Leuchars memories
Wow. How did you remember that? As it happens, the helmet and the sonic painting on it still exist. I have just taken this picture of it for you...
I should add that it was painted for me by the 43 Sqn SQINTO, Andy White. It's in poster paint so no harm to the helmet, but bloody difficult to keep it on there all these years!
Very sorry about the inacuracy regarding the fire crews attending to XV436. Sometimes I may have, inadvertantly, filled in some blanks with a little artistic licence. I thought my version was rather good, but the truth actually makes just as good a story. I shall make an addition to the tale soonest.
Thanks all for the kind words.
Courtney
I should add that it was painted for me by the 43 Sqn SQINTO, Andy White. It's in poster paint so no harm to the helmet, but bloody difficult to keep it on there all these years!
Very sorry about the inacuracy regarding the fire crews attending to XV436. Sometimes I may have, inadvertantly, filled in some blanks with a little artistic licence. I thought my version was rather good, but the truth actually makes just as good a story. I shall make an addition to the tale soonest.
Thanks all for the kind words.
Courtney
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Wow. How did you remember that? As it happens, the helmet and the sonic painting on it still exist.
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Seeing Sonic reminded me of a certain pilot on 43 who was determined to get his 3C painted white, however. SNCOIC flying clothing was having none of it.
Week after being re-buffed by aforementioned Sgt, a BLACK, with silver stars Mk1a helmet was spotted being worn by the pilot. Upon landing, it went straight into his helmet box in flying clothing till next sortie.
This went on for a couple of days till SNCO spotted it, and we were told to get his 3C sprayed white
I also have memories of sitting in canvas backed landrover on the Eastern ORP waiting for that last chute.
One night a Victor arrived for Q duties but instead of dropping chute it stuck.
On F-4 or any other 2 jet this was no problem. Grab drogue and pull. Normally this released the beast.
Little lass in ATC came on storno and asked us to pull chute free from Victor.
We were polite in our refusal.
Week after being re-buffed by aforementioned Sgt, a BLACK, with silver stars Mk1a helmet was spotted being worn by the pilot. Upon landing, it went straight into his helmet box in flying clothing till next sortie.
This went on for a couple of days till SNCO spotted it, and we were told to get his 3C sprayed white
I also have memories of sitting in canvas backed landrover on the Eastern ORP waiting for that last chute.
One night a Victor arrived for Q duties but instead of dropping chute it stuck.
On F-4 or any other 2 jet this was no problem. Grab drogue and pull. Normally this released the beast.
Little lass in ATC came on storno and asked us to pull chute free from Victor.
We were polite in our refusal.
Leuchars! Great base to operate SAR from. Especially when 'formation' flying gave us real trade! The St Andrews Cross event was my first (out of a grand total of 2) 'real' (military FJ) 'wet' recoveries, in 13 years of SAR.
“The Black Arrows Crash”
“The Black Arrows Crash”
Three lessons there, Thruster. Never let an exchange pilot into your super aerobatic display team. Don't do displays unless you ARE a super aerobatic display team. If you want a job doing properly at Leuchars, give it to the Fighting Cocks to do.
............and thanks for all those friday night 'yam sings'.
I quite enjoyed the happy hour when harry staish gave us all permission to 'dismantle the bar', prior to its refurbishment.
After about 10 minutes of mayhem someone thought it would be wise to turn off the electricity and water!
I quite enjoyed the happy hour when harry staish gave us all permission to 'dismantle the bar', prior to its refurbishment.
After about 10 minutes of mayhem someone thought it would be wise to turn off the electricity and water!
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Never made it to Leuchars during my service career, however did visit it once
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Yes
This one, we went to one of the airshows many moons ago... It was sponsored by a brewery and there were freebies everywhere.... My liver and kidneys still remember it well
This one, we went to one of the airshows many moons ago... It was sponsored by a brewery and there were freebies everywhere.... My liver and kidneys still remember it well
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SAD RETURN TO leuchars
My memory has been shown to be defective earlier in this area so forgive me fellers but,
I think a verry distressed ex BA Captain returned to his boyhood RAF watching place to kill himself after a sad event et Heathrow
I flew to Heathrow under similar circumstances many times and had much sympathy with his situation
Is it perhaps indicative of his desire to return to happier times that he chose that place to end it all
I think a verry distressed ex BA Captain returned to his boyhood RAF watching place to kill himself after a sad event et Heathrow
I flew to Heathrow under similar circumstances many times and had much sympathy with his situation
Is it perhaps indicative of his desire to return to happier times that he chose that place to end it all
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The night the Sidewinder took out the Eden
It was a dark, windy and wet night in the mid 70's (weren't they all) when the 'Hooter' went for an exercise.
Outside the line office on 111 Sqn were at least five, fully fuelled, fully armed Phantoms crewed in with their engines running.
