RAFStuff3

Time in the
Royal Air Force

First Posting after Henlow was RAF Duxford. They flew Hunters and Javelins, 65Sqn and 64 Sqn respectively. I, however, was in the Radio Servcing Flight. Luckily, that not only gave me an excellent insight into how the station worked, but it also gave me the opportunity to find my way about. One of the little items I found was Pat. Knowing a good thing when I saw it, I married her. Courtship was interesting, though. As Pat was a WRAF corporal, we could not be seen out together, and had to go 40 miles for a cup of coffee!

Looking back, that just added to the fun!

No sooner married than off on a nine-month, round Britain course on the Lightning. Here is the course at RAF Newton, clustered knowingly (?) around a Firestreak I am dead centre and on my right is Nigel Field-Richards who was to join me on our posting, after the course, to RAF Wattisham in Suffolk

Finally, Pat and I arrive at RAF Wattisham. I was posted to 111 Squadron, the famous Treble One. Great, if a bit daunting. I was the "Weapon System Diagnostician". My engineering boss was Bill Richardson, later the Chief Engineer of the RAF. Within minutes of me arriving, he went on a well-earned vacation, while I was left with 13 Lightnings - all to myself! Uh...help!

The Cedars, Ringshall
By now, Pat and I had had our first baby - just. Pat found this lovely thatched cottage on the edge of the airfield. You can see her gardening. The aerials belong to Anglia Radar. The house was idyllic, with an apple orchard out back, roses. Oh! and did I mention finger drains, an archaic plumbing system and no heating. Evenings, we huddled together under a blanket to keep warm. Great!

Wattisham was very busy. There were two Lightning squadrons, 56 and 111, plus a Javelin squadron, 141.
Classic picture shows fin liveries for a rare Lightning meet. Nigel Field-Richards had been posted to 56 Squadron, so we were doing equivalent jobs. Mike Graydon, later to be boss of the RAF, was on 56 Sqn at the time, while we had greats like Bugs Bendall, Pete Ginger and George Black on 111 Sqn.

Black Leader
This was the 2-seater, in which I had as many flights as I could get. I even flew in the right-hand seat of this one at Aberporth, for the live firing, with George Black - "Black Leader". Unfortunately, we had a hang-fire and George chased me down the ASP on landing. Like it was my fault?

One of the perks was to join the ten-ton club - a novelty at the time. My run at over 1000mph was with Sam Lucas, who let me take over the controls for about 3 micro-seconds. Oh ye of little faith!

Still, I managed to get quite a lot of hours on Lightings, not to mention the simulator - which I managed to land inverted at one time without the instructor noticing. Next pilot in had great trouble trying to take off!

Sam Lucas landing, Wattisham

We had fun, too. Pat was about 4 months pregnant with our second, Roger, when this one was taken. Not too long after that Kennedy was assassinated. I was digging a Lighting out of the runway at Wattisham at the time - they say you always remember where you were...

But mostly it was concentrated effort. This is a night Operational turnround, the aim being to turnround as quickly as possible. There was great rivalry between the squadrons to get the shortest OTR.

We won.

Lightnings were fitted with refuelling probes to increase their radius of action and for deployments. You can see one of the probes, bottom right. This is an unusual shot, showing the hive of activity that occurred each night as we maintained and operated what was, essentially, a rather unreliable, v. high performance double paraffin burner,

There seem to have been lots of parties. My dancing made up for lack of talent with enthusiasm - at least, that's my story. Love the dress Pat is wearing above, in particular. It was a delicate blue colour.

Picture at left, lady in the centre seems to be regarding me with some suspicion. Wonder what I had done - or not done?

Later postings included one to, then, Elliott's at Rochester with 13 SNCOs. We were monitoring the development of Automatic Test Equipment (ATE) initially for the NIMROD. The 50th anniversary of the RAF came up while we were there and one of the flight sergeants composed this takeover picture...Luckily the management had a sense of humour. And just about then, we had twins: Philip and George.

We even concocted our own crest for the day. If you are wondering about the inscription, there was a card school which played "Chase the Bitch" every lunchtime (otherside known as Chase the Lady, i.e. the Queen of Spades))

This was the crowd of SNCOs, and a finer bunch of rascals you would go far to find. I learned a lot from them about all sorts of things. We worked on ATE for Nimrod MR and F111K, plus Jaguar and Harrier and even VC10.

