Another Navy Wings article...

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Re: Another Navy Wings article...

#81 Post by TheGreenGoblin » Sun Oct 11, 2020 12:00 am

From a time when the FAA and the Empire's writ was written large all over the world.



I spent 2 miserable weeks on an army camp at Wingfield as a much younger man . The old runways were still visible in the sand of the Cape Flats back in those days. I remember them well because we spent a lot of time running up and down them. What it must have been like to have taken off on them as a Hell Cat pilot must have been something else again!
Though you remain
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"To be alive
You must have somewhere
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Your destination remains
Elusive."

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Re: Another Navy Wings article...

#82 Post by TheGreenGoblin » Wed Oct 21, 2020 2:00 pm

Another good article from Navy WIngs...

From Fireflys to Helicopters

Though you remain
Convinced
"To be alive
You must have somewhere
To go
Your destination remains
Elusive."

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Re: Another Navy Wings article...

#83 Post by Boac » Wed Oct 21, 2020 2:48 pm

Wingfield, from Wiki
"On 17 October 1997 one of the most modern prisons in South Africa, the Goodwood Correctional Centre, with a capacity of 1692 beds was officially opened. It was built on Wingfield land to the north of the N1 highway. It is aligned to the concept of rehabilitation"

Did it work, then? =))

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Re: Another Navy Wings article...

#84 Post by Boac » Wed Oct 21, 2020 2:53 pm

Love watching the LSO - in his dress uniform - "I say, old chap, no protective clothing for me"!

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Re: Another Navy Wings article...

#85 Post by TheGreenGoblin » Wed Oct 21, 2020 3:05 pm

Boac wrote:
Wed Oct 21, 2020 2:48 pm
Wingfield, from Wiki
"On 17 October 1997 one of the most modern prisons in South Africa, the Goodwood Correctional Centre, with a capacity of 1692 beds was officially opened. It was built on Wingfield land to the north of the N1 highway. It is aligned to the concept of rehabilitation"

Did it work, then? =))
No, not for me anyway. Even when it was in Navy/Army hands it did feel like a prison... :))
Though you remain
Convinced
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You must have somewhere
To go
Your destination remains
Elusive."

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Re: Another Navy Wings article...

#86 Post by TheGreenGoblin » Fri Nov 13, 2020 3:52 pm

Though you remain
Convinced
"To be alive
You must have somewhere
To go
Your destination remains
Elusive."

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Re: Another Navy Wings article...

#87 Post by FD2 » Tue Dec 08, 2020 6:25 pm

Navy Wings have produced an excellent promotional video for Steve Bond's book. Volume 1 is available and is an excellent read.




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Re: Another Navy Wings article...

#88 Post by CharlieOneSix » Tue Dec 08, 2020 6:45 pm

Makes me want to join up again! From the video - "Would you like to come down to the Chiefs' Mess, Sir?" "Thank you, Chief, yes, I would!" "Sippers, Gulpers, or Sandy Bottoms, Sir"?

Memories, memories! I took up the invite mentioned in the video when I was at Sembawang. I remember arriving in the Chiefs' Mess - I have absolutely no memory of leaving or how I got back to my cabin!
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Re: Another Navy Wings article...

#89 Post by FD2 » Tue Dec 08, 2020 7:18 pm

Supervising the rum issue as a callow 19 year old in a poorly ventilated compartment nearly made me sick but with a little effort I soon grew to love the smell and taste! It was a very smooth blend of rum from several countries. Followed up by a pint of Courage Sparkling Bitter. What a great bunch of guys the chiefs and POs were and no doubt still are, and often good to hear a few words of wisdom/advice from them in those off duty moments.

'CSB' was formulated to last in metal kegs forever and was stronger at 5% than the insipid rubbish available in British pubs like Red Barrel at 2 or 3%.

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Re: Another Navy Wings article...

#90 Post by Undried Plum » Tue Dec 08, 2020 8:01 pm

FD2 wrote:
Tue Dec 08, 2020 7:18 pm
I soon grew to love the smell and taste! It was a very smooth blend of rum from several countries.
In Oman we had copious quantities of the Army G 10 rum that the Battmen seemed to be able to wangle in prodigious quantities. Rough as rats it was, but pure nectar for us in the evenings after a hard day's work.

