by expat » Sun Sep 03, 2006 6:26 am
Seen lower.
In a previous life that consisted of many years on Harriers, I was in Vandell in Denmark. The last aircraft out flown by Sqd Ldr A.D. He was known for pushing the fly by, so he said that if we could make his aircraft the last one out, he would give us a good one, but did not want anyone else going after him just in case they tried a little harder. The taxi call came, he started out of the hide, and we fake an under inflated tyre to delay him. All other aircraft taxied by and then he went out. The last thing he said t us was to get a good seat. Well, we all climbed on the canvassed top of a 4 toner. A little dodgy as we did not know if it would support the weight of about 5 guys. One had a camcorder. We waited and after a while we saw him above the tree line in the distance. Then he descended and flew down the road. It looked good at this point. Road lined by trees each side and a Harrier, well put it this way, if he had dropped the gear, he would have landed. He pulled up over our 4 toner, the jet wash almost blew us off. He then dropped it down and continued down the road. All on video, except the part were all you could see was black as the aircraft went over head, followed by spinning trees and bits of truck before the camera was again on the aircraft. Now is the good part. Last aircraft gone, runway was again a road. At the junction at the end of the road suddenly came out a Landrover head to head with our fly by. The Landy, floored it and drove of the road into a hedge and came to rest in a ditch. The Harrier went vertical. We did not feel too bad, as it was only a couple of RAF Policemen. Video was quickly put away as the police came down after a while and wanted to know who was flying. Sorry one of 12 green Harriers, need to ask OPS. The video was a masterpiece, but Sqd Ldr A.D kept it after seeing it. He felt it may not do his promotion prospects any good.
Matt
"A bit of a pickle" - British translation: A catastrophically bad situation with potentially fatal consequences.
PETA
People Eating Tasty Animals.
B1 (Cat C) licenced engineer, Boeing 737NG 600/700/800/900 Airbus A318/19/20/21 and Dash8 Q-400
1. Captain, if the problem is not entered into the technical logbook.........then the aircraft does not have a problem.
2. And, if you have time to write the fault on a napkin and attach to it to the yoke.........you have time to write it in the tech log....see point 1.
