Nimrod Gate Guard for Kinloss

On-going maintenance

It looks in great shape.

Let us hope that they undertake regular maintenance of the airframe and ensure that it doesn’t go the same way as ‘Saggy’ the Comet gate guard at Lyneham.

Very recent Pictures of the Kinloss gate guard. Taken by John Oborn.

Good luck with that one mate !

Nice to hear at least one MR2 Nimrod is to be kept and it will be the first. Perhaps we could get one down here at Mawgan as it as linked to the Nimrod as ever Kinloss was/is….and I know a man with a trailer !!

We had one ear marked for a museum at St Mawgan that I was putting together in 91/92 it was XV237. The museum idea was dropped with change of C.O. the Nimrod was scrapped along with others (Victor, Buccaneer, Wessex, Sea King, Harrier…etc) ………one of the reasons I started my little museum round the corner a few years later.
The Victor was nearly saved at the eleventh hour, but I had no room for it at the time and she too was scrapped. Broke my heart watching these aeroplanes destroyed, only the Harrier made it out alive.

However, I’m having another go at it as we speak with Newquay Airport (RAF St Mawgan) to resurrect the museum idea. If we get a green light, I’ll have another go at getting a Nimrod back where she belongs.

If it happens “gonna need a bigger boat!” [sic trailer]

Baz

That will be these two then

Love the sign on the second pic.. “No Dumping”, on a dump.? Bit like the sign in Essex directing you to the “secret nuclear bunker”.:D

The photo caption is incorrect. The picture is actually of Rab Forbes, the chap mentioned in the article – perhaps the corporal is the photographer as suggested above. Rab is a Sqn Ldr with an AE brevet.

……I didn’t think it looked quite right……:D

Which is what I thought all along……wrong title / rank to the photograph.

That clears that up then !:D

The photo caption is incorrect. The picture is actually of Rab Forbes, the chap mentioned in the article – perhaps the corporal is the photographer as suggested above. Rab is a Sqn Ldr with an AE brevet.

Nice to hear at least one MR2 Nimrod is to be kept and it will be the first. Perhaps we could get one down here at Mawgan as it as linked to the Nimrod as ever Kinloss was/is….and I know a man with a trailer !!

Looking at the photo of the “Cpl” with the model, looks to me like the chap is actually a Flt Lt or Sqn Ldr and it is simply a wrongly captioned photo. They don’t look like Cpl chevrons to me.

I think he is a corporal…..when I saw piccie I thought he looked like a WO…but a search of his name and Kinloss gives Corporal several times….I think it is a Loadmaster (LM) chevron.

I have been challenged by corporals for being inappropriately dressed when walking in my flying suit at two RAF bases (once for no rank epaulettes) and once for no hat/cap! The pilot with me on both occasions took glee at pointing out I am a civvy Trials Officer! (FTE):)

The Kinloss Shack never made it to the gate because no one could agree about who would look after it. It was a great shame because it had served with several of the squadrons. I did some research into Neptunes and found one with a Kinloss background but again, no interest at official level.

That will be these two then

Ahh! thanks at lot for that!

Many a fine summer (mid 70’s) spent in my youth playing in both of these fine aeroplanes. Had to sneak inside and hide when the MP’s did their rounds. When I was there, the MK 3 was the tool of choice as it was at that point relatively unscahted and still had a couple of engines and a a few propellors attached. Control columns in situ but no yokes. The MK 1 was also unburnt but not such a fine fit-out. I can almost smell the fine aroma of their internals from the photos. The MK 3 was always sitting on its tail due to the lack of a full complement of engines and it was so finely balanced that it was possible to lift the tail and get the nose moving!:eek: Elevator rods where cut, but it was possible to operate the elevators from around the aft door by pushing and pulling on the aft section of the pushrods.

Got caught by the MP’s one day and driven to the guard room with my mates where I had to sit and await my father to collect me when his shift finished……:diablo:

IIRC there was a second burnt out MK 1 nose left for a while and also a 2 seat Meteor fuselage there. Come to think of it there was also a classic Riley Pathfinder car and a very very old three wheel early car, the sort that looked like a horse drawn carriage with a small front wheel and engine underlsung on the dump too! Wonder what became of them?