Large flagons of either one or two gallons each. The army did have some kind of rationing system, but it didn't seem to apply to the Battmen. They were infinitely resourceful guys and knew how to circumvent almost any kind of accounting system. The fact that they officially didn't exist in Oman (and in the UK almost nobody had heard of 'em before Op Nimrod, even after Mirbat) probably helped them to wangle the system and to get priority for transport flights to carry a quarter of a ton of the things at a time. The mainstream pongo QMs simply scratched and shook their heads. They knew better than ask the Battmen/Catmen too many questions because they knew we had a friend in the very highest of places in that country. ;)))

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Re: Another Navy Wings article...

#91 Post by CharlieOneSix » Tue Dec 08, 2020 9:02 pm

Like FD2 I didn't emjoy my first rum issue duty as a naive 20 year old but that was because I had not received any brief and was boned off with the duty at a moment's notice. My first introduction to the taste of Pusser's rum was in the afore mentioned Chiefs' Mess. When I was in Tortola town in the BVI in the early 80's I visited a ramshackle Pusser's pub - not the gaudy present day one - and you would be high with the fumes before you reached the bar. Here's two bottles I have in stock - just took the photo - and one is of the smooth 40% 15 year old Pusser's Rum and the other is the coarser Gunpowder Proof version at 54.5%. Time for a wee tot I think...Cheers! :-bd
IMG_1164.JPG
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Re: Another Navy Wings article...

#92 Post by FD2 » Tue Dec 08, 2020 10:27 pm

Wow - the bottle on the left looks the bizz C16! Zzzzzz...

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Re: Another Navy Wings article...

#93 Post by ian16th » Wed Dec 09, 2020 10:32 am

We Crabs only ever got rum when we were shovelling snow off runways :-q
Cynicism improves with age

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Re: Another Navy Wings article...

#94 Post by Pontius Navigator » Wed Dec 09, 2020 9:28 pm

I was fortunate to partake on Excellent when the order Splice the Mainbrace was ordered on the occasion of Prince Charles wedding. They made no distinction that we were only visiting crabs and indeed had just returned from a day trip to France to avoid the event. We got our hot that evening.

Naval hospitality at its best, and it waz always best.

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The Wessex Fighter All Weather 1 (WxFAW1)

#95 Post by CharlieOneSix » Fri Jan 29, 2021 12:14 pm

My Navy Wings monthly Supporters' email arrived just now and I thought this story would entertain and amuse. The author is David Baston who in my time was a Station Flight SAR pilot at Culdrose on the Whirlwind Mk9. This dit is from later years when he was CO of 707 Squadron. David has always been a bit of a comedian as you will see from his writing style......

The first success of the Wessex Fighter All Weather 1 (Wx FAW 1)

‘I was the CO of 707 squadron at the time, September 1982, and the Senior Pilot who was known as Stumpy – (Belding, to preserve anonymity) – had the audacity to send me off on an IF sortie on a Friday lunchtime when normally I would be doing my best to keep Guinness shares at a high level in the Wardroom. It was a simply ghastly day – heavy rain, wind and low cloud – so off we went, nervously.

At that time Yeovilton did not have radar coverage close to the airfield nor in the overhead and so we puttered off to the north towards the instrument flying areas. The controllers on duty that day were a married – just – couple who were not getting along too well. Whether this impinged on the following story who knows.

We were happily going along in cloud at 2000 feet – 609.6 mtrs for the ‘yoof’ of today – when there was an almighty bang – the aircraft yawed about 45 degrees to the right and took up an extremely steep nose down attitude, I estimated around 60 degrees as I could see parts of the AI that I had never seen before. Lots of brown and not much blue.

I immediately thought this is not good as I have always been very quick at assessing the unknown! Being in cloud made this unusual attitude very interesting indeed and so thinking something major had broken somewhere in the aircraft I very gently regained straightish and levelish flight. I popped out a Mayday to waken the controller who kindly offered me a quicky GCA back home. This I declined as I did not wish to overexert him at lunchtime and commenced a gentle curving circular descent, breaking cloud at about 200 feet over the Fox and Hounds in Charlton Adam, still in torrential rain. I thought the car park was a bit small and so landed alongside in the field, noting that the tail slid around a bit on shut down.

