Yorkie370

There's a thread at http://www.pprune.org/aviation-history-nostalgia/111797-did-you-fly-vulcan-merged-51.html over on Pprune about Vulcan ops, from which I've culled this;

I can’t understand the fascination with Lynx, unless you see the similarities with old Land Rovers – unreliable, noisy, expensive. It makes a good campervan, though – you can get two camp-beds in the back, once you’ve thrown the six-man seat out. You just need to remember that the fuel tanks are under the floor, so its best to get some insulation down. A layer of Yellow Handbags does the trick. (AlienFTM’ll know where I’m coming from). Oh, and you can pull birds.

Sadly, as we all know Wiki is hardly the most accurate tool on the 'net. A quick Google including the words "raf, aircraft, & losses" will help. There was a thread a while back on Pprune which highlighted the enormous number of aircraft lost in the 1950s.

Prior to the purchase of the F-104, the Luftwaffe would have had F-84, F-86, and Hawker Sea Hawk. There are apocryphal tales (and some pictures I believe) of airframes, including Ta152 being reduced to produce at Fassberg and Itzehoe airfields, much to the chagrin of their pilots. Any surviving WW2 airframes would have been shipped out on Op Lusty or taken to the USSR for research & reverse-engineering.

You might want to try asking the question on Flypast's Historic forum, http://forum.keypublishing.co.uk/forumdisplay.php?f=4

Then; Army Air Corps Driver/Sig groundcrew bowser-mong and bubble-washer. Aircrewman/Observer. Lynx pilot. Now; I look after a floating drilling rig, trying to stop it from sinking. Most days I win.

The 'Turdis' was making its presence felt on schemes at about the time I was leaving, so my experience of them is thankfully limited. I did manage to have a row of 20 of them blown over at an airshow once, by marshalling a visiting SH-3 over them. You can't beat having your early morning constitutional on a proper bog seat whilst overlooking miles and miles of open prairie, though.

I wonder what the German equivalent of EH made of our 'remains' when they cleared-up Soltau Luneberg Training Area?

Hessian and 2x2 poles, sisal guys and wooden pegs. Loaded onto the G1098 truck, and only taken off at endex to go back on the shelves. I guess they use Portloos these days to avoid embarrassment. Gone are the days of the shovel-recce.

Nice to see the Commer Multifuel. Had work not intervened I'd have been there myself.

Wore Lightweights under a nomex flying suit for most of my flying career, (despite the high polyester content), except on ops in the Emerald Toilet where I wore 501s and a nondescript polo shirt in anticipation of the day the Cullyhanna Gun Club got lucky. Spent my last two years in the Army wearing DPM in a Headquarters in the same part of the World, surrounded by Civil Serpents. Flogged any buckshee Lightweights to a contact in the RAF Police, as they were considered 'Gucci'.

There was one parked-up beside the Forfar-Montrose road last time I looked, with a logging frame on the back. Cab didn't look too rotten, despite a door hanging off.

Used to be AAC groundcrew before moving into aircrew slots - covered myself with the stuff more times than I care to remember. Try living near Culdrose - you can certainly hear the Navy ones out and about. Perhaps the Crabs operate low-level while the Fish-heads are up getting nosebleeds.

Nice to see XZ216 is still going about. I'll have to check but I think I poled about in her about 20 years ago. Nice pics, you can almost feel the combination of noise, downdraught, adrenaline and Avtur.

Apparently, ejecting from an F16 is something of an experience, and our Cloggy friend wanted another go.

Sorry, no. This was on SLTA, 21-Mar-83. The RNLAF F16 had swallowed a Stork, while carrying out a simulated airstrike on some panzers. One of my colleagues was controlling the mission from his Gazelle, saw the ejection and followed the flightpath expecting to see major destruction. As it happened, the aircraft came down on our HLS, missing my CP by 50 yards, and coming to rest neatly between a Gazelle and two bowsers full of Avtur.:sweat: My colleague picked up the driver, who, understandably, was in something of an 'excited' state.

Something of a brown-trouser moment, I would imagine, although the PA-28 driver ought to have known better.

"A Chemical Agent is a chemical substance intended for use in military operations to kill, injure or seriously incapacitate Man through its physiological effects. Excluded from these are smoke, flame, riot-control agents and chemical insecticides." One of very few bits from my military training that has stuck with me all these years.

The kit shouldn't contain anything nasty. It used reagents and bits of coated paper for the detection of chemical agents. Replaced by hand-held hoover-like device called CAM. For a bonus point, recite the definition of "Chemical Agents." Usual disclaimers apply. Seek medical advice if swallowed. Other ex-Mil chemical warfare equipment is available.

I HOPE YOU CHECKED WELL FOR 'SHOWER ROSES' IN THOSE 'GERMAN' GAS CHAMBERS..........................:sweat: I had considered alluding to the host nation's track-record on this issue, but being a newbie I had concerns that the squaddy sense of humour (or humor, for abn deuce :-D) might not be so well received here. I guess I needn't have worried.

Once upon a time, Yorkie was on a Junior NCO Cadre, at a barracks in Germany. Part of the course was, naturally, the gas chamber, but for some reason we had to use one on a nearby Bundeswehr camp. Now this chamber was a splendid affair, with huge picture-windows so that the DS could remain outside while watching us victims go through the routine of running round in circles and jumping up and down to get hot and sweaty.:sweat: This chamber was quite palatial in comparison to Brit ones, with, I noticed, an extraction system with the outlet apparently in close proximity to where our tormentors were standing. After determining that one of the switches on a panel by the door wasn't for the lights, I managed to surreptitiously 'knock' the extractor fan on, resulting in the DS getting more than they'd bargained on.:-D

From what I can remember from the course, the original, single-hole canister was designed to be used with a resuscitator. In the event of coming across a casualty with breathing difficulties, you bunged the resuscitator outlet hose into the hole in the canister. How many of us didn't experience breathing difficulties when masked-up?

FF, a good point about the dangers of single-hole canisters, but when I joined in 1978, I was issued with a metal canister with multiple perforations, rather than a single, central hole. Plastic canisters didn't come into general, ie training, use until much later in my career. Andy

There's another one at the side of the road between Forfar and Montrose with a jib grafted on, in the same area as an RL. Had half a mind to try to persuade the owner to let me have but had to move to t'other end of the country before I got the chance. A little further North, and visible from the train before you approach Stonehaven from the West is a yard with a couple of Matadors.

Surely the GS Stretcher has to be a contender?