In Flight Catering

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Ex-Ascot
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In Flight Catering

#1 Post by Ex-Ascot » Wed Jul 27, 2022 8:35 am

We are getting into thread drift about In Flight Catering on the Daily Mail thread.

I am sure we all have had good and bad experiences on this subject over the years.

This is a bad one. Snake's head in a crew meal.

https://www.news18.com/news/buzz/watch- ... 29357.html
'Yes, Madam, I am drunk, but in the morning I shall be sober and you will still be ugly.' Sir Winston Churchill.

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Re: In Flight Catering

#2 Post by Fox3WheresMyBanana » Wed Jul 27, 2022 1:38 pm

Sausage rolls for Tornado aircrew in flight meals.
Flaky pastry.
Nobody ate them for obvious reasons.
OC Catering and I (with my Station Flight Safety Officer hat on) had a bit of a bust-up over that one.

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Re: In Flight Catering

#3 Post by Woody » Wed Jul 27, 2022 2:22 pm

Image
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Re: In Flight Catering

#4 Post by CharlieOneSix » Wed Jul 27, 2022 2:30 pm

As any helicopter pilot on North Sea offshore support flights will tell you, you have to be able to consume cold greasy bacon and egg rolls washed down with cold coffee :-q. As a treat sometimes you got a cold steak with cold chips, all courtesy of the rig caterers. There were the exceptions, mainly in the Norwegian Sector, and especially in the early days of North Sea ops when food standards were really good.
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Re: In Flight Catering

#5 Post by PHXPhlyer » Wed Jul 27, 2022 3:14 pm

Ex-Ascot wrote:
Wed Jul 27, 2022 8:35 am
We are getting into thread drift about In Flight Catering on the Daily Mail thread.

I am sure we all have had good and bad experiences on this subject over the years.

This is a bad one. Snake's head in a crew meal.

https://www.news18.com/news/buzz/watch- ... 29357.html
What's worse: It was the vegetarian option. =))

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Re: In Flight Catering

#6 Post by Ex-Ascot » Fri Jul 29, 2022 7:58 am

I asked for a vegetarian crew meal out of Brize once. It was a pea curry. Boiled rice with a tin of peas tipped on top and a curry sauce. That ended up on OC catering's desk. Still in the foil dish I must add but I really should have tipped it out.
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Re: In Flight Catering

#7 Post by Pontius Navigator » Fri Jul 29, 2022 9:11 am

Ex-Ascot wrote:
Fri Jul 29, 2022 7:58 am
I asked for a vegetarian crew meal out of Brize once. It was a pea curry. Boiled rice with a tin of peas tipped on top and a curry sauce. That ended up on OC catering's desk. Still in the foil dish I must add but I really should have tipped it out.
Maybe they thought you were on the 'other' sqn.

Once flew as crew on 216 to FI, proper service, china plates, kfs, etc, all served by the MACR ALM. Curiously I met him again later when we were both in post as SOMA managers, he at Lyneham and me at Coningsby.

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Re: In Flight Catering

#8 Post by Boac » Fri Jul 29, 2022 9:26 am

Two FLAs I don't know.

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Re: In Flight Catering

#9 Post by Boac » Mon Aug 01, 2022 6:28 pm

Anyone available to decode PN speak or are all in the dark too?

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Re: In Flight Catering

#10 Post by k3k3 » Mon Aug 01, 2022 9:06 pm

I know MACR ALM is Master Aircrew Air Loadmaster, but SOMA?

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Re: In Flight Catering

#11 Post by PHXPhlyer » Mon Aug 01, 2022 11:44 pm

k3k3 wrote:
Mon Aug 01, 2022 9:06 pm
I know MACR ALM is Master Aircrew Air Loadmaster, but SOMA?
Some Other Military Acronym :ymdevil:

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Re: In Flight Catering

#12 Post by G-CPTN » Mon Aug 01, 2022 11:54 pm

SoMA means School of Military Aeronautics.

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Re: In Flight Catering

#13 Post by Fox3WheresMyBanana » Tue Aug 02, 2022 12:49 am

Ops management computer system, IIRC. SEMA and SAMA are (were?) the Eng and Admin versions.
I used to use SEMA for nefarious purposes B-)

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Re: In Flight Catering

#14 Post by Pontius Navigator » Tue Aug 02, 2022 6:57 am

Less well known (thankfully) was SDOMP and its similarly still born successor that was an acronym of an acronym that included RAFCCIS. I can't remember that one.

Station and deployment operational management project.

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Re: In Flight Catering

#15 Post by 4mastacker » Tue Aug 02, 2022 7:55 pm

Fox3WheresMyBanana wrote:
Tue Aug 02, 2022 12:49 am
Ops management computer system, IIRC. SEMA and SAMA are (were?) the Eng and Admin versions.
I used to use SEMA for nefarious purposes B-)
I bet the system log made interesting reading. ;)))

The stackers' had their own system (USAS) which used the same hardware/software as SEMA/SAMA. Whilst SEMA/SAMA was managed by a highly paid TG3 Chief Tech, the stackers themselves managed their system - something which caused furrowed brows in CIS Eng who couldn't get their heads around a non-tech trade doing tech stuff.

USAS also had a useful chat facility - for example, the Timmy Spotters Club at MPA would use it to pass the landing scores back to BZN within seconds of the aircraft arriving; not popular with some Timmy captains if they didn't get a decent score, as it allegedly cost them a slab or three when they got back to UK.

Getting back on topic - IIRC a major embarrassment at Fairford when the in-flight rations intended for some Jordanian passengers were found to include NAAFI pork pies.
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Re: In Flight Catering

#16 Post by Pontius Navigator » Tue Aug 02, 2022 8:37 pm

Getting back on topic - IIRC a major embarrassment at Fairford when the in-flight rations intended for some Jordanian passengers were found to include NAAFI pork pies.
That's all right then, unless the name alone was the problem.

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Re: In Flight Catering

#17 Post by Ex-Ascot » Wed Aug 03, 2022 5:44 am

There was a pork pie factory in Witney. Flight catering at Brize used to get out of date pies from them for butty boxes. I lodged a complaint so they took them out of the dated wrapper and put them in cling film. Don't know how they got away with this.
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Re: In Flight Catering

#18 Post by Fox3WheresMyBanana » Wed Aug 03, 2022 8:13 am

Catering was even more of a criminal enterprise than MT, in my experience.
This was why all my Squadrons had OC Catering as an honorary Squadron member :D

Aircrew were, of course, whiter than the most purebread unicorn.

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Re: In Flight Catering

#19 Post by Ex-Ascot » Wed Aug 03, 2022 10:48 am

Fox3WheresMyBanana wrote:
Wed Aug 03, 2022 8:13 am
Catering was even more of a criminal enterprise than MT, in my experience.
This was why all my Squadrons had OC Catering as an honorary Squadron member :D

Aircrew were, of course, whiter than the most purebread unicorn.
Bugger never thought of that.
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Re: In Flight Catering

#20 Post by llondel » Wed Aug 03, 2022 9:36 pm

Ex-Ascot wrote:
Wed Aug 03, 2022 5:44 am
There was a pork pie factory in Witney. Flight catering at Brize used to get out of date pies from them for butty boxes. I lodged a complaint so they took them out of the dated wrapper and put them in cling film. Don't know how they got away with this.
They probably had a sideline selling on any excess to British Rail.

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