Wanted

Oh God!!, my first ever trip into the blue while with the Squadron was with a Flight Lieutenant who borrowed a Meteor [affectionately known as the "Meatbox"] from the Station Flight. We flew over the North Sea and he saw a sand island with a lot of Seals on, so down he goes, flying low and scattering the Seals, then up he goes into a loop. Coming out of the loop he shouted "Let's do it again!!" and did another low run and, disasterously, did another loop. My stomach contents were still at 10,000 ft even before the first loop. There were no brown paper bags, I'm afraid. We got back and taxing to a standstill the Flight Lieutenant got out and disappeared with a grin. The Station Flight Ground Crew took one look at the Cockpit, threw me a rag and said "Get on with it".........I was dying and got no sympathy. It also took weeks before the Mickey taking stopped!!

 

Love those big RCs - thanks Mowgley & longk!

 

It did indeed, Kristen!!!! You might have got a Lightning aircraft coming your way while you were there. No.56 Squadron, who were in the next Hanger to us, took on the RAF Aerobatic Team role after us and started practicing for Air Shows. We used to go up onto the Hanger roof to watch because they always made a point of flying over their old rivals, [us], when flying line abreast with about 5 aircraft and, while we were watching, one of the aircraft touched the wing of the outside aircraft. The pilot of the outside Lightning ejected over the top of us and unfortunately broke his back in doing so. The unmanned aircraft disappeared trailing smoke, flying over the Married Quarters, and ended up in a Pea field several miles away. I still have a small fragment of it somewhere as I was part of the Recovery Party at the crash site. It missed a small Cottage by about 59 yards!!

 

Yes, that was a daily early a.m. game that we played with the Russians "Bisons" and "Bears" and why there were always two Lightnings down at the bottom of the runway with external power units [Vernons] at the ready.

To be honest, Kristen, the Squadrons were very closed, independent, and virtually had little to do or contact with the actual Station, so unfortunately Group Captain Wally Walters rings no bells. When they held the Annual AOC'S parade we were exempt because we were an Operational Unit. I was in Cyprus within 3 days of joining the Squadron after finishing two years as an Apprentice and soon learnt to live out of a suitcase as we were always off to somewhere at short notice.

 

It's times like this we need a 'Confused' button

 

Don't say that, John, Ziggy will start to feel badgered.