Last night on STV there was the first of a new "fly-on-the-wall" series about a Tornado conversion course at Lossiemouth. Is this not being shown elsewhere in ITV land, or has a security blanket been drawn over the activities of the Scottish Air Force in case English eyes are watching?
Usual sort of stuff as an intro programme, with the hot news from the Squadron Leader showing the camera crew round that the Tornado is our finest strike aircraft. And in second place comes...? (The BBMF Lancaster perhaps - at least once the last of the Jags is retired)
I did once hear a member of the RAF state that we only had one dedicated long range strike aircraft, and he was sure the BBMF were taking good care of it.
Not heard of it being shown down here yet, but there is time (I hope)!!!
Remember years ago of watching a documentary of a group of student pilots starting their flying training on JPs' there were a few who failed at the first hurdle and some just struggled through.......Then the cameras continued to follow the remainder as one by one some fell by the wayside with :sad: written on their faces, those that failed and were taken off flying were given the option of transferring to another field such as Navigator training, if my memory serves me correctly and I am sure that some-one will put me right, if the student did not want to transfer he was given the option of resigning?
Eventually the documentary followed one to take up flying Phantoms in Germany. Though one pilot they said had failed his OCU on Canberras but cannot remember what happened to him, can anyone tell me what the options are if a pilot fails an OCU either fresh from training or from another squadron?
I used to be an optimist but with age I am now a grumpy old pessimist.
I would imagine one option after failing OCU as a fast jet jock would be the multi engine or rotary wing courses ? Surely by the time a pilot reaches OCU he's had too much money invested in him to be chopped entirely ?
The programme you refer to I think was called 'Fighter Pilot' and was first broadcast in the early 80s. As a youngster it was the first time I remember my seeing my get get a 'lump in the throat' watching TV. He was chopped from FTS flying Jet Pigs at about the same stage as one of the guys in the programme. If I remember correctly some of the JPs in my Dad's logbook were on there too. I'm also pretty sure that the guy who made it through in the end was a milkman in a former life, and joined an operational Bucc squadron.
Bruce wrote: I'm also pretty sure that the guy who made it through in the end was a milkman in a former life, and joined an operational Bucc squadron.Bruce
Bruce wrote: I'm also pretty sure that the guy who made it through in the end was a milkman in a former life, and joined an operational Bucc squadron.Bruce
That'd be Ernie, then.................
Would that make him 'Trigger' happy? :think:
Garry
Garry
"In the world of virtual reality things are not always what they seem."
