Discussion
I came across this site while cleaning out my bookmarks:
http://www.vintagewings.ca/VintageNews/Stories/tab...
Some interesting pictures on there, & on the rest of the site.
http://www.vintagewings.ca/VintageNews/Stories/tab...
Some interesting pictures on there, & on the rest of the site.
I love the Buccaneer 
I'll always remember this quote from the PPrune forums, almost reads like a script from a movie
"For some sad reason, this is one of those aviation things you never forget....
it was on the BBC news magazine programme "Nationwide", which featured the schoolboy dreamboat Sue Lawley. it was Red Flag, and the buccaneer driver was having what is loosely described as a "flying like a god" day. I will never forget that, he was using absolutely EVERY inch of airspace available, and was terminally "Fangs Out" The wingtip vortices were milk white and there was a sandstorm in his wake. The optical tracking USAF guys, were simulating a SAM site, and they had to keep the crosshairs on the Bucc for 5 seconds to score a kill. I remember the excitement in the control room, with various comments like "God Damn" and "That guy can fly" the one that sticks in my mind, is the operator in charge of making the kill, towards the end, just screaming at the top of his voice "GO BABY GO BABY GO BABY GO" .I applied for my test in advance at Biggin Hill the following day.
When I was being interviewed post selection tests, the I/C board, (Wing Cdr. Gordon Massey) asked me why I wanted to join the Air Force. I forgot my carefully rehearsed "battle of britain" speech, and just told them how I felt, seeing that buccaneer trash the best the septics had to offer. I passed....lol
If I ever meet that Buccaneer God, I'll buy him all the booze he ever needs.
Tony"
from here :
http://www.pprune.org/archive/index.php/t-48541.ht...
I'll always remember this quote from the PPrune forums, almost reads like a script from a movie
"For some sad reason, this is one of those aviation things you never forget....
it was on the BBC news magazine programme "Nationwide", which featured the schoolboy dreamboat Sue Lawley. it was Red Flag, and the buccaneer driver was having what is loosely described as a "flying like a god" day. I will never forget that, he was using absolutely EVERY inch of airspace available, and was terminally "Fangs Out" The wingtip vortices were milk white and there was a sandstorm in his wake. The optical tracking USAF guys, were simulating a SAM site, and they had to keep the crosshairs on the Bucc for 5 seconds to score a kill. I remember the excitement in the control room, with various comments like "God Damn" and "That guy can fly" the one that sticks in my mind, is the operator in charge of making the kill, towards the end, just screaming at the top of his voice "GO BABY GO BABY GO BABY GO" .I applied for my test in advance at Biggin Hill the following day.
When I was being interviewed post selection tests, the I/C board, (Wing Cdr. Gordon Massey) asked me why I wanted to join the Air Force. I forgot my carefully rehearsed "battle of britain" speech, and just told them how I felt, seeing that buccaneer trash the best the septics had to offer. I passed....lol
If I ever meet that Buccaneer God, I'll buy him all the booze he ever needs.
Tony"
from here :
http://www.pprune.org/archive/index.php/t-48541.ht...
Pfft second hand, golden riveting wafu trashed junk!
Now a REAL warplane....
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U9fb0Y-JuH8#t=175....
Now a REAL warplane....
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U9fb0Y-JuH8#t=175....
Skii said:
I love the Buccaneer
I'll always remember this quote from the PPrune forums, almost reads like a script from a movie
"For some sad reason, this is one of those aviation things you never forget....
it was on the BBC news magazine programme "Nationwide", which featured the schoolboy dreamboat Sue Lawley. it was Red Flag, and the buccaneer driver was having what is loosely described as a "flying like a god" day. I will never forget that, he was using absolutely EVERY inch of airspace available, and was terminally "Fangs Out" The wingtip vortices were milk white and there was a sandstorm in his wake. The optical tracking USAF guys, were simulating a SAM site, and they had to keep the crosshairs on the Bucc for 5 seconds to score a kill. I remember the excitement in the control room, with various comments like "God Damn" and "That guy can fly" the one that sticks in my mind, is the operator in charge of making the kill, towards the end, just screaming at the top of his voice "GO BABY GO BABY GO BABY GO" .I applied for my test in advance at Biggin Hill the following day.
When I was being interviewed post selection tests, the I/C board, (Wing Cdr. Gordon Massey) asked me why I wanted to join the Air Force. I forgot my carefully rehearsed "battle of britain" speech, and just told them how I felt, seeing that buccaneer trash the best the septics had to offer. I passed....lol
If I ever meet that Buccaneer God, I'll buy him all the booze he ever needs.
Tony"
from here :
http://www.pprune.org/archive/index.php/t-48541.ht...
