Of Interest to the Kipper Fleet guys.

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ian16th
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Of Interest to the Kipper Fleet guys.

#1 Post by ian16th » Fri Nov 29, 2019 1:10 pm

Cynicism improves with age

Sisemen

Re: Of Interest to the Kipper Fleet guys.

#2 Post by Sisemen » Fri Nov 29, 2019 3:33 pm

Excellent pic by my mate Mal.

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boing
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Re: Of Interest to the Kipper Fleet guys.

#3 Post by boing » Fri Nov 29, 2019 9:05 pm

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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Re: Of Interest to the Kipper Fleet guys.

#4 Post by Pontius Navigator » Fri Nov 29, 2019 10:46 pm

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.

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Re: Of Interest to the Kipper Fleet guys.

#5 Post by boing » Sat Nov 30, 2019 12:03 am

Thanks PN,

A tribute to the Shacklebomber and its crews. I'll down a glass.

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Re: Of Interest to the Kipper Fleet guys.

#6 Post by Fox3WheresMyBanana » Sat Nov 30, 2019 12:12 am

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!

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Re: Of Interest to the Kipper Fleet guys.

#7 Post by ian16th » Sat Nov 30, 2019 8:55 am

boing wrote:
Fri Nov 29, 2019 9:05 pm
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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Click on this link for the article.
Cynicism improves with age

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Re: Of Interest to the Kipper Fleet guys.

#8 Post by boing » Sat Nov 30, 2019 4:19 pm

Thanks Ian.

Those fellows had a real flying job.

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Re: Of Interest to the Kipper Fleet guys.

#9 Post by Pontius Navigator » Sat Nov 30, 2019 4:34 pm

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.

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