As we are now well in to the Black Top season (I'm sure most MTD's will know what I'm talking about) I thought you would all like to share in a few memories. Here is RAF Wittering's Black Top Fleet in 1985. I'm sure quite a few of us have spent many hours running up & down a runway feeling cold & forgotten, until the jockeys cant go flying then your not so forgotten. Hope this winter will not be too bad for those of you who still have to be on standby.
"Yuk John Don't
ring me unless you have a nice warm MRD or a T54 and a flask of Gluewein,
don't forget the bag of Shear pins." (Bills comment)
Hi
Lads
A few pics enclosed which may bring back some memories. Some of the tanker
pool lads (first in last out as usual) taking a break on route to
Padderbourne ranges from Wildenrath in 1972. From left to right, can't
recall, myself John Berry, Bob McCloy, McDuff, and can't recall the last
one.
The next three are of when I went on a re-force detachment to Masirah
& Salala from Lyneham in 1975. The first shows a half armoured Bedford
we had as a recce run vehicle in Salala, had a lot of fun in that but I
sometimes wondered why we had it at all. Then when on route to the docks
in Raysut you would get the, I believe, Dhofar rebels trying to mortar the
main road. Not that they stood a chance. The second is the old Smith's 25
ton crane which had a free fall block on it. The operator at the time was
a guy call Mickey Joe, a Cpl detached in from of all places Ghan. What an
operator, he used to lift an 8 ton shakon slew it and threw it up against
the NAAFI back wall the crane would lift off the blocks on one side, he
would then hit the free fall brake and it would sit back down (Couldn't
see anything like that happening today). The 40 foot artic in the picture
was one of two, both had their back's broken due to the weight of the
steel sheeting being carried on them for the contractors building the fuel
storage tanks.
Who
doesn't remember the SST's? Any ex-Looney will have fond memories of these
Bedford's, always a good excuse for a skive on the other side of the
airfield as we couldn't be seen due to the fact the airfield wasn't flat!!
Rarely driven on public roads after a wheel coming off one of them in
Manton village if my memory is right. You just don't get that calibre of
skive in civvy street!!
In the recent weeks
2 MT have had no publicity of what we do. It all Army this and Army that
7th Reg are the logistics of the Armed forces.
So I thought that
this picky would sort them out, Its a drops vehicle on Ex in Oman. As
you can see the Army need the assistance of the good old RAF!!!!!!
Getting a bit teasy
about the photo of the drops vehicle on the 2MT Goose neck ha ha,
contacted Bigbird to set the record straight but to no avail so here
goes.....
The drops vehicle
belonged to "8 reg" it was in a collision with a High Dreamer
on exercise "Bright Star" which took place in Egypt not Oman
as stated, The driver of the 2MT vehicle was me myself and I, you can
not see me because I'm under the Drops, the bum and legs you see belong
to Donald "Mac" McDonald who was co driver, we were recovering
the vehicle to Alexandria port for shipping back to UK. Hope this sets
the record straight, best about it was that Bigbird was on this exercise
DOH.
Thought you might
like these pictures of the some of the vehicle used at RAF (U) Goose Bay
, Canada circa 1993/94.
The de-icer is a US
built Ford and required manipulation akin to foreplay to get the burners
to fire up on a cold morning!!! It was obviously an important piece of
kit over there
The tugs were
brought over from the UK , i believe the Mercury tug was brought over in
1973 and wasn't new then.
There was an earlier
RAF tug abandoned on the far side of the airfield which had an enormous
petrol Rolls Royce engine in it!!
As an aside RAF (U)
Goose bay was one of the few units that SAC's were allowed to tow the
aircraft
Nice site, thought you might like to use this picture. It was taken at Severn Valley Railway, don't know anything about the QL itself.
Regards,
Bill
Here are a few pictures taken in sunny Belize. Hope that some the visitors to the Website will recognise the vehicles and locations and hope they rekindle a few memories of happier times (?).
Photographs
1) The AEC was
permanently unserviceable, at least from 1987 to 1990.
2) This Bison was in use on a daily basis to 'bulk' the pillow tanks located at the Harrier sites of 'CharlieDelta' and 'FoxyGolf' as well as the numerous defuels which are a regular feature of Tanker Pool life.
3) The two 1000g tactical refuellers occasionally supported the Pumas of 1563 Flt in the field.
4) The Eager Beaver fork lift.
5) JCB forks eventually replaced the Beaver.
6) The Belize Condec with the 748 Store behind. (Bills Favourite fun
machine!)
Wish I had taken more photos when in Germany. Now look forward to seeing more contributions from old friends.