Later still we went to RAF Staff College for a year, then at Bracknell. This was our Vamps and Tramps party. Need I say more?

That's Bet and Larry in the centre - I think they went to Australia later.

A second view of the party. That's the DS with the long black wig, centre front along with Pat, who clearly doesn't believe it. The plackards refer to mythical countries from our exercises.

And this all happened because I had brewed beer to the same strength as wine - about 13%. Seemed to have the right effect.

After Staff College, off the Chivenor in N. Devon. I was i/c Aircraft Support Squadron, so of course I was responsible for deep 3rd line Avon engine strip. Yeah, right! You can see me on the right, desperately trying to look intelligent while Warrant Officer Mullacott explains and Wg Cdr Hancock, centre, strikes a confident pose (?)

MOD tours don't provide photo-opportunities. This was a department "do" in the Dorchester, rubbing shoulders briefly with the rich and famous. That looks like Peter Dimmock on the left. About 1970?

My last tour was at RAF Cranwell, where I had started 22 years earlier as an apprentice. Very satisfying. I had some 54 Jet Provosts.

Here is Prince Charles who flew with Golden Eagle Flight during my tour as OC Eng Wg. That's HRH's JP5 behind

Somewhere along the way, I managed a super "boys" holiday on the RAF yacht. This is me with Brian Hunter, RSF at Wattisham, when I was on Treble-First, rounding up food in Alderney - I think.

Great holiday. Didn't wash for a week.

That's Brian again, this time out in Cyprus among the posers on the Moon rocks at Akrotiri, in July. Now that's hot.
So hot that I ordered string vests for the lads to prevent them from burning on the Lighting metalwork. Stores thought string vests were winter-wear only, until a sergeant fried two eggs on the wing for a visiting VIP

Not to mention the raft race at Chivenor. (I said not to mention it!) I think I am one of that weary crew, but I'm not sure. Our raft was made from two Hunter tip-tanks, and it worked OK - if you didn't mind dragging it over submerged rocks for miles! Riding it was fun, too. Occasionally, the raft would stop dead without warning, and you wouldn't. Now that's cold! And wet! And sore! And I wouldn't have missed it!

Start

Last updated: Nov 2005

http://www.hitchins.net

First Posting after Henlow was RAF Duxford. They flew Hunters and Javelins, 65Sqn and 64 Sqn respectively. I, however, was in the Radio Servcing Flight. Luckily, that not only gave me an excellent insight into how the station worked, but it also gave me the opportunity to find my way about. One of the little items I found was Pat. Knowing a good thing when I saw it, I married her. Courtship was interesting, though. As Pat was a WRAF corporal, we could not be seen out together, and had to go 40 miles for a cup of coffee! Looking back, that just added to the fun!
	No sooner married than off on a nine-month, round Britain course on the Lightning. Here is the course at RAF Newton, clustered knowingly (?) around a Firestreak I am dead centre and on my right is Nigel Field-Richards who was to join me on our posting, after the course, to RAF Wattisham in Suffolk
Finally, Pat and I arrive at RAF Wattisham. I was posted to 111 Squadron, the famous Treble One. Great, if a bit daunting. I was the "Weapon System Diagnostician". My engineering boss was Bill Richardson, later the Chief Engineer of the RAF. Within minutes of me arriving, he went on a well-earned vacation, while I was left with 13 Lightnings - all to myself! Uh...help!
The Cedars, Ringshall	By now, Pat and I had had our first baby - just. Pat found this lovely thatched cottage on the edge of the airfield. You can see her gardening. The aerials belong to Anglia Radar. The house was idyllic, with an apple orchard out back, roses. Oh! and did I mention finger drains, an archaic plumbing system and no heating. Evenings, we huddled together under a blanket to keep warm. Great!
Wattisham was very busy. There were two Lightning squadrons, 56 and 111, plus a Javelin squadron, 141. Classic picture shows fin liveries for a rare Lightning meet. Nigel Field-Richards had been posted to 56 Squadron, so we were doing equivalent jobs. Mike Graydon, later to be boss of the RAF, was on 56 Sqn at the time, while we had greats like Bugs Bendall, Pete Ginger and George Black on 111 Sqn.
Black Leader	This was the 2-seater, in which I had as many flights as I could get. I even flew in the right-hand seat of this one at Aberporth, for the live firing, with George Black - "Black Leader". Unfortunately, we had a hang-fire and George chased me down the ASP on landing. Like it was my fault?
One of the perks was to join the ten-ton club - a novelty at the time. My run at over 1000mph was with Sam Lucas, who let me take over the controls for about 3 micro-seconds. Oh ye of little faith! Still, I managed to get quite a lot of hours on Lightings, not to mention the simulator - which I managed to land inverted at one time without the instructor noticing. Next pilot in had great trouble trying to take off!	Sam Lucas landing, Wattisham
	We had fun, too. Pat was about 4 months pregnant with our second, Roger, when this one was taken. Not too long after that Kennedy was assassinated. I was digging a Lighting out of the runway at Wattisham at the time - they say you always remember where you were...
But mostly it was concentrated effort. This is a night Operational turnround, the aim being to turnround as quickly as possible. There was great rivalry between the squadrons to get the shortest OTR. We won.
	Lightnings were fitted with refuelling probes to increase their radius of action and for deployments. You can see one of the probes, bottom right. This is an unusual shot, showing the hive of activity that occurred each night as we maintained and operated what was, essentially, a rather unreliable, v. high performance double paraffin burner,

