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Plane Tales

Capt Nick

The View from Our Side of the Cockpit Door

leisure aviation

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21:08

RAF Form 414, Vol 24

Plane Tales ·

2024/02/05

After I landed my aircraft I clambered out of the Hornet with the cold realisation that I might have flown my last sortie. The spinning sensation had ceased and the sortie had gone beautifully, it was almost as if it had been a bad dream. A continuation of tales from the Old Pilot's logbook, RAF Form 414. Was the sun about to set on my career? The surgery span round and round Promotion Exercise K89 One of our opponents, the F16 Firing off live missiles like the AIM 7M

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10:39

A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Moon

Plane Tales ·

2024/02/05

The year is 1957 and the space race is underway. The major powers around the world, mainly the Soviet Union and the United States, are all striving to develop the technology that will allow them to reach outer space. The Soviet Union’s Academy of Sciences prime aim was to beat the Americans into Earth orbit and their top secret Sputnik project was about to reward all the efforts put in by a generation of scientists and engineers. Sputnik 1 was soon to be placed atop an R-7 rocket and launched into

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18:58

Flight 600

Plane Tales ·

2024/02/01

Let me take you back to the dim distant past and Captain Jeff’s start with his legacy airline, ACME, I mean Delta, no ACME, Delta, Acta, Delme… oh whatever. His career started, not in the Captain’s seat but somewhere in the bowels of flight deck, sitting sideways with control panels in front of him instead of windows, that stretched to the ceiling! Jeff was an engineer on his favourite three holer, the Boeing 727. The loss rate for this iconic airliner was, unhappily, quite high. As of 2019 the

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19:46

The Consequence of a Deliberate Act

Plane Tales ·

2024/02/01

Two of the Saratoga’s F14 Tomcats were tasked to defend the carrier against a simulated attack during Exercise Display Determination 87. The leader of this small formation included a senior pilot and skipper of a newly arrived Junior Grade Lieutenant Timothy Dorsey. Many years later, Dorsey would be nominated for promotion to a one-star Rear Admiral, an appointment that required Congressional approval. What stood in his way was an incident that occurred during that fateful day in 1987. USS

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18:51

Rocket Man Part 2

Plane Tales ·

2024/02/01

Part 2 of my interview with my mate Matt, steely eyed rocket man extraordinaire. Goonhilly Gyros and spacecraft in Telstar The interior of Telstar The magnitude of space junk around the world The first live TV pictures transmitted via satellite Images under Creative Commons licence with thanks to NASA, I Alison, Rama, NASA, US Gov, the BBC and Andrew Bulko

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18:43

Rocket Man

Plane Tales ·

2024/02/01

At first glance he looks to be a rather scruffy and unkempt elderly chap but behind the heavy glasses there are two twinkling eyes that reveal more than you can imagine. Indeed, appearances can be deceiving as this retired RAF Technician could have well been a steely eyed missile man as he controlled military satellites around during the Cold War. Meet my mate Matt! Sputnik RAF Oakhanger Inmarsat equipment on board a ship Not every launch was a

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21:07

When History Repeats Itself

Plane Tales ·

2024/02/01

In the tale, the Applegate Memorandum, I described the difficult birth that McDonnell Douglas had with the DC-10 when it’s safety record was permanently marred by a cargo door design flaw that plagued its introduction. Sadly, this wasn’t the only issue that was going to discredit the aircraft in the eye of its passengers and they would ultimately condemn the world’s first 3 engined wide body as a dangerous failure. Although the aircraft’s problems with its cargo doors could be firmly laid at the

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19:44

RAF Form 414, Vol 23

Plane Tales ·

2024/01/30

I left you last time after we had returned with our Hornets from New Zealand having had a very productive and interesting few weeks working with the Kiwi A4 Skyhawks. We soon settled back into our Squadron HQ at RAAF Williamtown and started to work up some Maritime Strike tactics against the ships of the Australian Navy. These were early days for the Australian Hornets and the anti ship missiles that were to be purchased had yet to be properly integrated into the aircraft’s weapons system... and

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14:53

The Wood Duck, Part 2

Plane Tales ·

2023/10/03

The conclusion of a chat over a pint with Wood Duck, the Royal Australian Air Force Air Attache to the Australian High Commission in London. Images of No 2 OCU when it was equipped with the FA18 The handover of No 2 OCU Hornets to the new commanding officer and the new F35 Lightning fighters. RSAF Hawk trainers

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15:30

The Wood Duck, Part 1

Plane Tales ·

2023/10/03

As a fighter pilot on the newly formed 77 Squadron Royal Australian Air Force, now equipped with brand new FA/18s, we had many experienced pilots but before long we also acquired pilots on their first operational type. One such pilot was Woody, or more formally known as Wood Duck and flying the Hornet was just the start of a long career in aviation that took him all around the world. Now the Air Attache at the Australian High Commission in London, Woody and I met at a local hostelry and had a beer