I went to open the 'line door' to go out when this exteremely loud and painfull 'whoosh' attacked my eardrums accompanied by dense smoke, I went back in and closed the door expecting the world to come to an end. On collecting my thoughts I went back out to see if anyone needed help. Fortunately no one had been hurt but the FLM that had just carried out the 'Growl Checkl' on the Sidewinder that had fired was in shock, the pilot wasn't too pleased either. The missile had bounced on the airfied, just missed a Tanker and ended up in the Eden. The 'Press reports' were a little different.
Outside the line office on 111 Sqn were at least five, fully fuelled, fully armed Phantoms crewed in with their engines running.
I went to open the 'line door' to go out when this exteremely loud and painfull 'whoosh' attacked my eardrums accompanied by dense smoke, I went back in and closed the door expecting the world to come to an end. On collecting my thoughts I went back out to see if anyone needed help. Fortunately no one had been hurt but the FLM that had just carried out the 'Growl Checkl' on the Sidewinder that had fired was in shock, the pilot wasn't too pleased either. The missile had bounced on the airfied, just missed a Tanker and ended up in the Eden. The 'Press reports' were a little different.
Tinribs, that is correct:
1991 | 1236 | Flight Archive
Pilot in near miss found dead in car - UK - News - The Independent
From an earlier PPRuNe thread: http://www.pprune.org/aviation-histo...e-story-2.html
Very sad indeed.
1991 | 1236 | Flight Archive
Pilot in near miss found dead in car - UK - News - The Independent
From an earlier PPRuNe thread: http://www.pprune.org/aviation-histo...e-story-2.html
Very sad indeed.
Last edited by BEagle; 25th May 2012 at 12:00.
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What an incredibly sad tale.
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SHAR Mk1 in 1982 'bowing' to a bus crossing the western end, somehow manages to connect with barrier [Not RHAG] and is brought down rather abruptly.
Pilot had a a hat off chat with OC Ops
Pilot had a a hat off chat with OC Ops
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Met briefing one gloomy morning in 1963 by a very long term resident forecaster:
"Good morning gentlemen, HAAR today, gone tomorrow; any questions?". Wg Cdr Flying asked for more details, but got none.
Not apocryphal, I was there.
"Good morning gentlemen, HAAR today, gone tomorrow; any questions?". Wg Cdr Flying asked for more details, but got none.
Not apocryphal, I was there.
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winder in the Eden
I was on the starter crew for this incident. We had worked through the full controls and had checked the winders but couldn't get a growl on the left inner no matter what we tried, so we just carried on. The Nav had tuned the sparrows and everything else was OK apart from this one winder. The rain had been incessant and I was now soaked as was my man B but we could only afford to replace one of us so my pal Colin came out to relieve me. I shouted to him about the winder and gave him the torch and walked into the line hut about fifty feet from the arse end of the aircraft still with both engines going, and had just put tinder box to baccy when there was the loudest instantaneous noise I have ever heard and a huge cloud of white smoke completely enveloping the aircraft. After I had let go of the ceiling where I and the rest of the engineers had leapt, I saw spiraling out into the darkness what was obviously a missile but at the time we didn't put 2 and 2 together and judging by the huge amount of smoke we all shouted "Sparrow launch" and I was convinced my best mates had just been vaporised by the blast. I watched as the missile hit the edge of the runway and bounced across the concrete to vanish into the night. I ran out to the aircraft and vaulted up over the Fletcher once I had seen that my two buddies were OK. I helped a very shaky pilot out once he had shut down, but the Nav wouldn't get out, he sat in the gloom of his cockpit with hands out saying he hadn't done anything over and over. We got his seat pinned up and after assuring him that the crew chief was OK, the pilot and I got him out and onto the ground by going down over the right Fletcher. The aircraft was roped off instantly and was then taken to a small shed behind 43 squadron where it stayed for weeks while the investigation ran its natural course. I wont go into the result as its water under the bridge, but I and my two friends escaped death that night. Funny thing was that for the rest of the time on Phantoms we crew chiefs continued to to test the sidewinder by standing in front of it and shining the IR source pen torch at it!! Some things just never change but we linies just got on with it and I wonder what might have happened if I or Colin had been killed?
Spook
Spook
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QRA eject, eject
Many memories of my 8 years on 111(F) flight line from 1973 to 1982 some funny like the time we pressurised the 892 flight line box they used for flight docs. We were ground running one of our jets and had to use one of the wavy navy slots and because of the wind direction had to park it with the rear pointing at this box, but as it was only an idle check we were not too worried but the pale faces of the matelots staring at the fumes from the big jet didn't look like they agreed. We were almost finished when 'brooksie' the guy on throttles said he was going to give the engines a 'blip' and as I was on head set I advised him that it might not be a good idea. Anyway he nudged the rpm up to about 85% to shut the bleed valve and then the engines gave a huge roar and the nose leg compressed as the burners went to min' and I watched fascinated as the door on the box blew in and in an instant of time the windows bulged out and then exploded and half a dozen gassed seamen came staggering out as brooksie innocently said a quiet 'oops' and shut down before incurring the wrath of the engineering tiffy who quite rightly wanted brooksie stuffed and hung from the nearest yard arm. Ho hum lacker day.