I assumed that whatever we had hit would be on the front somewhere and a cursory glance at the nose and rotor head showed nothing obvious – in the pouring rain.

Off to the pub then where as we had no money we borrowed a fiver from the barmaid and had a couple of pints. Time to ring Yeovilton! The pub telephone was out because of the weather and so I went across the lane to a cottage where a very grumpy man eventually allowed me to use his phone – if I paid him back! I got through to the airfield and in double quick time I was put through to Commander Air – a friend of mine who wrote my 206’s, and after I corrected the spelling were quite good actually – who thought we were dead as he knew what had actually happened. We had hit a Sea Harrier. I went a bit quiet at this stage and returned to the pub for more borrowed beer.

Eventually the engineers turned up and couldn’t see anything wrong with the aircraft and asked if I would fly it back to Yeovilton! Then one more astute chap glanced at the tail and saw the damage. The aircraft went home on a truck.

When we collided with the Harrier it was being flown by Willie Macatee on exchange from the USA and his radio call, that of course I did not hear as he was talking to the wife controller, was hilarious, shouting over and over again “I hit a helicopter, I hit a helicopter” The poor chap had being flying on head down instruments and glanced up to cross check his head up display and all he could see was a green helicopter followed by an enormous bang! We must have missed his head by about 9 inches.

He managed to creep back and land safely and we had conclusively proved the worth of the Wessex FAW 1. So there you have it – a Harrier disabled and the victorious Wessex crew in the pub’.
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Re: Another Navy Wings article...

#96 Post by FD2 » Sat Jan 30, 2021 2:29 am

What an amazing escape for both of them C16.

In a slightly lighter vein:

When I was in training at Culdrose, in 706 Squadron, at the advanced stage learning to fly the Sea King, 707 Squadron was doing the same, though simpler training for the young Junglie pilots in the Wessex 5 and 705 Squadron did the basic stuff to 'Wings Day' or 'chopped' in the Hiller and Whirlwind 7 prior to the divergence of the Pingers and Junglies training. There were also frontline squadrons based there so it was a very busy airfield.

Visiting fixed wing were usually brought in via a GCA to shepherd them through the hordes of 'angry palm trees', some flown by young chaps with very little experience, out on their first solo jollies. Thus there were visits from Hunters, Vixens and Phantoms with occasionally something larger. The fighter boys used to deliberately leave their leg restrainers on if they were being fed, so that they clinked through the ACRB between us assembled 'chopper pukes', trying to attract maximum attention, like Big John Wayne swaggering into a saloon with his spurs a-clinking.

ATC had it's routine and when one of these visiting machines was at about 15 miles they started getting helicopters out of the way and when it got in to about 10 or 12 miles everything was held. Thus it occurred one day that we, in a 706 Squadron Sea King on a training sortie, along with a couple of Wessex from 707 Squadron likewise, along with a Heron near the Tower and sundry training machines from 705 Squadron were waiting at various holding points around the airfield for the GCA traffic. It was a beautiful day and we looked back up the approach to runway 29, but in vain as there was nothing in sight.

The minutes ticked by and eventually a small dot appeared in the distance. The talkdown was on a different frequency so we had no idea what it was until at about 2 miles we realised it was a Chipmunk visiting us from Roborough, where the RN air experience flight was based just north of Plymouth. Eventually the Chippy made a touch and go and spluttered away to the west.

A voice on the Tower frequency asked "Are we cleared to line up when the turbulence has subsided?" We had a good laugh and my instructor turned to me and said "That's Dave Baston, you'll no doubt come across him again." For once the ATCO saw the funny side of it too.

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Re: Another Navy Wings article...

#97 Post by Pontius Navigator » Sat Jan 30, 2021 8:26 am

FD2, your busy circuit, and we have been there in Vulcan and Shackleton, reminds me of Butterworth with Choppers East and Choppers West.

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Re: Another Navy Wings article...

#98 Post by TheGreenGoblin » Fri Feb 05, 2021 1:35 pm

This one might have been better coming from C16 or FD2 but I post a link anyway...

