by Nick Anderson | Oct 23, 2024 | Plane Tales
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My logbook tales continue and after 5 months without an income the bucket of shekels I had to keep us afloat was starting to run dry… I could see glimpses of the bottom. Luckily the mortgage on our modest 2 up, 2 down, 250 year old, Scottish stone, terraced cottage at Leuchars wasn’t excessive and we had pared our living expenses down to the bone. The sniff of some flying work for British Aerospace down at their factory at Warton, however, was very, very welcome.
RAF Warton during construction in 1938
The TSR2 and Panavia Tornado, both built at Warton
The Eurofighter Typhoon, soon to begin construction at Warton
The F3 Tornado in weather
The BAe Hawk
The Joint Tactical Information Display System
An F3 Tornado with a towed decoy
A Monarch Airways Airbus A300
Images shown under a Creative Commons licence with thanks to the RAF, the MOD, British Aerospace, British Aircraft Corporation, the USAF, the USN, DoD and Monarch Airways.
by Nick Anderson | Oct 9, 2024 | Plane Tales
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Stories from my logbook continue with the last few weeks of my service career, which were a blur of form signing, return of equipment, formal dinners, informal parties, speeches and gifts, all accompanied by feelings of regret and excitement at to what my future held. I flew my last flight in an F3 leading a 3 ship out over the Scottish highlands and then, after everyone had landed, I beat up the squadron low and fast. I then planned to do a low, slow pass with a full burner pull-up into the vertical…
My full burner climb ended ignominiously when one reheat failed to light!
The mecca of all things truckie! Brize Norton.
The horrors of learning Morse Code!
The Campaign Against Aviation
The PA34 of British Aerospace which I flew at Prestwick
Finally, the proud holder of an ATPL
At last, the sniff of a job!
Images shown under creative commons licence with thanks to the MOD, the RAF, the CAA, Chris Lofting and BAe Systems.
by Nick Anderson | Aug 27, 2024 | Plane Tales
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Log book stories still abound but I’m now on the last volume of my small collection of RAF Form 414s. Unbeknown to me back then, my time in the Air Force was fast coming to a close. When I was offered the job on the Tornado it was on the understanding that I would serve an additional year to amortise the cost of training and I was now in coming up to the completion of my term of service, 19 years or aged 38 which ever was longer. If I signed on again it would be to age 55. What’s more, I needed to make up my mind as the RAF wanted 18 months of notice of my decision… would I stay or leave.
The F3 Tornado
He used a mixture of chicken entrails, throwing bones and gazing into his crystal balls to tell me my fortune
With their glory days behind them the young guns often treated Specialist Aircrew with scant respect and as their skills grew tired and their experience became tarnished with age they sometimes had little to offer but old war stories
The KC135 equipped for probe and drogue refuelling
RAF weather colour codes
My ATPL study books
An F3 equipped for QRA
The result of a midair collision
Images under Creative Commons licence with thanks to Ronnie Macdonald, Mike Freer, Trougnouf, US DOD, Mike McBey, Defence Imagery, the RAF, the MOD, the RAF Air Historic branch, the IWM, J Thomas, Midjourney and Adrian Pingstone.
by Nick Anderson | Aug 27, 2024 | Plane Tales
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In the words of it’s benefactor, “It has been described as the most exclusive Club in the world, but the entrance fee is something most men would not care to pay and the conditions of membership are arduous in the extreme.” Other clubs that sprang up during the World Wars are more a measure of the bravado, luck or good fortune of its members to make use of an aircraft’s emergency survival equipment but the club I will tell you about today is one that honoured the grim stubbornness of its members to overcome the pain and disfigurement of their injuries with stoical good (if rather dark) humour. The Guinea Pig Club.
The badge of the Guinea Pig Club
McIndoe
McIndoe and his patients
Images under Creative Commons licence with thanks to the RAF, East Grinstead museum, the Library of Congress, the RCAF, the IWM, the RAF Benevolent fund and the Queen Victoria hospital.
by Nick Anderson | Aug 27, 2024 | Plane Tales
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My logbook tales continue with my tour on Tremblers flying the F3 Tornado which had got off to a difficult start when our compliment of brand new aircraft were shipped off to other squadrons and, in return, we received the dregs of the RAF’s Tornado ADVs. They certainly weren’t in the best of condition and I began to think I was fated when I was forced to divert following a generator failure and X-drive clutch failure on an air test but then I was looking forward to leading a detachment down to Coningsby to fight F-16s over the North Sea in the Air Combat Manoeuvring range for a week.
The British Aerospace North Sea ACMI served UK and European Air Forces
Tremblers formate on the RAF’s new E3D Airborne Early Warning aircraft.
An F3 Tornado fires an AIM 9 Sidewinder missile
A piper plays at sunset
A 100 Squadron Hawk trainer
An F3 on approach
The K2 Victor Air to Air Refuelling tanker trailing all 3 hoses
Italian firemen hose down a Tornado canopy as it was too hot to close properly
The F3’s single Mauser 27mm cannon
The golfer Tom Kite playing for the USA in the Dunhill Cup at St Andrews
The Royal and Ancient golf club at St Andrews beside the 1st tee and the 18th green. In front is the historic bridge built for herders over the Swilken Burn
Images under Creative Commons licence with thanks to the RAF, the R&A golf club, BAe, Mike Freer and Optograph.
