofficial rule was that "No photo = no claim" by day and "No nav lights = no claim by night".

By 'photo', I mean one taken from the flight deck which would be of use to the spooks*. A couple of dots (or 8.....) on the horizon certainly didn't count.

Why not 'door numbers'? To stop people getting in the way of the QRA(I) fighter crews, of course.

Leon, a slack 90 behind a receding target? Has all the hallmarks of a classic Neatishead intercept......:hmm:




* particularly of the Sovs smiling and gesturing when we showed them the Sun calendar!!

We had a May once, he wasn't smiling of gesturing. He was trying to hand us off as he rolled in to us at 400 feet. He hadn't cleared the turn. Fortunately for all concerned he pulled and we pushed.

I remember [at Patrington....still an SAC Scopie] trying to tell the "Brass" that the "live Q" was the one on the Tanker.....not the three on the ground.... Eventually, they got the point :ok:...and I got a Rollicking :rolleyes:
"For not speaking up sooner"...that I was ignored, is beside the point.
Such is life....

PN, your drivers should ALWAYS assume that the target will manoeuvre at will and not get themselves into the stupid situation you describe.

Sitting ahead of the 3-9 line in a large aeroplane is asking for trouble - if the target turns towards, you need to be able to manoeuvre to lag him. Hamper his mission and you invite an embassy complaint.

Some people would get carried away when seeing the Sovs. Such as the self-authorising Vulcan captain who authorised himself to 'locate and identify ENEMY shipping' in 1978! Then came back with F95 overhead photos of Kiev (I think) which filled about 4 sequential frames. He had no idea of the JSP318 rules, it seems and charged in bull-headed. Fortunately his auth sheet declaring war on Russia was spotted and destroyed; he had a rather one-sided chat with a Flt Cdr after he got back!

You are of course quite right. It was a Rough old trip then, about the same year as your Vulcan captain. In this isntance we had already been jam in the sandwich between two May. One had then left was we eased in on the wrong side for more piccies. You should have heard the RT :bored:

On Kiev, or an other ship, we were allowed 3 passes. Once of our wet men had gone to the brand new Sea King and they went out stooging around Kiev. They made the 3 standard passes too but they changed film on each leg.