Jump to content

Ex-FAAWAFU

Gold Member
  • Posts

    8,185
  • Joined

  • Last visited

  • Days Won

    49

Everything posted by Ex-FAAWAFU

  1. The Ark CAG in my era (801, 820 & 849B) used to have regular Squadron cannon competitions. Some of them were highly sophisticated, and unbelievably dangerous in retrospect; I'm blooming certain they wouldn't be allowed now. The 801 AWI embarked with "his" cannon from AWI course, which was genuinely lethal. It was machined from a piece of SHAR oleo that had exceeded its fatigue life, or so he said, and fired golf balls. Had he ever fired it at anyone, it would definitely have killed them. As far as I know it was only ever fired twice; once at Yeovilton as the winning entry to the AWI course competition, when it was fired using the Wardroom dinner gong (moved outside) as target. This resulted in a visible dent in the gong, and b all accounts made a superb noise. The second time was over the stern of Ark somewhere in the Med, aimed at the splash target astern, which it missed (but not by much). At this point common sense prevailed and it was permanently banned - I think he actually had to throw it overboard. My bean tin, drain pipe and Zippo fuel job, firing field dressings, wasn't quite in the same league. I too have a chainsaw story. It involves F4 drivers and mess pianos (note the plural) at Mount Pleasant. A legendary hangover, too. When I look back, I think we flew at a good time. The ethos, sense of humour and attitude is just the same nowadays (the sons of see if my friends are front line now...), but the powers that be are WAY more cautious. They are right to be, but we had the fun!
  2. Lovely. For some reason I have never been able to put my finger on, I have always thought that the birdcage is the better looking version. And of course FAA schemes are automatically the best!
  3. Bad luck; we've all been there. Rushing and models do not mix, yet I'll lay you money that every one of us could tell a similar take.
  4. That's what I'd do, too; the "difficult" bit (the Omega) looks fine, so you should be able to fix the red section with paint.
  5. Cap duly doffed to Charlie Parsons of the Sandymount Club. Clearly a man with a sense of humour!
  6. Lovely. I had no idea the FAA tested the Skeeter - but I can see why it went nowhere. The thought of trying to do anything useful from a ship in one of those? Not to mention night deck landings...
  7. Nice Walrus! (Follow the link, if anyone thinks I've taken leave of my senses!)
  8. He was a senior RAF officer (I think retired), addressing a mess dinner at Linton-on-Ouse to celebrate Taranto Night. SEngo at Linton at that time (Lance Kiggell) was the son of a man who actually flew on the raid. So you'd kind of hope the guest of honour could make a reasonably friendly speech, even if he thought all dark blue aviators were the spawn of Satan. It can't exactly have been difficult to spot that there were 30-odd Naval uniforms there (2 courses, plus their instructors), and we were there to celebrate the most famous night in Fleet Air Arm history, after all. Instead, he started his speech "I am proud of having been part of the team that killed off fixed-wing aviation in the Royal Navy..." - 10/10 for sticking to your convictions, but don't act all offended if the dark blue people (actively assisted, it must be said, by many light blue friends) decide to provide you with ready made explosive cole slaw! My instructor at Topcliffe / Linton was an AWI, so knew more about pyrotechnics than was strictly necessary; the senior course procured the cabbage from the kitchens. The rest is history. It was, it must be said, bloody spectacular and (the culprits assured me) worth every second of the bollockings, threats to chop them on the spot, etc. One of the perpetrators was a gentleman called George Zambellas. Now First Sea Lord. Hoorah!
  9. No, though the JP one was a rough contemporary - I remember it because after ours was banned one of the boys found the JP one & we asked the "if their's is OK, why not ours?" question."STFU & because I say so" was pretty much the answer. I was course leader of this mob (as one of only 2 GLs), so copped a fair amount of "the Station Commander is not amused" crap from our CO. Luckily a few weeks later the course ahead of us got into deep do-dos by exploding a cabbage via thunderflash beneath the chair of the speaker at a Mess Dinner, and suddenly our course badge was no longer flavour of the month! The Fun Police also thought our course motto ("Aim low; avoid disappointment") didn't show the right attitude, or some other man-vegetables. Let's face it, being a stude was a PITA; I already had 4 years' service under my belt, including fighting a war, so wasn't really ready to be treated as a teenager again. Especially since I knew that the stuff we did was lightweight in comparison to the things front line squadrons got up to; catapulting the Wardroom piano over the bow of Ark Royal IV...
  10. Funnily enough, having - like Bristol Boy - never heard of these kits before, I saw one at the weekend in my LMS (Salisbury's most excellent Endless Models). They do appear to do other kits, but no other aircraft that I saw. There was a minute Tiger tank, for instance. Lovely job, though!
  11. That looks excellent. If you're looking for a bit more colour, then the gauges on the horizontal bit ahead of the throttles (pilot's left hand, almost up against the panel itself) were hydraulics gauges - can't remember which was which, but the systems were colour coded; http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/234973210-de-havilland-sea-vixen-faw1-890nas-hms-ark-royal-1963-4/?p=1836642. (Scroll down in post #12) See my FAW1 for details!
  12. Pretty much the same as me, then. I have the same wing issues (though they are far from terrible), but in my case the biggest challenge is the join of the resin nose to Airfix's fuselage. Getting it to look completely seamless is proving "fun". I think I might have some decent underside streaking pics for you, but there are some copyright issues so I won't publish them on here. I'm away from home today, but I will try to PM you some later this week.
  13. That's pilot stuff (& you've just given away half of my flying technique!) How many imperfections are you finding, as a matter of interest? I am now close to the main prime & paint stage and I am finding loads, but I strongly suspect 90% of them are because I've been ham fisted at various times during the conversion to FAW1.
  14. His radar. Lookers who can see out of the window are dangerous. Ask me how I know...Besides, you tell me how he can Navigate by looking at the sea for 2 hours... ;-)
  15. Wash your mouth out and write the word Observer out 100 times! Looking good, though
  16. I am poised for more shameless plagiarism of your painting, so definitely looking forward to more pics!
  17. OK, OK - I was only joking in the first place, but I concede! You have enough helicopters. Just about. And you can never have too many... [Edit - I also note the badge of my first front line squadron (820) there, so clearly you are a man of taste and discernment.]
  18. Only a true Britmodeller could look at a photo like that and comment on... the ejector seat detail. Bill, you are a legend; I salute you BIG improvement. Concept duly proved, I'd say
  19. Who knew that the Tracker had a Nimbus exhaust nicked from a Wasp hiding behind its engine? Looking wonderful - and, as with so many builds on here, easy to forget just how small this stuff is. Glad you're feeling a bit better, Martin
  20. Great 80s hair (her, not you!). And a fine line in "I'm not quite sure whether she's impressed or not" semi-confident smiles (you, not her).
×
×
  • Create New...