	There seem to have been lots of parties. My dancing made up for lack of talent with enthusiasm - at least, that's my story. Love the dress Pat is wearing above, in particular. It was a delicate blue colour. Picture at left, lady in the centre seems to be regarding me with some suspicion. Wonder what I had done - or not done?
Later postings included one to, then, Elliott's at Rochester with 13 SNCOs. We were monitoring the development of Automatic Test Equipment (ATE) initially for the NIMROD. The 50th anniversary of the RAF came up while we were there and one of the flight sergeants composed this takeover picture...Luckily the management had a sense of humour. And just about then, we had twins: Philip and George.
	We even concocted our own crest for the day. If you are wondering about the inscription, there was a card school which played "Chase the Bitch" every lunchtime (otherside known as Chase the Lady, i.e. the Queen of Spades))
This was the crowd of SNCOs, and a finer bunch of rascals you would go far to find. I learned a lot from them about all sorts of things. We worked on ATE for Nimrod MR and F111K, plus Jaguar and Harrier and even VC10.
	Later still we went to RAF Staff College for a year, then at Bracknell. This was our Vamps and Tramps party. Need I say more? That's Bet and Larry in the centre - I think they went to Australia later.
A second view of the party. That's the DS with the long black wig, centre front along with Pat, who clearly doesn't believe it. The plackards refer to mythical countries from our exercises. And this all happened because I had brewed beer to the same strength as wine - about 13%. Seemed to have the right effect.
	After Staff College, off the Chivenor in N. Devon. I was i/c Aircraft Support Squadron, so of course I was responsible for deep 3rd line Avon engine strip. Yeah, right! You can see me on the right, desperately trying to look intelligent while Warrant Officer Mullacott explains and Wg Cdr Hancock, centre, strikes a confident pose (?)
MOD tours don't provide photo-opportunities. This was a department "do" in the Dorchester, rubbing shoulders briefly with the rich and famous. That looks like Peter Dimmock on the left. About 1970?
	My last tour was at RAF Cranwell, where I had started 22 years earlier as an apprentice. Very satisfying. I had some 54 Jet Provosts. Here is Prince Charles who flew with Golden Eagle Flight during my tour as OC Eng Wg. That's HRH's JP5 behind
Somewhere along the way, I managed a super "boys" holiday on the RAF yacht. This is me with Brian Hunter, RSF at Wattisham, when I was on Treble-First, rounding up food in Alderney - I think. Great holiday. Didn't wash for a week.
	That's Brian again, this time out in Cyprus among the posers on the Moon rocks at Akrotiri, in July. Now that's hot. So hot that I ordered string vests for the lads to prevent them from burning on the Lighting metalwork. Stores thought string vests were winter-wear only, until a sergeant fried two eggs on the wing for a visiting VIP
Not to mention the raft race at Chivenor. (I said not to mention it!) I think I am one of that weary crew, but I'm not sure. Our raft was made from two Hunter tip-tanks, and it worked OK - if you didn't mind dragging it over submerged rocks for miles! Riding it was fun, too. Occasionally, the raft would stop dead without warning, and you wouldn't. Now that's cold! And wet! And sore! And I wouldn't have missed it!

Time in the Royal Air Force

Time in the
Royal Air Force