The ejection was bizarre.
We had loaded the Q3 bird on the point, an area just to the right of the Q sheds and ready for the weekend once the runs were complete, so we got the crew out and started up. The left engine started as normal but the right was misbehaving and apart from clouds of oily hot fuel rich smoke, it would not fire up. We tried three times and with each try I could hear the pilot, Flt Lt RS getting quite excited which was unusual for him as normally he was one of the more pragmatic of the pilots and an old hand at this. We had to let the GTS cool down for a bit after 3 false starts and after thumping bits with a hide face hammer and tweaking electrical plugs we had another go, and this time it fired first time. Well, it did for about ten seconds when there was a huge explosion and the turbine decided to come off. Bits of red hot metal spattered the ground followed by some very pretty flames which then took hold in the engine bay so I told the pilot to shut down as we had a fire when to my horror I heard him tell his Nav to prepare to eject. 8 rockets and 23 thousand pounds of avtur and he was going to eject. I 'asked' him to please not do so as i could see the blue flashing lights of Cuthbert, dibble and grub chugging along the taxi way down by 43 squadron. By now the fire was a good'un and we were scampering about trying to find more extinguishers plus the Q crew had run out to give us a hand especially as both of us were now coughing badly having breathed in burning kapton wiring and extinguishant. Had he and his Nav ejected we would have had two very heavy canopies thudding down around our ears, the flames from two rocket packs, followed swiftly by two spent ejection seats not to mention the possibility of 8 rockets going up or more accurately out and a complete aircraft of fuel, plus two full Fletchers being prised open by the seats and going up....doesn't bear thinking about does it. Again, we just got on with it as befits the FLM's
Spook
The ejection was bizarre.
We had loaded the Q3 bird on the point, an area just to the right of the Q sheds and ready for the weekend once the runs were complete, so we got the crew out and started up. The left engine started as normal but the right was misbehaving and apart from clouds of oily hot fuel rich smoke, it would not fire up. We tried three times and with each try I could hear the pilot, Flt Lt RS getting quite excited which was unusual for him as normally he was one of the more pragmatic of the pilots and an old hand at this. We had to let the GTS cool down for a bit after 3 false starts and after thumping bits with a hide face hammer and tweaking electrical plugs we had another go, and this time it fired first time. Well, it did for about ten seconds when there was a huge explosion and the turbine decided to come off. Bits of red hot metal spattered the ground followed by some very pretty flames which then took hold in the engine bay so I told the pilot to shut down as we had a fire when to my horror I heard him tell his Nav to prepare to eject. 8 rockets and 23 thousand pounds of avtur and he was going to eject. I 'asked' him to please not do so as i could see the blue flashing lights of Cuthbert, dibble and grub chugging along the taxi way down by 43 squadron. By now the fire was a good'un and we were scampering about trying to find more extinguishers plus the Q crew had run out to give us a hand especially as both of us were now coughing badly having breathed in burning kapton wiring and extinguishant. Had he and his Nav ejected we would have had two very heavy canopies thudding down around our ears, the flames from two rocket packs, followed swiftly by two spent ejection seats not to mention the possibility of 8 rockets going up or more accurately out and a complete aircraft of fuel, plus two full Fletchers being prised open by the seats and going up....doesn't bear thinking about does it. Again, we just got on with it as befits the FLM's
Spook
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all aboard the skylark
Leuchars Mid 70's 111(F) Squadron
So there we were ground running yet again but on our own flight line so we could get the revs going if we needed to. But whats this? The 892 Commodore has parked his very expensive Yacht thingy outside the facing doors of the Navy hangar but its quite a long way off so it'll be OK. Hmmm says I not sure about this. Ah be alright on the night says B......... and after doing all the nozzle settings at X5 and X6 we got the nozzle stable and gave it some. Next thing a panicky shouting over the headset as the shiny varnished roof of said Yacht goes flying, looking like expensive matchwood, followed quickly by other sundry items as we pressurised the inside of said boat. Shut down, climb out say nowt. Many many phone calls from enraged Commodore but he didn't park his toys there again. It was a military airfield wasn't it?
Spook
So there we were ground running yet again but on our own flight line so we could get the revs going if we needed to. But whats this? The 892 Commodore has parked his very expensive Yacht thingy outside the facing doors of the Navy hangar but its quite a long way off so it'll be OK. Hmmm says I not sure about this. Ah be alright on the night says B......... and after doing all the nozzle settings at X5 and X6 we got the nozzle stable and gave it some. Next thing a panicky shouting over the headset as the shiny varnished roof of said Yacht goes flying, looking like expensive matchwood, followed quickly by other sundry items as we pressurised the inside of said boat. Shut down, climb out say nowt. Many many phone calls from enraged Commodore but he didn't park his toys there again. It was a military airfield wasn't it?
Spook