Ode to The Wessex...
Though you remain
Convinced
"To be alive
You must have somewhere
To go
Your destination remains
Elusive."

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Re: Another Navy Wings article...

#99 Post by TheGreenGoblin » Fri Feb 05, 2021 3:35 pm

TheGreenGoblin wrote:
Fri Feb 05, 2021 1:35 pm
This one might have been better coming from C16 or FD2 but I post a link anyway...

Ode to The Wessex...
So way behind the curb that I didn't see that this story (well part of it anyway) was posted ages ago by C16... ^:)^ Mea culpa, mea maxima culpa.
To my certain knowledge it is also the only helicopter ever to have successfully taken on a SEA HARRIER in air to air combat and won, forcing the damaged stovie to return to base unable to continue, whilst the victorious and gallant Wessex crew, of which I was the Captain, landed at a nearby inn and celebrated their historic victory. This followed a mid air collision in cloud and did result in a little cosmetic surgery required around the tail wheel area of the Wessex and a new tailfin for the Harrier. Spookily, the Air Traffic Team on watch at the time happened to be a husband and wife, one of whom was controlling me and the other Willie Macatee, a USMC exchange Pilot in the Sea Harrier. More importantly than these very important details was the fact that husband and wife had fallen out at the time of the incident!
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You must have somewhere
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Your destination remains
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Re: Another Navy Wings article...

#100 Post by Undried Plum » Fri Feb 05, 2021 4:19 pm

Ever so slightly off-topic, though not by much, I have fond memories of the 58T in the North Sea.

One, in particular, had a much loved character all of its own. Golf Charlie Bravo, inevitably known affectionately as Charlie Brown. In those days we used airframe number rather than poncey flight numbers. Painted in rather gay colours, but a Wessex at heart, Charlie was a star. For many in the early days of Piper and Claymore, Charlie was the main go-home chariot for hundreds of bears.

I have two particular memories of Charlie: one bad; one good.

I remember a horrendous occasion when Charlie struggled to get airborne. Clearly there was a mismatch between actual TOW and calculated. The DriverAirframe struggled manfully to fetch more and more collective into his armpit and horrendous rotortip noises ensued with some wobbliness in the disc plane. For almost a minute he stayed, more or less in balance, in ground effect thus technically airborne but not quite 'flying'.

Everyone on the upper deck of the Piper floatel dived for cover, almost including me. Old hands who remember the 1970s may remember the bloke on the radio between Bristow Forties and Brent Log. That was me, two weeks out of four, 24 hours a day. That day, 'twas me in the pilothouse in direct eyeline with the rotordisk and in direct eyeline with the very clearly frightened stickmonkey of Charlie Brown.

Later, the pilot told me that he'd been in the 'hover' to burn off enough fuel to be able to make a dirty dive from the quite tall helideck to the comfort of ground effect above the sea with a bit of upwind airspeed so that he could get Charlie into a comfort zone and away from the salt. My subsequent investigation found that a very heavy item of drillingtool cargo had a misplaced decimal point in its weight on the loadsheet.

Charlie Brown probably broke the record for heavy lifting of his ilk on that occasion.

I'm sure that the NavyNews cartoonist guy could draw a picture of Charlie sweating and groaning under that load.

My other major memory of Charlie Brown is when he went tech on the helideck on Crimbo Eve. Bugger.

AOG.

Diagnosed as being a failure of the thing that holds the spring that drives the rod that turns the knob that works the thing-ummy-bob.
Further clarified by men with dirty fingernails as being also a failure of the thing that holds the spring that drives the thing that also drives the rod that turns the knob that works the other thing-ummy-bob.
Apologies to Gracie Fields, but she said it better than I can do.

We awaited AOG spares, and a grubber or two to fit them.

Charlie was much loved, and he was aboard for Crimbo pro tem.

The local artificers had, for some reason, some enormous blocks of expanded polystyrene foam. They stacked and glued the blocks into even bigger blocks and then carved them into Disneyesque slippers to put over Charlie's chocks. The slippers were white and huge in front of the chocks, but they also had huge black-painted bobbles on the top of the aft end of the for'ard part of the slipper.

It was very Christmassy and very apt for the affection that we all had for Charlie at that time.


Now, back to the naval equivalent of the 58....


Over

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