I remember seeing that (at the time on Nationwide, not on ppppprune) and have searched for it in vain on the internet. I'll always remember this quote from the PPrune forums, almost reads like a script from a movie
"For some sad reason, this is one of those aviation things you never forget....
it was on the BBC news magazine programme "Nationwide", which featured the schoolboy dreamboat Sue Lawley. it was Red Flag, and the buccaneer driver was having what is loosely described as a "flying like a god" day. I will never forget that, he was using absolutely EVERY inch of airspace available, and was terminally "Fangs Out" The wingtip vortices were milk white and there was a sandstorm in his wake. The optical tracking USAF guys, were simulating a SAM site, and they had to keep the crosshairs on the Bucc for 5 seconds to score a kill. I remember the excitement in the control room, with various comments like "God Damn" and "That guy can fly" the one that sticks in my mind, is the operator in charge of making the kill, towards the end, just screaming at the top of his voice "GO BABY GO BABY GO BABY GO" .I applied for my test in advance at Biggin Hill the following day.
When I was being interviewed post selection tests, the I/C board, (Wing Cdr. Gordon Massey) asked me why I wanted to join the Air Force. I forgot my carefully rehearsed "battle of britain" speech, and just told them how I felt, seeing that buccaneer trash the best the septics had to offer. I passed....lol
If I ever meet that Buccaneer God, I'll buy him all the booze he ever needs.
Tony"
from here :
http://www.pprune.org/archive/index.php/t-48541.ht...
Main question I remember from my TIA interview was "You won't see many girls for a while – how will you cope with the lack of leg?"
Skii said:
I love the Buccaneer
Few others on there too but this is straight to the low one with bank past the tower - https://youtu.be/cK6V4Kt_Ejw?t=74Other one - https://youtu.be/cK6V4Kt_Ejw?t=37
Thanks OP, superb article! When I was still in the military flying helicopters in sandy places I joined an airfield one day as they cleared a C130J Hercules to depart just as we arrived, no great shakes, we were cleared to land on the taxiway as he took off parallel to us on the runway. Trying to show off I came steaming past him at 150knots and 50 feet, our authorised minimum, as he started to roll....he must have been light as he caught me up very quickly....took off and raised his gear...then I expected him to climb away. But no, after cleaning up flaps aswell he descended under our level and accelerated away underneath us along the runway......pretty bloody impressive seeing an aircraft that size that low and that fast. 
As a kid my cousin (engineer in the army) gave me a bunch of large prints, the one I had on my wall was a Herc skimming the roof of a vehicle (may have been a Land Rover), with the two guys on the ground mid-dive off of the roof seemingly not more than a few feet from the belly of the Herc.
Wish I still had it as I've never found it online in any of these articles.
Wish I still had it as I've never found it online in any of these articles.
That Herc fot may have been one taken in the Falklands, generally believed to be doctored. I'm reminded of the 47AD private who was struck and killed by a Hercules, at South Cerney, flying too (needlessly) low. I believe the pilot was successfully prosecuted.
I remember Buccaneer involvement in Op Pulsator, and being present in flying ops after the jets recovered from their sorties. The in-cockpit banter "Roundabout, three hundred metres, hard right" ".. can't.. it says No Entry" etc was something to behold. We would go swimming offshore, far enough to be directly under the Buccs as they approached from the east, sometimes in showboat mode. It didn't have reheat, but as they lined up to beat up the airfield, they were imo, under 25/30 feet.
I once controlled a Harrier GR5 (7 maybe, I forget) in a hard turn that was later calibrated by another nation present, as being 28 feet and at the training speed of 420 knots. War use allowed 480 knots. Going back to the offshore thing, the Lightning would depart, relatively slowly and lowly until a km or so offshore, and then engage reheat and go vertical. It was worth swimming out, poodling around for a bit, just to be directly underneath the thing as it ascended. Staggering power.. simply stupefying to experience it like that.
I remember Buccaneer involvement in Op Pulsator, and being present in flying ops after the jets recovered from their sorties. The in-cockpit banter "Roundabout, three hundred metres, hard right" ".. can't.. it says No Entry" etc was something to behold. We would go swimming offshore, far enough to be directly under the Buccs as they approached from the east, sometimes in showboat mode. It didn't have reheat, but as they lined up to beat up the airfield, they were imo, under 25/30 feet.
I once controlled a Harrier GR5 (7 maybe, I forget) in a hard turn that was later calibrated by another nation present, as being 28 feet and at the training speed of 420 knots. War use allowed 480 knots. Going back to the offshore thing, the Lightning would depart, relatively slowly and lowly until a km or so offshore, and then engage reheat and go vertical. It was worth swimming out, poodling around for a bit, just to be directly underneath the thing as it ascended. Staggering power.. simply stupefying to experience it like that.
My grandparents used to live in Drummore in Luce Bay, they would regularly get the Buccaneers screaming over at low level to bomb in the target floats out in the bay.
You would never hear them coming but her little Cairn terrier always seemed to pick them up early and would go tearing off down the garden trying to catch one....
Luckily the Russians never caught on to dog based early warning systems.
You would never hear them coming but her little Cairn terrier always seemed to pick them up early and would go tearing off down the garden trying to catch one....
Luckily the Russians never caught on to dog based early warning systems.
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