Air Training Corps - which aircraft did you fly in?
Air Training Corps - which aircraft did you fly in?
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Discussion

nammynake

Original Poster:

2,657 posts

202 months

Sunday 5th January 2014
quotequote all
I was in the ATC from 1991-1996 and had flights in the following:

Chipmunk:


Valiant? Got my BGT (1 solo flight after training at RAF Catterick):


HS125 'Royal Flight' in Northolt (ferried some fast jet pilots up to Scotland) then had a return flight with just me and a fellow cadet.


Sea King:


And best of all a VC-10 refuelling aircraft - even saw first hand it refuelling a couple of Tornados. The crew just let us walk into the rear where the central fuel tank was and we peered out of the windows as they refuelled!. Incredible experience!

Supernova190188

933 posts

168 months

Sunday 5th January 2014
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Just the chipmunk and the glider for me, would have loved to have had the chance to go in a proper aircraft!

Siko

2,065 posts

271 months

Sunday 5th January 2014
quotequote all
Chipmunk, Jetstream and Dominie. Now fly Air Cadets in the Grob tutor from the same Air Experience Flight I flew the Chipmunk with in 1987 biggrin

Ledaig

1,806 posts

291 months

Sunday 5th January 2014
quotequote all
Venture T2
Chippy
Wessex (including a play on the winch)
Cessna 150, 152 and 172 on a Flying Scholarship.

And not much since irked

perdu

4,885 posts

228 months

Sunday 5th January 2014
quotequote all
Nowhere near as much as a cadet in the sixties but;

Chippy -many flights RAF Shawbury and two at RAF Driffold. Could have been RAF Dishforth, I forget. We were not able to fly from camp at RAF Linton-on-Ouse. JP time was restricted to the RAF chappies.frown
Just checked Wikiwonderful, looks as if it was RAF Dishforth after all, as it was a satellite station for RAF L-O-O. 60MU were based there in the sixties and when we offloaded from the coach there were lines and lines of dH Vampire T11s lined up for disposal.

Hastings -two flights at RAF Colerne including an overfly of RAF Lyneham, 1hr25 and 1hr35 total flying time. Discovered the white box on these trips.

T21 Sedbergh about half a dozen launches RAF Colerne (behind a V8 Ford Pilot, oh boy the ground trips in that were immense recovering cable to launch)
And RAF Cosford with winch launching and a venerable Landy for cable recovery.

T31 Cadet at Cosford a single launch..

All my Cadet time was abandoned because Cadet Perdu discovered girls, silly young git as I was (am now too but old...)

Had many other flights as a CI years later, mostly RAF Shawbury at 8AEF and others including RAF Wattisham.

A planned Lightning two seater blag aborted as the a/c went u/s. Never mind eh?

Edited by perdu on Sunday 5th January 23:04


Edited by perdu on Sunday 5th January 23:12

Hilts

4,684 posts

311 months

Monday 6th January 2014
quotequote all
Apart from the usual stuff I had about 8 or 9 Nimrod trips which were great fun apart from the stty food.

I did a 30 hr scholarship on a Cessna 152.

I also spent a day and flew on the Shackleton with 8 Sqn as a sort of reward for winning a trophy. The boss of the squadron, Stephen Roncoroni, made me feel very welcome. I sat in on the briefings and was shown around the aircraft before the trip. He was also the Captain on my flight, sadly he was killed a few months later in the crash on Harris.

This is the one I flew in.


perdu

4,885 posts

228 months

Monday 6th January 2014
quotequote all
Hilts said:
Apart from the usual stuff I had about 8 or 9 Nimrod trips which were great fun apart from the stty food.

I did a 30 hr scholarship on a Cessna 152.

I also spent a day and flew on the Shackleton with 8 Sqn as a sort of reward for winning a trophy. The boss of the squadron, Stephen Roncoroni, made me feel very welcome. I sat in on the briefings and was shown around the aircraft before the trip. He was also the Captain on my flight, sadly he was killed a few months later in the crash on Harris.

This is the one I flew in.

Yup

You win thumbup

colour me jealous...

Eric Mc

125,606 posts

294 months

Monday 6th January 2014
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One of the things I definitely missed out on living in Ireland. If I'd been brought up here I would have joined the ATC like a shot.

williamp

20,381 posts

302 months

Monday 6th January 2014
quotequote all
Supernova190188 said:
Just the chipmunk and the glider for me, would have loved to have had the chance to go in a proper aircraft!
Same. Although at farnborough in 1992?? I sat in a mig 23, mig29, f15, plus shared some italian chocolate in their transport aircaraft. 8 of us, girls and boys getting changed in the back of a sherpa minibus was quite exciting too!!