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20:41

The Risk Takers

Plane Tales ·

2023/10/03

So you want to be an airline pilot? You want to travel the world, visit strange and exotic countries and immerse yourself in the wonders of foreign cultures? You want to make a good living, bring up a family and plan for a wonderful retirement driving your luxurious RV around the wide open spaces of your beloved country? Has it crossed you mind that your chosen occupation might not be the safest way to achieve your dreams? The Old Curmudgeon rides again Airliner crashes are rare

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18:34

RAF Form 414, Vol 22

Plane Tales ·

2023/08/31

I trust that you will recall the stories from my RAF Logbook which had reached the point of my first Hornet deployment to New Zealand to work with the Kiwi A4 Skyhawks of No 75 Squadron Royal New Zealand Air Force at Ohakea. The squadron we were working with had a rich history and I was sure I was going to enjoy my time with them. 75 Sqn RNZAF formed with Wellingtons purchased by the New Zealand government 75 Sqn A4 Skyhawk The Kiwi Red formation team Inverted whilst in

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19:06

Straighten Up and Fly Right

Plane Tales ·

2023/08/15

The Right Hand Traffic Rule stated that an aircraft which was flying within the United Kingdom in sight of the ground and following a road, railway, canal or coastline, or any other line of landmarks shall keep such line of landmarks on its left. For reasons that defeat me the rule went on to give an exception stating, “provided that this rule shall not apply to a helicopter following the Motorway M4 on a route from West Drayton to Osterley Lock!” Let me take you back to the the birth of

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19:50

Brass Monkeys

Plane Tales ·

2023/08/15

Traditionally the phrase Brass Monkeys goes hand in hand with weather so cold that only a naughty sounding description like, “It’s cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey,” will suffice. If, however, you were the crew member a NATO aircraft in Europe during the tense times of the Cold War, Brass Monkeys meant something very specific! It was a code phrase that everyone knew of and listened out for on the Guard frequency just in case it was broadcast. Two or three minutes into the flight

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17:59

RAF Form 414, Vol. 21

Plane Tales ·

2023/08/11

Life on 77 Squadron had settled down to a routine, if it ever really could on a fighter squadron. There was certainly plenty of variety to our flying. In one month I flew some practice bombing attacks, both day and night, on the Evans Head weapon’s range north by 230 nm. This was followed by a 4 ship formation demonstration of ground attack on our own airfield as part of an Open Day celebration for the public. Then night radar bombing on the Beecroft range at Jarvis bay about 150 nm south. Then we

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21:53

Fifteen Hundred Hours

Plane Tales ·

2023/08/10

Marvin and Rebecca's first two flights of the day were cancelled due to high winds at Newark so they both waited in the crew room until their company dispatch released them for flight 3407 at 6pm, 4 and a half hours after their initial report time. Certainly for Rebecca, it had been a long time since she had done more than nap in a chair. Their flight to Buffalo was due to take 53 minutes and they were carrying 45 passengers which, along with their two cabin attendants meant that they had 49 souls

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19:38

Great Uncle Baz

Plane Tales ·

2023/08/06

With thanks to listener Sam Dawson who has such interesting relatives and to Betty Goerke, the author of a book about Baz Bagby, A Broken Propeller. I am pleased to present the story of Sam Dawson's Great Uncle Baz. Stunt pilot Lincoln Beachey at Niagara The 1st Aero Squadron Early Aerial Reconnaissance The 88th Aero Squadron General Billy Mitchell The start of the Great Transcontinental Air Race Great Uncle Baz Images under creative commons licence with thanks to

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21:12

RAF Form 414, Vol. 20

Plane Tales ·

2023/08/04

The continuation of my log book tales, otherwise known as RAF Form 414, and we are up to Volume 20. Apart from other asides, this tale deals with my accidental overflight of a very secret satellite surveillance base run by the Australians and the CIA! Overflying Uluru (Ayres Rock) My arrival at Alice Springs airport My 'circumnavigation' of Australia My aircraft being impounded on arrival at RAAF Pearce Seeing my father at the 1881 Resturant The Great Australian

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21:21

The Applegate Memorandum

Plane Tales ·

2023/08/03

The DC-10 was McDonnell Douglas's first commercial airliner project since the merger between McDonnell Aircraft Corporation and the Douglas Aircraft Company in 1967. It started life on the drawing boards as a 4 engined, double decked, wide body airliner that could carry 550 passengers but morphed into single deck, three engined aircraft that could carry one passenger short of 400! In what was expected to be a knockout blow to the competing Lockheed L-1011, the President of American Airlines and

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19:20

RAF Form 414, Vol. 19

Plane Tales ·

2023/04/20

Telling the tale of my flying career, I left you at the end of my F/A18 conversion course as we reformed the No 77 Royal Australian Air Force Squadron with their brand new Hornets. So far our one and only aircraft A21-5 was being shared around and everyone wanted a piece of it, either to fly or learn how to fix it. The squadron execs were pretty busy dealing with the job of getting the new squadron personnel squared away so the rest of us got more than our share of flying. There wasn’t much we

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