Fish heads for lunch

Posted on December 5th, 2012 by James Higham

Amfortas

My guys again.

I was ATC Liaison for the Sqn at Honington when the vid below was made. The guys were out at Gibraltar on exercise.

The Buccaneer was the Rude, Nasty Boy on the inventory. Built like a brick shitzenhaus its mission was ship interdiction and low-level nuclear strike. For nukes its main method was ‘tossing’ the bomb from and on a climb from 100’ , looping over the top and buggering off in the opposite direction at Max Volume at  around 6000’.  Lower if you pulled the stick back in a panic to get the hell outta there. The bomb would fly in an arc for maybe 6 miles, if you were in luck and the wind was favourable.

The only time I saw a Bucc written off was when the pilot blacked-out over the top on a toss-bomb practice at Donna Nook. He woke up going straight down with two thousand feet to the water with the back seat guy whacking his helmet and screaming “Wake up you Bastard”. In pulling out he pulled 12 G’s and ripped the bomb carriages and part of the tail off and strained the main spar beyond repair.

Here they are doing the bread and butter rather than the party trick.

Things to note: the wing folding. Ex Navy planes; the typical undercarriage raising at almost zero feet;  the symbol on the engine intakes. That’s me

All the electronics and tactics and even the planes are obsolete now. Even me.

Ahh, but…..

Filed under: Politics & economics

5 Responses to “Fish heads for lunch”

  1. backofanenvelope, on December 5th, 2012 at 16:33 Said:

    If the RAF aircrew had had their way we wouldn’t have bought the Tornado, we would have bought the Buc S3!


  2. Mark, on December 5th, 2012 at 17:30 Said:

    Did they land it or eject?


  3. Sniper, on December 5th, 2012 at 21:28 Said:

    Ah, the memories. I used to sit in 3 of those seats (not at the same time). Blood and sailor’s hats: the perfect end to a perfect day. And a boat with railway to boot.


  4. Amfortas, on December 6th, 2012 at 04:30 Said:

    #Mark – yes he landed it. He came home with some ‘difficulty’; I was the ATC Supervisor that day. I sent the crash vehicles out to greet him JIC. In my binoculars I could see as he crossed the threshold that not all of the plane was where it should have been. We did a runway sweep after but no bits. They were in the sea off Skegness.

    Even a ‘written off’ Bucc can still fly through a wall.

    #Sniper – back seats or fronts?


  5. Sniper, on December 6th, 2012 at 07:20 Said:

    Amfortas,

    I never sat in the “conservatory” but where the work was actually done.

    Always remember the chairman of Jaguar gets driven to work.


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