tweeky

5 Years on 5F Sqn some things stick in the mind.

Great build, But The Lightning F3 & F6 had different Ailerons/wing tips the F3 Ailerons included the wing tips they also had a control horn further inboard. Also had different Nav Lights Too.

could it be a baggage pod ?

before they get display authority it will be green with standard white helmets once they get the authority it will be red.

The Guy in the back is ground crew and will be in a blue overall with the standard white with Red Arrow on the helmet.

The Lightning`s initial war role was to intercept the incoming Russian bombers, at distance to try to protect the V-Force airfields allowing them to get airborne.

We have to decide on what a fighter is for starters. The Hawker Hunter was ground attack. The EE Lightning was never designed to be a fighter (although it didn't do to bad at it) it was designed purely as an interceptor

i think the intake came off too. any good ?

I`ve been in touch with the LPG historian The F3A were known as F6`s in Sqn service. I didn't think I'd heard F3A whilst I was at Binbrook.

The Lightings were used as trials aircraft for the A/S grey schemes that`s why they are so many variations.

Way back in 84 we had a Lighting have a flash fire between the centre ventral and the skin to fix this we had to drop the no1 engine and pull both the No 1 reheat and inter pipe. On the Ground runs post refit we set fire to a good 70mtrs of scrub !!!

The Tornado was a dream to work on compared to the Lightning the only job on Tornado that I can remember being in the Lightning terms of difficulty was Pyro clean on the L/H Donk (Engine). As for leak checks on Ground runs give me the Tornado engine doors any day.

Errr pardon !!! I never had to used the Tie down it had been binned well before my time on the Beasts. Ear defenders helped. The worst thing was sitting on the tail plane with a torch (flashlight for those over the pond) tied to your wrist, waiting to leak check the the reheat fuel supply when reheat was selected, this was a flexy type hose that went solid when the fuel flowed. All this within three feet of the back of the jet. When reheat was selected and running full reheat there was a small vacuum created this is why tools were tied to your wrists. the best bucking bronco ever.

Its actually the trestling point for the rear of the aircraft used when the No 1 engine is removed also when the radar bullet is removed. The reason it extends up rear fuselage is, when Ground running the engine on the Reheat pan there was a tie-down point that used a metal band that was to be placed within the lines this band was attached to the ground the main reason to stop the jet kicking and jumping the spiked chocks. There was some concern that with the power of the reheat it could bend/stress the rear of the aircraft so the practice was stopped but the marking never changed. We were only allowed to to run one engine in reheat at a time so if it was a double reheat run the aircraft would be subjected to twice the stresses if the tie-down was used.

bleeding speed off mainly during a fight.