Who can forget working with Nimrods.
Late afternoon at St Mawgan back in the early eighties, a crew wander out to their aircraft for a training mission. The task was to rendezvous with a VC10 tanker due just off the Cornish coast in about an hour for an air to air refuel practice. This at the time was fairly new and novel for Nimrods, flying in such close formation with another large aeroplane so I guess the adrenaline was pumping too.
After the walk round the crew boarded their allotted aircraft and settled into their start up and pre-flight checks. Low and behold, the RADAR went tech. No worries, the crew disembarked and made their way to the next Nimrod on NLF and the procedure started all over again
The engines spooled up and after a few minutes run down as the crew found another snag. Things were getting a bit fraught now as the crew knew the VC10 was getting close and there was a possibility of the mission having to be ‘scrubbed’.
In a last desperate attempt the crew now ‘scrambled’ into the third Nimrod and racing through their pre-flights got airborne as the tanker passed through the overhead.
Climbing at full power and the VC10 now beginning to fill the screen the Nimrod suddenly slowed up and turned back for St Mawgan telling ATC they had another unservicability. They apologised to the tanker which by now was heading for home, then dropped into the landing pattern for runway 13.
After touchdown the aircraft taxied past ATC and it soon became apparent why the crew was reluctant to explain the nature of their unserviceability.
This particular Nimrod wasn’t fitted with a refuelling probe:)
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