. . . and finally, guess what! This is my favourite from last year. The number of times I’ve seen Canberras taxi out, well, this pic, for me, brings it all back. :rolleyes: 😀

Don’t usually do this but there’s a whole lot of Spits and stuff here. This was at Cov last year and as it’s not usual for me to take pics of a fan driven this one of SallyB is one of my “favourites” from this year’s bunch. Looks even better at 1280×1024 in full-screen.

Hi John

Hi Les, island trogger yourself!

Mmmm. . . reckon you’ve trogged more oggin than wot I have! A certain Haystack comes to mind! :rolleyes: 😉

51 Squadron Comet 2 arrived El Adem unannounced late one night, flying over Nassers Corner, Egypt, radar jamming, accompanied by two Canberras. . . . Do you recall this incident?

51 Sqn? Never heard of a 51Sqn John, never heard of ’em! And I’ve definitely never heard of any of their aircraft (which I’ve never heard of either!) doing stuff over Egypt. And most certainly have never heard of any Comet coming back to a Huntingdonshire base with it’s legs down. Anyway, when are you ever gonna return the Canberra u/c ground locks that were definitely not left at El A? :rolleyes:

Hi John

Good to see you still here too. A “yes” from me then, as you probably knew already.:rolleyes:

Mostly Canberras for this ex-rigger, nukes on 3, “secret squirrels” B.6Rs (51). Also Haystack and Comet (51), Jet Provosts (2FTS), Bassetts, and Devons (26).

And, as with yourself, many happy times on Staging Flights – VC-10s, Belfs, Alberts, Brits, Victors, etc. No choppers though, thank the gods :D, except those “passing through”.

As with JohnC, from my own past. . .

1. Canberra B(I)8, most graceful looking nuke bomber in the skies of its day 😎
2. Hunter, simply looks right…at any time on the deck or in the luft
3. EE Lightning, pure power
4. F-4 Phantom, awesome machine in all its variants
5. Buccaneer, in pink, grey or camo, king of low fliers
6. Comet 2C, elegant
7. VC-10, the way home from overseas bases :rolleyes:
8. Brittania, “whispering giant”, “sticky brit”, last of the “airliners”
9. Vulcan, “tin triangle”, only the Brits could get away with such a kite 😉
10. Nimrod, only the Brits could get away with such a kite and make it work

And, generally . . .

1. Spitfire, because. . .
2. Hawker Hind (or Hart)
3. Beaufighter,
4. P-51 Mustang
5. Mosquito
6. F-86 Sabre
7. TSR.2 (was there a TSR.1?)
8. Lancaster
9. Anson
10. Harvard

At last, a story I actually watched! 😀

I was at Geilenkirchen on 3 Sqn (Canberra B(I)8s) at the time. Our hangar and pan was next to the Javelin mob – 11 Sqn – with the other Javelin mob – 5 Sqn – further up the camp.

I was out on 3 Sqn’s line the day the Jav toasted and well remember that the screeching roar of their usual start-up seemed to be going on much longer than usual. Such things were not uncommon with the Javs so we expected to see the 11 Sqn blokes rushing around with CO2 and damping small fires with their berets – as you do :rolleyes:

This time though, it got out of control. Our line chiefy (and others) rushed out to see and we were told to get our Hannomag tractor and Landrover down to 11 Sqd sharpish to assit dragging other Javs and ground equipment (oxy bottle trolleys, air bottle trolleys, etc) out of danger. There was about 50ft of grass area between 3 and 11’s pans so the Hannomag driver elected to drive over that; the Landrover was out at our B(I)8s though with an oxy-trolley attached. We unhitched our oxy-trolly and five or six of us jumped in the Rover and set off for 11 Sqn. As we were out on the pan it was easier for us to drive down via the peri-track though. When we got there the 11 Sqn blokes were pretty much doing a great containment job and directed our Rover to their oxy-trolley. The rest of us mucked in moving blanks, covers, and stuff out of the way. The Jav was well away by now but the Fire Section had arrived and was containing it. Lots of purposeful rushing around – there was a “plan” for such events – until the crisis was suddenly over.

Took about 10 or 15 minutes as I recall. The stricken Jav (with training Firestreaks attached) was a sight to see. But I do recall the pilot and another ground-crew bloke kneeling by the prone nav right next to the burning Jav until the Landrover ambulance arrived. I always thought the nav had broken his leg and passed out from the pain, but there you go, it was nearly 40 years ago. Did hear afterwards though that the pilot (said Wingco) had put in the F700, “Flight aborted due to stater fire and associated damage.” The story cited at the link reads better though. 😉

An exciting morning that was. And our Hannomag? Our tractor driver had forgotten about the deep drainage ditch between the two pans. We all got back to our line to see our tractor unattended and nose deep in this ditch. Took us about an hour to get it out using a doubled length of chain and both of the squadron’s Mageirus Duetz 3-tonners. Got well b0l0cked for that, as we did when MT went ape about the burned canvas top on our Landrover. :rolleyes:

Flood

Without wishing to pre-empt David Burkes answer they all look like Harrier varients.

Ah, I see. Well, OK then, they were coming in just as I was going out. And here was me getting excited that somebody else knew about training Cranberries. :rolleyes:

Sorry David, wrong call. 🙁

Regarding trestling aircraft in a level position. This is usually only done when there is need to have the airframe in its normal “flying” attitude to enable flight control measurements and set-ups to be carried out – it is termed “rigging position”.

Cabling, flying wires and a lot of other stuff can only be “set to the book” whilst in rigging position. Undercarriage retraction tests are (usually) carried on with the kite in rigging position. Aileron and elevator droop is adjusted in this position. Now, getting an aircraft into rigging position can be a long and frustraing job (try it on a Vulcan or VC-10!). Each of the three jacks has to inched up or down so that spirit levels, set a right angles to each other, have exactly centred bubbles. The VC-10 has a datum plate mounted inside the nose wheel bay over which is suspended a plumb-bob – getting this centred this is a work of art.

Rigging a Vulcan gave rise to the infamous RAF shout of “Up a penny”, this would mean extending the appropriate jack just enough to get an old style penny between the locking collar and body of the jack. But once in position, the aircraft could happily stay that way for as long as you wanted.

Good lord, such memories come back. I used to know all that stuff! :rolleyes: But somehow I doubt that Hendon’s Tiffie is properly set in rigging position. Might be interesting to ask them, as it does make a difference to equalisation of stresse on the airframe, especially if it’s to be over an extended time. Might just see skin wrinkling in a year or so.

This doesn’t really add anything to the thread, but I thought it may interest you guys. 😀