Best experience was in 1990. The surviving BoB pilots had a big event for the 50th anniversary, and I met a lot of them, served them dinner and helped with the day. I was very proud

Gaspode

4,167 posts

225 months

Monday 6th January 2014
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I was in the ATC from 1973 to 1976, and flew Chipmunks and those ancient open cockpit gliders they had back then. I also got to fly in Britannias, but nothing as cool as that Shackleton.

I'm amazed that they were still flying Chipmunks into the 80s.

jmorgan

36,010 posts

313 months

Monday 6th January 2014
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Chipmonks, open fronted gliders (one where balance weight was slotted in like a torpedo). VC10, part configured for freight and the pilot did a comet comet on us. Some luck so and so in summer camp in Germany got a ride in a Lightning trainer. We nearly got a ride on Concorde one year when they were training at Brize.... arse. Some Dominies were at Gibralter but my name was not pulled out the hat. Damn. Went to the top of the rock and watched some Jaguars belt up and down the runway.

Pilot to me. How many flights?
Me, 6 or 7 sir.
Pilot. You have control.

He had just lined up at Filton for take off.

Oh well. Good times.

Boatbuoy

1,975 posts

191 months

Monday 6th January 2014
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Over the course of being a cadet, and then as an Adult Warrant Officer, I flew in:

Chipmunk x 5
Vigilant x 5
Tutor x 7
Hercules
Jetstream x 2
Tristar x 2
Wessesx
Sea King x 4 (RAF x 2, RN x 2)
Puma x 2
Gazzelle x 3
Chinook x 2

Loved every one of them! Highlights included having the 'Reds' formate alongside us over RAF Cranwell on one of the Jetstream flights, being winched in/out of RAF Sea Kings, flying under the national grid power lines on a Puma flight and sitting on the rear ramp of a Chinook flying down the heli-lanes in Central London.

Stuff that money can't buy.

tight5

2,747 posts

188 months

Monday 6th January 2014
quotequote all
chipmunk
Sedbergh http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slingsby_T.21
Kirby Cadet http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slingsby_Kirby_Cadet
Hercules
sea king
Chinook ( lifting 105mm guns for the army )


whilst not flying , I did represent the ATC in the RAF recce comp one year ( positioned 4th )

Edited by tight5 on Monday 6th January 10:39

Hard-Drive

4,291 posts

258 months

Monday 6th January 2014
quotequote all
Chipmunk
Grob G103 Viking...went solo before passing my driving test :-)
Sedbergh
767 sim at Cranebank
Also during camp at RAF Waddington got to crawl all over an AWACS, oh, and help start this thing called XH558 thumbup

mgreenwood

120 posts

214 months

Monday 6th January 2014
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In the ATC 1980 to 1986 with 1053 (Armthorpe) Sqn

Aircraft flown

Chpimunk
VC10
Hercules
Jetstream
Dominie
Tristar
Gazelle
Slingsby Sedbergh
Grob Viking
Slingsby Venture
Britannia B737 to camp in Cyprus and Gibralter
Total in excess of 50 hours - great times!

RB5Bird

502 posts

224 months

Monday 6th January 2014
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As a cadet:
Vigilant, Instructor
Viking, Instructor
Janus,
Valiant, Single seater - Awesome machine.
Chipmunk,
Bulldog, Pilot/Nav course. (cadet)
Sea King,
VC10 to Cyprus and return.

Whilst in the RAF:
Mostly Chinook,
Herc, Falklands,
VC10, Falklands - refuelling,
Tristar, Various Afghan dets,
C17, As above.
(747 Airbridge to Falklands).

Had a random trip in a Dakota from Inverness airport whilst on the ACPNTS, and also a trip in a Tiger Moth from near the end of Lossiemouth runway. Very random, but cool.

Edited by RB5Bird on Monday 6th January 15:34

0000

13,816 posts

220 months

Monday 6th January 2014
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I was an Air Scout rather than ATC, seemed a bit more laid back to me. Often ended up in the same places though so I did get to fly a Bulldog from Boscombe Down.

aspender

1,405 posts

294 months

Monday 6th January 2014
quotequote all
CCF RAF Section in the '90s:

Chipmunk
Nimrod
Herc
VC-10

and best of all:

Bulldog, getting to learn and fly acrobatics including a stall turn
Canberra T4 as a prize for best cadet one year

Ranger 6

7,660 posts

278 months

Monday 6th January 2014
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My son is looking to the ATC as soon as he's old enough, he's only 10 at the moment. What advice would you give to someone setting out like him?

schuey

705 posts

239 months

Monday 6th January 2014
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I was in from 93-97 and flew in...
Chipmunk
Vigilant
Bulldog
K10 glider
Sea king.

Chipmunk was the best by far " Jump John,Jump!".