The RAF at 100 (with Ewan And Colin McGregor)

[Badger]

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[Brit plumber]

Thanks for that Badger. After 23 years in the RAF I’ve seen a lot of change. Yes technology has come on leaps and bounds but the biggest change has to be in the personnel and the way we are treated. The changes aren’t obvious but they are there, pensions changed, pay changed, promotions limited and all done behind closed doors. My trade is a very small one with about 700 engineers. Since the New Employment Model was anounced in 2016 we have lost over 100 Armourers a year (By that I mean PVR, Premature Voluntary Redundancy). Most aren’t concerned with the loss of pay due to being placed in a lower pay band, it’s more the RAFs thought process and how it’s been dealt with since. I think the 100 year experiment is coming to a sad end. The RAF as a Force second to none is coming to an end, having spent many months with the USAF and US Navy (I’m currently with the USN) I see a force much better equipped and taken care of than our own. The one thing that’s keeping our armed forces strong is the pride but that is disappearing quickly and it appears to be what the RAF desired long term.

[Peter Laidler]

There is a brilliant article in todays Daily Mail about the RAF pilot who was a bit peeved that the 50th anniversary wasn't being celebrated in 1960. So coming back from a show at Tangmere, he detoured and did a small one-man display flying low down the mall in a Hunter. I think he might have forgotten his map or switched his GPS off with his knee because he found himself flying down the Thames and UNDER tower bridge. The ONLY damage was a man cycling across the bridge who fell off his bike. I bet he did!

Maybe someone can put that article up and the magnificently done photoshopped photo of his Hunter performing the act

[Gil Boyd]

Peter,
Here you go, brilliant............................. Pilot Alan Pollock, in the days when men were men and bo**ocks to the repercussions, and the inevitable jankers he had to do, but not many men could say they flew under Tower Bridge. I did it once on a parachute and there wasn't much room I can tell you with a fully inflated canopy, so he was a brave man

RAF veteran pilot relives decision to fly through busy Tower Bridge | Daily Mail Online

[Peter Laidler]

Yes...., he became a worldwide salesman and ambassador for Dennis specialised vehicles and fire engines at Thame, not far from here. Those were the days when you could(?) take your son out for a day on the ranges and with a bit of care, lket him what we used to call '.......enjoy himself' under the watchfull eye of a well respected Corporal............ You know the sort of thing. One day I'll mention my son's day on the tank ranges. Not now....., under ANY circumstances!

Thanks Gil, that's my next screen saver after the VW's.......

[henry r]

Vw's you say?

[mrclark303]

Here's that wonderful aviation artist Michael Rondot's impression of that faithful day, pinged over to me by a friend...

Some of the very best in low level Hunter shenanigans were made by the Royal Airforce of Oman, those ex RAF pilots regularly gave ground crews a centre parting and singed their eyebrows...

[Peter Laidler]

VW's, yes. A favourite of mine especially bog standard, as factory new Beetles. Such a portrait is my latest screen saver - following the previous absolutely magnificent Norton Commando

[henry r]

A man of impeccable taste.

[Gil Boyd]

John,
You are not wrong there. They saved the SAS team at the BATT house in Mirbat on that fateful day of the 19th July 1972. They flew in and let loose with their on board cannon.