He was closely followed by a Flight Lieutenant in The Squadron Leader in Number 1 was a real keen type and needed no urging to get hisĮngines running and into the air. Spontaneous Wing Commander, jumped in front of our Number 1 kite and waved hisĪrms. Well on this occasion at the very respectable hour of 10am Tuesday despite having allįour kites attached to the new tele-scramble system our boss, a somewhat expressive and Scramble and it's all over, pack up and go home. Stand-down to 15 minutes, Redįlare for start engines, Orange Flare for taxi down the runway all of which required anĪfter and pre-flight to get back to 15 minutes. Minutes readiness could only go to one of four states. On the first couple of kites added to their status and that of the crews. Standing next to your kite with the aircrew strapped in and ready to go. Minutes readiness with periodic transitions to 5 minutes readiness. Then things settledĭown into a waiting game with the ground service flight split into two 12-hour shifts withĪ morning overlap for routine after and pre-flight checks. To get the heaps turned round and serviceable kites ready for combat. The normal routine on arrival at the dispersal airfield was Goodness we never had any Saturday night as we would be far away AWOL or otherwiseĬaught off camp when on duty. Morning 3am the air raid sirens and intercom would break our rest from the weekend'sĮxertions by announcing Exercise Mickey Finn. These dispersal exercises were always combined with a readiness exercise. It could even haveīeen a way of hitting the civil population for junking National Service. Really to protect the US of A by absorbing more bombs in the UK. High level strategy was not to have one big bomb kill multiple Squadrons. RAF Squadron of Valiant B(K).1s sent a flight of four kites on a dispersal exercise. Once upon a time when bays were men and rigger sergeants were bull and balls a certain Little controversial for some tastes! Take it away Ian. The following is kindly contributed by Ian Hunter, ex-RAF ground crew. History Memories Survivors Gallery Walkaround Links, References & Credits
0 kommentar(er)
