with the rank of flight lieutenant. Mind
you, every cloud has a silver lining; the ‘92’
guys checked me out in the F.2A and fitted
me into their flying programme whenever
possible. There was a trade-off of course.
They expected me to be kind with them on
simulator trips.
By good fortune, I was in an excellent
position when an unexpected vacancy came
up on 19 Sqn. With one day’s notice I was
transferred and my three-year RAF Germany
posting was extended by six months.Two months later I was operational and
back on the QRA roster again, or Battle Flight
as it was called. The readiness was five
minutes instead of the UK’s ten minutes.
We were very slick, getting airborne from
the crew room in under three minutes. Every
day we launched both aircraft for routine
border patrols; operational scrambles were
additional, usually against civilian aircraft
penetrating the forbidden border zone.
Although, on one occasion I was
scrambled to the Aberporth weapons rangeoff Wales to fire a live Firestreak. The sortie
lasted about 1hr 25mins and involved landing
at RAF Valley after the firing to refuel.
It is an amazing sight to see a stock war
round impact the target and the resultant
massive dirty brown explosion.
Operating overland meant there were
always plenty of NATO low-flying aircraft to
be bounced, a massive change to the vast
emptiness of the grey North Sea. I flew as
much low-level as I did high-level back in
the UK.One evening, I flew in the T.4 right-hand
seat to save having it strapped up for a
solo flight. As we lifted off, we suffered an
hydraulic failure. To cut a long story short, the
weather worsened in the short time we were
airborne and we landed on a flooded runway,
crosswind out of limits and no brake ’chute.
The overrun barrier was engaged at about
70kts, damaging the aircraft’s spine. Quite an
interesting experience, when I look back.
A year later, I led a four-ship to fire the
cannons. Unfortunately, part of my starboard
gun disintegrated. A chute, down which spent
cartridges and links passed to a container,
detached and pressed against a shroud
protecting all three control rods in that area.
The rudder rod was uppermost and was the
most jammed and bent.
The aircraft spiralled down in a cloud
and I was on the point of ejecting when44 Aviation News incorporating Jets January 2018A photo taken by the author while shadowing Soviet Bear on April 22,
1970 while flying an 11 Sqn Lightning. Also keeping an eye on the Tupolev
is another Lightning from the same unit and a Victor tanker. This was one
of ten Soviet aircraft he intercepted that day during a massive exercise
held to mark the centenary of Lenin’s birth. Steve GylesAbove: The author with the 11 Sqn Lightning F.6 – equipped with Red Top missiles and overwing
tanks, he flew into RAF Coltishall for the base’s airshow in September 1969. via Steve Gyles
Below: A formation of 11 Sqn Lightnings, 12 Sqn Buccaneers and a 13 Sqn Canberra during
a maritime exercise with the Royal Navy off Malta in 1970. The author is flying the Lightning
nearest the camera. Crown copyright 1970“Leuchars, this is
Buchan, alert two
Lightnings and
as many more as
you can generate.
We have 80
contacts rounding
the Norwegian
N o r t h C a p e .”
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