Ian Cowie - Out of the Blue Too

Out Of The Blue Too

More scary and often funny tales from the Royal Air Force

and Friends

Compiled and edited by

Ian Cowie, Dim Jones & Chris Long

Foreword by

Air Marshal Cliff Spink CB CBE FCMI FRAeS RAF Retd

Published by Halldale Group on behalf of The Out of the Blue Foundation

Halldale Media Ltd

Pembroke House, 8 St. Christophers Place, Farnborough, Hampshire, GU14 0NH, UK

Halldale Media, Inc.

115 Timberlachen Circle, Ste 2009, Lake Mary, FL32746, USA

www.halldale.com

Copyright Out of the Blue Foundation, 2014

Foreword Cliff Spink, 2014

This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise,

be lent, resold, hired out, or otherwise circulated without the publishers prior consent in

any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent publisher.

100% of the profits from the sale of this book will be donated to military charities, with 50% to the RAF Benevolent Fund and 50% divided equally between the Army Benevolent Fund and the Royal Navy Royal Marines Charity.

ISBN 978-0-9570928-3-9

Designed by David Malley & Daryl Horwell, Halldale Group

Printed and bound by Clays Ltd, Bungay, Suffolk

www.clays.co.uk

Distribution courtesy of Flostream Ltd,

Slough, Berkshire

www.flostream.co.ukv

The Editors would like to thank all of the contributors,

Andy Smith of Halldale Group, Elaine Long & Neil Long.

Contributors

Chris Bain, Mike Beer, Bill Campbell, Ian Cowie, Ian Dick, Paul Dixon, Dickie Duke, Tom Eeles, David Forsyth, Geoff Glover, Steve Griggs, Chris Hadlow, Geoff Hermitage, David Herriot, Mick Hetherington, Peter Hill, Al Holman, Mike Holmes, Roger Howells, Gerry Humphreys, Paul Ingoe, Martin Johnson, Dim Jones, John Kennedy, Terry Kingsley, Eduard Klap, Geoff Lee, Chris Long, Mac MacLaughlan, Bob Marston, Grant McLeod, Dave McTeer, David Milne-Smith, David Morgan, Andy Neal, Andrew Nelson, Gordon Niven, Phil Owen, Rick Peacock-Edwards, Les Phipps, Colin Pomeroy, David Pynn, Bill Ramsey, Ian Robins, Jeremy Saye, Mike Seares, Roger Smith, Richard Storer, Tim Thorn, Bob Tuxford, Jim Uprichard, Nigel Walpole, Dave Waring, Bob Wilkey, Phil Wilkinson, Graham Williams, Mike Wood, Chris Wren, Peter Wyton.

Cover Images

Handley Page Victor K2 XM715 Teasin Tina completes an aborted take off

demonstration at the Cold War Jets Open Day, Bruntingthorpe on 26th August 2014.

Photo courtesy of Ian Finch

Jaguars of Nos 6, 41, 54 and 16 Squadrons.

Photo courtesy of Geoff Lee

The Editors would also like to acknowledge the crucial support of their sponsors:

CAE

8585 Cote de Liesse, Montreal, Quebec, Canada H4T 1G6

www.cae.com

543 Squadron Aircrew Association
www.543sqn.org.uk

Foreword

Air Marshal Cliff Spink CB CBE FCMI FRAeS RAF Retd

When Ian Cowie, Dim Jones and Chris Long set out to produce a compendium of stories of flying in the Royal Air force Out of the Blue I doubt they could have anticipated what a successful venture it would be and one that has raised many thousands of pounds for service charities. Well, quite simply, they have done it again.

Volume 2 contains another heady mixture of true stories that range from the amazing to the downright scary all told with a sense of humour that was, and is, the hallmark of that band of people who have had the privilege to fly in the military arena. When I meet friends who shared the same thrills and spills of flying high performance aircraft close to the limits in order to get the job done, I think there is common theme to our nostalgia. And that is the banter that irrepressible no holds barred, adrenaline fuelled, exchange between comrades in arms where there is no hiding from even the minor transgression. It is something we all miss but sometimes relive when reunions gather together somewhat greyer and more portly individuals than we were in days of yore.

You can now share in these stories in this book which will I am sure give you a fascinating and most amusing insight into flying life in the Royal Air Force. I commend this book to you and please remember that the proceeds go to the charities that support service men and women, and their families, who have given so much for their country.

Fasten your seat belts......!

Cliff Spink

Keyston, June 2014

Contents

Featured Aircraft

Auster Buccaneer Canberra Cessna Chinook Chipmunk Commander Dominie F-16 Gnat Harrier Harvard Hawk Hercules Hunter Jaguar Jet Provost Lightning Meteor Nimrod Phantom Sea Harrier Shackleton Strikemaster Tornado Vampire Victor Vulcan Wessex Whirlwind

It was a Dark but Beautiful Night

In July 1986, Phantoms and crews of 19 and 92 Squadrons, from RAF Wildenrath in Germany, were sent on a combined detachment to the United States Air Force Base at Tyndall in Florida, to participate in Exercise Copper Flag. The exercise took place over the Gulf of Mexico, and sorties were flown during the evening and at night. The exercise aim was to defend the USA against attacking aircraft that were using extensive electronic warfare defences. The Phantoms were designated long rectangular areas in the Gulf of Mexico, orientated north and south up to 100 miles off the coast, and attacking aircraft approached from the south.

Midway through the exercise we had the usual late afternoon briefing. The weather was going to be fine, with no moon, but the forecaster did mention (as a joke?) that just off the coast were large shoals of hammerhead sharks and it would not be a good idea to end up in the water. Later that night, we were launched as one of a pair of aircraft to man a Combat Air Patrol (CAP) in our allocated area. The transit outbound was uneventful, and we split into individual aircraft and set up our CAPs, with each aircraft flying a racetrack and taking it in turns to look down the threat direction. Shortly after arriving in our area we felt a thump resonate through the aircraft, and I felt a puff of hot air come through the cockpit ventilation system. Immediately afterwards, the FIRE warning light for one of the engines illuminated. I warned the navigator, saying, Jimmy, we have a FIRE light on and this is not a practice. As squadron QFI, I was so used to giving practice engine fires that I thought I would make it clear that this was the real thing!

Following the normal drill, I throttled back the engine and waited for the FIRE light to go out. It did not, so I turned off the fuel and shut down the engine. However, the light remained on. Now UK Phantom engines (Rolls-Royce Speys) were not equipped with fire extinguishers; so here we were, out over the Bay of Mexico, at night, with what appeared to be a genuine fire, no means of putting it out, and the recurring thought of hammerhead sharks if we had to eject! The other aircraft on CAP quickly joined up in close formation and informed us that there were no visual signs of fire. As everything appeared to be under control, apart from a bright red light, we headed for base. The generator of the remaining engine provided electrical power for the aircraft systems and, although we had lost two of our four hydraulic pumps, there was still sufficient hydraulic power to fly the aircraft. At some distance out from home, we aimed to intercept the main runway centreline at five miles, execute a hard left turn and fly a visual straight in approach to land as soon as possible. We declared an in-flight emergency on our operating radio frequency and, as we approached base, we changed to Tyndall Radar Approach Control. At this stage we lost radio contact with the other aircraft but, as he was still in close formation with us, I reasoned that we were obviously not visibly on fire or about to explode! We therefore continued our recovery as expeditiously as possible.