Of Interest to the Kipper Fleet guys.
- ian16th
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Of Interest to the Kipper Fleet guys.
Cynicism improves with age
- boing
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Re: Of Interest to the Kipper Fleet guys.
Great painting but what are they doing? Obviously dropping flares but is that a shipwreck or something below? Is this an actual incident?
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the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act on their dreams with open eyes, to make them possible.
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Re: Of Interest to the Kipper Fleet guys.
Boing, it brought to mind one of my last Nimrod trips. A SAROp but with a sad ending.
Same scenario, rough sea, at night, inshore. The wind was about 60 kts, our flares were over the search point for less than a minute as they were blown through and only one or two in 4 worked. There were 3 life boats searching. When we saw lights we couldn't talk to the boats. We had to relay through and RAF unit, can't remember which and we couldn't identify any particular life boat. The Wessex SAR had no night capability but we were not told they would scramble if we saw anything, and no one told them when we did.
Come they half life of dawn the helo found an empty upturned life raft but could not identify it. Minutes later the ship was found beached at Great Yarmouth. There were no survivors.
As you can imagine it was harrowing.
Same scenario, rough sea, at night, inshore. The wind was about 60 kts, our flares were over the search point for less than a minute as they were blown through and only one or two in 4 worked. There were 3 life boats searching. When we saw lights we couldn't talk to the boats. We had to relay through and RAF unit, can't remember which and we couldn't identify any particular life boat. The Wessex SAR had no night capability but we were not told they would scramble if we saw anything, and no one told them when we did.
Come they half life of dawn the helo found an empty upturned life raft but could not identify it. Minutes later the ship was found beached at Great Yarmouth. There were no survivors.
As you can imagine it was harrowing.
- boing
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Re: Of Interest to the Kipper Fleet guys.
Thanks PN,
A tribute to the Shacklebomber and its crews. I'll down a glass.
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A tribute to the Shacklebomber and its crews. I'll down a glass.
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the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act on their dreams with open eyes, to make them possible.
- Fox3WheresMyBanana
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Re: Of Interest to the Kipper Fleet guys.
The kipper fleet do a lot of stuff we don't often hear about. My first QFI had been Captain of the Nimrod that co-ordinated for the Alexander Keilland disaster. I think he got a MiD for that. A fine lot!
- ian16th
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Re: Of Interest to the Kipper Fleet guys.
Cynicism improves with age
- boing
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Re: Of Interest to the Kipper Fleet guys.
Thanks Ian.
Those fellows had a real flying job.
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Those fellows had a real flying job.
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the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act on their dreams with open eyes, to make them possible.
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Re: Of Interest to the Kipper Fleet guys.
I think that article was wrong. The Shackleton had a flare chute for smoke floats and could fire a very pistol but the picture shows a stick of 5 inch flares.
The technique required these parachute to be dropped from about 3-5,000 feet with allowance for wind and flare drop such that the middle of stick was over the target at half height. This gave the best illumination for the longest time. The aircraft would then circle and descend below the flares.
These were bomb bay launched flares but quite correctly the bomb doors would have been shut at this point.
The technique required these parachute to be dropped from about 3-5,000 feet with allowance for wind and flare drop such that the middle of stick was over the target at half height. This gave the best illumination for the longest time. The aircraft would then circle and descend below the flares.
These were bomb bay launched flares but quite correctly the bomb doors would have been shut at this point.