Found some old negatives I thought had gone many moons ago, these are not cleaned up and scanned by me, so quality is not that good, but the will give you an insight into the early years of the Chinook… Indeed the two metal bladers in the images where the only two Chinooks in service at the time, that is how early these are… They have never been published before so you are seeing them first 🙂
By: pagen01 - 26th February 2012 at 17:27
Cracking shots Tony, very evocative of that period of the RAF.:)
Chinooks always looked best in that three tone scheme to me:)
By: TonyT - 26th February 2012 at 17:04
Bob I was on the OCU on Wessex and Pumas before joining the Chinook part of the OCU just after they arrived, we were given the choice to remain on Puma, go to Benson with our Wessex or move over onto the Chinook when they arrived, I did the latter, however we took a Puma to Wattisham so it would have been prior to that date when I was still on Pumas.
By: Flygirl - 26th February 2012 at 16:41
Great shots .
By: Bob - 26th February 2012 at 16:40
Phntoms are definitley at Wattisham.
What year was it? I was probably there.
According to the date stamp on the shot of the tractor drivers it was 4/4/81…
By: Rocketeer - 26th February 2012 at 16:16
Lovely shots! Especially the queen of the skies – the mighty Chinook!
By: TonyT - 26th February 2012 at 16:00
Cooool !! longshot.
FoxVC10 possibly 77 to 80
Fieldhawk, I am going on the run, they will never take me alive.
By: davecurnock - 26th February 2012 at 15:39
Could do with the’Head and Shoulders’ treatment on the Chinook pics as well – or is that a dirty hangar floor I see?
By: longshot - 26th February 2012 at 15:20
A spot of ‘head and shoulders’ on the Phantoms and Vulcan (from a scruffy civvy :))
By: Fieldhawk - 26th February 2012 at 08:47
I managed to clip the revetments later on in Germany on 20 Sqn with the brush on the front of our tug and ripped the cylinder mounting off… Not having a licence at the time I drove it back and parked it up, was a simple weld repair, but you know the RAF, if found out I would have been shot at dawn for such an accident. 😮
Ah, found you at last, airman. Report to the Guardroom at 0900 tomorrow in your Best Blue. The Snowdrops are expecting you.
By: FoxVC10 - 26th February 2012 at 08:00
Phntoms are definitley at Wattisham.
What year was it? I was probably there.
By: RMAllnutt - 26th February 2012 at 04:58
These are fabulous photos… truly. While I love the aircraft shots, the one of the lads on the tug is absolutely priceless! Thanks so much for posting them.
Cheers,
Richard
By: hunterxf382 - 26th February 2012 at 04:36
Cracking photos – thanks for posting them and taking me back a few decades 😀
By: TonyT - 26th February 2012 at 03:19
Chinooks RAF Odiham, others RAF Wattishm I think.
By: Robert Edward - 26th February 2012 at 02:48
Please excuse my ignorance, where were these photos taken?
Robert M.
By: TonyT - 25th February 2012 at 23:56
I managed to clip the revetments later on in Germany on 20 Sqn with the brush on the front of our tug and ripped the cylinder mounting off… Not having a licence at the time I drove it back and parked it up, was a simple weld repair, but you know the RAF, if found out I would have been shot at dawn for such an accident. 😮
By: bazv - 25th February 2012 at 23:41
Ah yes the old Douglas tug…back in the early 70’s I was a rigger on 231 OCU (Canberras)…one of our a/c aborted take off and was stuck at the far end of the airfield,for some reason we did not have any qualified a/c tow-ers in that day and my Flt Sgt said to me – if you can tow that heap back without damaging it I will sign you up for towing !(OK :D)…result…no more station duties 😀 we just did duty tractor driver !!!
rgds baz
By: TonyT - 25th February 2012 at 23:27
Upper picture of the guys on the OCU on the tug left to right
Geordie Carr, Duncan Stoner and Pete Kavanagh, cannot remember the last one.
Picture below sitting on the Heli Start Landrover
Frazier McDonald.
By: bazv - 25th February 2012 at 23:23
Yes please…marvellous…can you name the ‘young men’ ??
Lovely pics Tony 🙂
By: TonyT - 25th February 2012 at 23:18
Mixed in with them were some images taken at a 56 Sqn families day we attended with a Puma
Have some more to scan in the future if you are interested.
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February 25, 2012 at 11:07 pm