Plane Tales

The Old Pilot ventures back to the little airport where his career in aviation began nearly half a century previously, meets the young lady now doing his old job and recalls some adventures from his early days.

Many thanks to Nev of Plane Talking UK for providing the audio visual equipment

Grace talks about Synergy Flight Training

The Old Pilot does his thing!

Thanks to those who came

White’s is the oldest and most exclusive Gentleman’s club in London its members have included more Earls, Dukes, Lords, Barrons, Princes, Knights, Viscounts. Marquesses, heads of industry and notable politicians than you could shake a stick at. The name we’re interested in, though, is that of Lord Edward Grosvenor, the youngest son of the 1st Duke of Westminster. It was in White’s that Grosvenor had the idea to form an RAF Squadron of wealthy aristocratic young aviators all of whom were already amateur pilots and members of the club… this is the story of that Squadron.

Hot Chocolate, the drink that started it all

Chocolate and Coffee Houses were known for anarchy, licentiousness, gambling, hobnobbing, and politicking.

White’s, the oldest and most exclusive Gentleman’s club in London

The French Foreign Legion

The Gordon Bennett Balloon Race trophy

An officer and a gentleman

The Avro 504

No 601 Squadron the County of London

Swapping cockpits

Billy Fisk III driving the 1932 US Olympic bobsled team

The Hawker Hurricane

Canadian Sir John William Maxwell Aitken

The Millionaire’s Hurricanes over England

Images under Creative Commons licence with thanks to the Library of Congress, Afro Bighair, Anthony O’Neil, the National Archives, Deutsche Fotothek and the RAF.

The world of a pilot is different to any other. They see things from a different perspective and view the world from places that even the mightiest birds cannot reach. All their faculties of sight, smell, taste, touch and hearing experience sensations unique to their position whether they are manoeuvring a mighty airliner or sliding through the air on sheets of silk in a slippery sailplane. When they get a chance, even the most professional and conscientious pilots will take a moment to marvel at their world. These are treasured moments that they will lock in their hearts and only bring out in quiet moments of contemplation, perhaps when they look back and realise what a life of wonder they have led.

The gear

The brain

Cordite

Passengers

Switches

Gloves

Goon suit

Size

Saraha

Ice rivers

Ice bergs

Streets of cumuli

Skyscrapers

Noctilucent

Glory

Trails

Moon

Sunset

Steph

Rick

Atlantic

Touchdown

We all have our favourite flying movies, whether it’s a black and white classic with biplanes wheeling around the sky flown by actual World War One flying aces, comedy cult movies from which we can quote our favourite lines (Shirley you don’t mean that) or modern thrillers which employ state of the art computer generated imagery. This is a story of a much loved actor who didn’t just act in an aircraft crash, he became an unwilling participant.

Favourite movies

Ancestor William Bradford

Army swimming training

Going AWOL, a black mark for the squad

The Douglas AD-1Q Skyraider

A ditched Skyraider

A single seat dingy

The coast off Point Reyes

The RCA station that took him in

Clint Eastwood

Images under Creative Commons licence with thanks to Glasshouse, coolvalley, Impawards, MGM, the US Army, US Navy, the Produzioni Europee Associati and the NPS GOV.

The work the Young Tiger crews performed during the Vietnam War was monumental. With an average fleet of 88 tankers over a 7 year period they performed nearly 180 thousand missions offloading 8.2 billion lbs, thats over 3,700 million tons, of fuel. A staggering achievement only surpassed by the hundreds of aircraft saves they achieved, preventing many of their fellow aircrew from falling into enemy hands.

The Lockheed L193 tanker proposal

A B52 of SAC refuelling from a Boeing KC135

The KC135 Flying Boom

The Flying Tigers in Vietnam

The F105

A KC135 refuelling F105s

Navy Whales

The Daisy Chain

An F111 tanking

The Flying Tigers at work

Images shown under Creative Commons licence with thanks to Lockheed, the USAF, NAID, the US Government and the US Navy.

Forty years ago, four RAF pilots graduated from Central Flying School and became fast jet Qualified Flying Instructors. They hadn’t been together at the same time since then. When they did, they shared some more stories.

Four QFIs then

Dave

A typical course photo

How Dave’s Hawk might have looked!

The Hawk canopy showing the lines of Miniature Detonating Cord MDC

Dave after receiving his Green Endorsement

Dave’s Green Endorsement

Nij

An F4

Barry

An RAF Canberra

Four QFIs now

Images shown under Creative Commons licence with thanks to Airwolfhound, the RAF and JohnnyOneSpeed.

Sadly there are also many who think that ‘Boy Scout’ honesty is something that should be left behind in childhood but luckily not many that do take on the responsibility of becoming a career pilot. When I discovered recently that there is a name for this capacity to openly admit guilt for one’s mistakes, it didn’t come as a surprise that it was named after a pilot. Captain Asoh.

Tokyo airport

A DC8 on approach

A JAL Captain’s hat

The DC8 cockpit

The miraculous accidental landing of Shiga

The ditched JAL DC8, repaired and flying again for Okada Air

Images under Creative Commons licence with thanks to SAS, Felix Goetting, Werner Friedli and Pentti Koskinen.

Forty years ago, four RAF pilots graduated from Central Flying School and became fast jet Qualified Flying Instructors. They hadn’t been together at the same time since then. When they did, they shared a few stories.

Four QFIs back then

The Hawk in close formation

The English Electric Lightning

The Lightning F3

Loch Ness

Four QFIs now!

Images under Creative Commons licence with thanks to Mike Freer, Bob Adams, RuthAS and the Director General of the Ordnance Survey.

Defenceless, it relied on its unmatched performance to provide vital data for the USA and NATO on some of the most sensitive parts of the globe. One of the regular missions flown by the SR71 Blackbird out of a base in the United Kingdom, RAF Mildenhall, was East across the North and Baltic Seas towards the territories of the Soviet Union; these flights were known as the Baltic Express. All went until one day…

The SR71 at Mildenhall

The original A12

The Baltic Express track

The Saab 29, nicknamed the Tunnan

The Draken

The Saab AJS 37 Viggen

The Vig was also capable of operating from unusual locations

Shockwave formation during an unstart.

An SR71 pilot in his pressure suit

The Mig 25 Foxbat

Three of the 4 Viggen pilots involved receive their Air Medals

Images under Creative Commons licence with thanks to the Digital Public Library of America, USAF, John5199, Blockhaj, Alan Wilson, Guenter KONZ-BEYER Bad Erlach, NASA, Alex Beltyukov, Defence Imagery and the US Gov.

The crew come clean on some of their layover hotel experiences. After Part 1, the Good, comes Part 2, the Bad and the Ugly!

Capt Nick’s hotel in Mong Kok, the epicentre of the SARS pandemic.

The New York hotel nicknamed the Transylvania!

The Kentucky Derby.

ACME B-727 Flight Engineer Jeff.

His room resembled a monk’s cell.

Stouffers in its heyday.

Steph’s famous A sign!

Images under Creative Commons licence with thanks to Chong Fat, Maximilian Dörrbecker, Dr Fred Murphy, ArnoldReinhold, PandamicPhoto.com, Carol M. Highsmith, Zarateman and Oliver Pitzke.