RAF memories

It was March 1959 and I was a very new Junior Technician (one upside down chevron) posted to RAG Gaydon with Victor/Valiants.

After a couple of months I was told that I would be detached temporarily to RAF Odiham because they were short handed.

Arrived at Odiham and found myself assigned to the Flight Line crew with Javelins. The 'chiefy' had no idea why I was there since he had lots of blokes! I was assigned a 'trainer' one of the old sweats to teach me starter crew procedures. Flight servicings (before, Through and After Flight) were done by a dedicated crew of mixed tradesmen so only starter crew!

Spent two days doing 'see-offs' and was deemed adequate so was given my own aircraft to 'see-off'. It was with some trepidation that I walked out onto the ASP and waited for the aircrew who duly arrived, did their external checks and climbed in. I helped them don their helmets, and took up my position with the fire extinguisher in front but to one side of the aircraft. The pilot indicated that he was ready and I gave the signal to start Number 1 engine.

It was at this point that I became aware of a red flower growing behind the cockpit canopy. My brain registered it as a poppy with a black centre and in slow motion it grew bigger expanding in diameter. A black object left the centre of the poppy and hurtled towards me and my reactions kicked in. I ducked my head sideways and felt the wind as it passed and then I heard the sound; a mighty 'WHUMP'! At this point I realised that there had been a starter explosion (IPN Cartridge) and that the 'plane was on fire. As I started to react the aircrew can tumbling down the access ladder and ran towards the Flight Line buildings. The burning aircraft was at the end of a line of several and other starter crews also started running and one yelled to me 'Run you c**t it's full of fuel'!

But my training kicked in! I had a twin 60 pound CO2 (Carbon Dioxide) fire extinguisher on wheels in my grasp so I ran to the aircraft ignoring the heat and unhooked the 'wand' (the discharge pipe and nozzle) from the rig, heaved open the discharge lever, moved into the wing/fuselage junction and directed the nozzle in the direction of the fire and squeezed the trigger. A fog of CO2 discharged noisily in the direction of the fire and I kept at it for about ten seconds at which point the heat was too great so I backed off and threw the extinguisher wand to the ground but it seemed to be stuck to my hand. Very painfully I ripped it away, threw it down and ran.

Subsequently the fire crew arrived but too late the damage was done at I was told the aircraft would be a write-off. Apart from being chided by the other 'lineys' as stupid I was subsequently awarded a 'Good Show' for my efforts. I needed to attend the sick bay for treatment to my hand. I didn't know that grasping an alloy pipe (the wand) with CO2 rushing though it would cause it to freeze and stick to skin so I lost a lot! Lesson learned, grip it by the insulation!

The object which flew past my head was found to be the main aircraft battery which was found 50 meters away!

But, there is a sequel. Eleven years later as a new employee of an aircraft maintenance company, I was given an induction that included how to use a twin 60 pond CO2 extinguisher. Been there, done that smug expression on my face as the fireman went through the drill. He then said

'..and a useful feature is the telescopic extension of the wand under pressure. Simply half-turn this collar and the inner tube will extend the nozzle a further five feet'

I knew then, that had I known that in 1959 I could have put that fire out!!!

Peter if you must use metric please use the English spelling!

And youve raised a very sore point with me, good shows. I was a runway controller for 3 years and in my time I stopped one bloke from getting airborne with his undercarraige locks in place, and two blokes from getting airborne with their ejection seat pins in. After the first incident (the undercarraige one) the CFI wanted to give me a good show but the SATCO said no as I was just doing my job. And it was never mentioned on my ACR either, bastard!

canberra;59893 wrote:

Peter if you must use metric please use the English spelling! And you've raised a very sore point with me, good shows. I was a runway controller for 3 years and in my time I stopped one bloke from getting airborne with his undercarraige locks in place, and two blokes from getting airborne with their ejection seat pins in. After the first incident (the undercarraige one) the CFI wanted to give me a good show but the SATCO said no as I was just doing my job. And it was never mentioned on my ACR either, bastard!

That is the English spelling !!!!

So is that all you did in all those years ?? I am teasing , I know that isn't true because today I dug out some items you copied for me all those years ago ?? you might remember copying some model rail backgrounds for me--- I dug out the ones I had left to re-copy to use in the cabinet I have made for the cadets.

TED
p.s. i corrected yopur punctuation .

'Good Show' awards: Once upon a time there was a magazine produced - probably by someone at Maintenance Command - entitled 'Supply'. It was full of riveting drivel about TG18, & one feature was a rip-off of the aircraft safety wallahs' Good Show awards, wherein some brave Supplier was put up for a big pat on the back as a result of some act of conspicuous storekeeping. Yes, its true. I don't think it lasted all that long, but I well remember that, in about 1980/81 some pie-faced Cpl at Kinloss was praised for doing something in POL to do with suspected contamination of fuel. Rah rah, lad.
Meanwhile, I, steaming in Belize, had charge of POL. Our supplies of AVTUR arrived in a totally knackered 7,000 US gallon tanker driven by a big black guy named Tony. This wagon was such a wreck that the steel cords could be seen through the tyres. One day, he drove into my domain, & I dipped his tanks, then took a gallon sample from each. In one of these samples I found flat platelets of rust about 1" across, so I refused the consignment. Tony went away back to the Shell depot, & returned with some supervisor or other. I still refused the load, on the grounds that I wasn't going to put the cr^p into my bulk tank & maybe have it get into a Harrier or Puma fuel system - even though my big filter would probably have stopped it. Neither did I want my big filter bunged up. It escalated to Barry, our beloved Flt Lt in Supply, & I got rollocked for being unco-operative!! I invited Barry to sign the receipt & take responsibility, but as far as I know that fuel wasn't accepted. I looked up the AP & found I was dead right, even if I was a spoilsport. The guy at Kinloss had done nothing more than myself, which was what was laid down as part of his POL duties according to the manual, but got highly & publicly praised for it. Just goes to show its all about who loves ya, baby.

Canberra said: Peter if you must use metric please use the English spelling!

I see that I spelled 'pound' as 'pond' but otherwise used Imperial throughout.

Peter you said "the battery was found 50 meters away", when has "meters" been an Imperial unit of measurement???? And Im writing this with a smile on my face, so please dont take offence, I will never slag plumbers off, especially when we had one on guard with us at Leuchars and he cleaned all our rifles at the end of our weeks guard duty!

And back to good shows, I did actually get one in 1986 from the TACEVAL team.

So I did! So you do read my posts then?

Problem with the spelling of metric units is that I have spent more of my working life in metric using countries where they use USA English! This looks like a job for Captain Spellcheck!

I understood what you meant and thats the important thing!

I was having a think this afternoon and it was about how many RAF stations I set foot on during my time in the RAF. So I got a piece of paper and a pen out and it came to the grand total of 40. I dont claim its the most, obviuosly I joined up after the end of empire so places like the gulf and Aden had closed.

Anyway anyone else want to give a figure?

According to this thread canberra you had been to 73, and 2 of them were disused!
/community/showthread.php?1717-How-many-airfields-have-you-been-too

canberra;17403 wrote:

I was sat with nothing to do so I thought I would work out how many airfields Ive visited either flying or on foot.

So I got it to the megre amount of 73. But I have bben to some exotice locations such as Deer Lake in Newfoundland, Butterworth in Malaysia. And the delightful Ploce in Croatia where the runway was also a road in the dockyard and had a daily flight by a Let 410.

canberra;17407 wrote:

Something I should add is that only two of my 73 are disused airfields.