There was so much junk on the dump back then, I wonder what treasures there might have been hidden, when seen through today’s eyes?

Memories. :):):)

Nice to hear at least one MR2 Nimrod is to be kept and it will be the first. Perhaps we could get one down here at Mawgan as it as linked to the Nimrod as ever Kinloss was/is….and I know a man with a trailer !!

Looking at the photo of the “Cpl” with the model, looks to me like the chap is actually a Flt Lt or Sqn Ldr and it is simply a wrongly captioned photo. They don’t look like Cpl chevrons to me.

The only corporal aircrew I remember hearing about was temporarily busted after sneaking into the WRAF block, that was in the 70s.

hmm, it’s not that then!

[QUOTE=pagen01;1443289]I can’t find the pic, but could he be a corporal photographer, I think the Nimrod is the only aircraft that regularly take up a member of the photographic section, or they did on the flights I had out of Mawgan. They used hand held Nikon F2s & FAs for use in the beam windows.[/QUOTE

No, definitely not. Photographers do not wear a brevet of any sort.

I’ve never seen a winged brevet on Corporal rank personnel before :confused: as shown in the picture in the article.

All flight crew ranks in receipt of flying pay were (or use to be) started at Sergeant rank on the aircrew career ladder.

Can anyone update me on this please?

I can’t find the pic, but could he be a corporal photographer, I think the Nimrod is the only aircraft that regularly take up a member of the photographic section, or they did on the flights I had out of Mawgan. They used hand held Nikon F2s & FAs for use in the beam windows.

Going off topic a bit here but seeing all these knackered old Shackletons lying around reminds of the time when Thorney Island was in it’s death throes in 1975 and I was part of the small remaining team winding the place up when the message came through that a Shackleton would be landing at TI and it was to be parked up and would I take a team of 3 to see it in and handle the crew etc. etc.
I know absolutely nothing about Shackletons by the way so this was going to be a novelty for me.
Anyway, it was a bright sunny day when this Shack landed and taxied to the dispersal. The crew got out and the Captain remarked that it was amazing ….nil defects to report….and he sounded so surprised! and off they went.
Now, as per normal nobody actually told me what this Shack was actually doing here and I thought it was a bit odd as T I was winding down completely, in fact, we were getting everything ready for the “Big Auction of Goodies” like one RAF Airbase and it’s contents!
Anyway, I was thinking what a nice old plane this Shackleton was and how nice it looked when suddenly a fleet of vans and trucks arrived with about 10 Men and this Guy gave me a document which said he had the right to this aircraft and whereupon they began to break the aircraft up for scrap. 😮
I drove back to ops with this piece of paper and sure enough it was all present and correct and I had to go back to this aircraft and stay with the people breaking this aircraft up for the duration which turned out to be about 2 weeks in the end.
For some unknown reason the Guy in charge slipped me £20 (lot of money then!) to take more tea breaks than you normally would……never did find out why he did that and I wasn’t go to ask any questions either.

( PS I only came onto this forum to talk about Comets. :D)

That will be these two then

WB847 a T4 was also designated for the gate but ended up on the fire dump at Kinloss

I’ve never seen a winged brevet on Corporal rank personnel before :confused: as shown in the picture in the article.

All flight crew ranks in receipt of flying pay were (or use to be) started at Sergeant rank on the aircrew career ladder.

Can anyone update me on this please?

……and to answer the question……I have never seen or known of an aircraft gate guard at Kinloss but this is not unusual really as for some reason very few operational flying stations actually had gate guards ( and I can name at least 10 operational RAF Stations off the top of my head that didn’t have them in place during my time in the RAF)

Any ex aircrew who have re enlisted are entitled to wear their brevets irrespective of present rank. At Cottesmore in the late 60’s we had a corporal who had been a wartime SNCO pilot and rejoined as AATC.

In my time at Kinloss there was a Shackleton MR3 allocated for use as a gate guard but it ended it’s life on the fire heap.