RAF Wattisham......finally!

[delbydoo]

Never? When that beautiful Fujimi 1/72 Phantom first came out in 84 I was working in Beatties and bought 3 of them (with staff discount of course) so what was the first one I built? The sharkmouth naturally.... Thanks Steve

[Firebird]

Awww shucks!
Yep I am guilty. The boys from the paint shop weren't pleased at first, but they did a wonderful job.

I am just glad that nobody has dug up any pics of me at that Greenham in my flying suit.

As a side note, XV501/B also at that display was in fact a 56 Sqn aircraft but it was painted to represent 23 Sqn bird. They were a bit busy at the time defending the South Atlantic. We had Wattisham all to ourselves. Only one person I met actually picked up on the fact that the tail code was in 56 red as opposed to 23 white.

[mackem21]

Hi Firebird your story about paint reducing the Rader signal on the Phantom radom is correct. As a Ex Painter I remember the story been told to us While at Marham. A simlar story happened to me in 87 when i was sent on detachment for the week from Marham to Brize for the MOD Defence Collage Display inside Base Hanger. To prep a Aircraft for a display. We had repainted a Tornado from 27 Sqn in the normal camo scheme, but in a semi gloss finish for the static display .The aircraft was flown down to Brize for the show. After a couple of days cleaning the A/C. It was gleaming except for the brand new radom which also had been fitted prior to been flown to Brize. The A/C was inspected by a Group Captain prior to the show who complained about the A/C Radom as it was covered by fly debris etc and not shiny. The SGT in charge told us that the Group Captain wanted the radom boot polished . So off we went to get some black boot polish and shoe shine,s.It looked gleaming after we had finished. A few weeks later i was called into the Sgts office in the Marham Paint shop and he told me the Radom had to be replaced and was been sent to St Athan to be repainted again. As the polish was causing Rader problems for the Tornado Aircrew and that 27 Sqn SENGO was on the war path and wanted to know who had requested that we boot polish the Radom.We knew it was wrong !! but we only done as we were told.

[Firebird]

Hi mackem.
As I recall they said that it would reduced the max range of the radar by about 5-10nm. One pilot moaned that he was only allowed to shoot them at about 24nm so he couldn't see what the fuss was about.
We did hear that the original 111 sqn design for that meet was a complete gloss black machine with their traditional yellow markings being done in gold leaf! At least somebody had some common sense, somewhere, to knock that one on the head.

[Stewart Pearson]

Hi Firebird your story about paint reducing the Rader signal on the Phantom radom is correct. As a Ex Painter I remember the story been told to us While at Marham. A simlar story happened to me in 87 when i was sent on detachment for the week from Marham to Brize for the MOD Defence Collage Display inside Base Hanger. To prep a Aircraft for a display. We had repainted a Tornado from 27 Sqn in the normal camo scheme, but in a semi gloss finish for the static display .The aircraft was flown down to Brize for the show. After a couple of days cleaning the A/C. It was gleaming except for the brand new radom which also had been fitted prior to been flown to Brize. The A/C was inspected by a Group Captain prior to the show who complained about the A/C Radom as it was covered by fly debris etc and not shiny. The SGT in charge told us that the Group Captain wanted the radom boot polished . So off we went to get some black boot polish and shoe shine,s.It looked gleaming after we had finished. A few weeks later i was called into the Sgts office in the Marham Paint shop and he told me the Radom had to be replaced and was been sent to St Athan to be repainted again. As the polish was causing Rader problems for the Tornado Aircrew and that 27 Sqn SENGO was on the war path and wanted to know who had requested that we boot polish the Radom.We knew it was wrong !! but we only done as we were told.

Ah yes the good old Forces. If it moves - salute it, if it doesn't move - paint it white or polish it.

[Stewart Pearson]

Hi mackem.
As I recall they said that it would reduced the max range of the radar by about 5-10nm. One pilot moaned that he was only allowed to shoot them at about 24nm so he couldn't see what the fuss was about.
We did hear that the original 111 sqn design for that meet was a complete gloss black machine with their traditional yellow markings being done in gold leaf! At least somebody had some common sense, somewhere, to knock that one on the head.

Brings to mind the last operational year of 111's "Black Mike" Phantom. It was off for a weekend at an airshow down south (not sure which).

Anyway it flew back on the Monday morning (flight crew no doubt a tad delicate) and as it did a run in and break at Leuchars, we were in fits of laughter. The underside had a huge "6 SQN" zap in dayglo orange tape plastered over a very large area.

[mackem21]

Ha Zapping ,!!!! a Painters Nightmare .I recall that this was a pastime hobby for the sqaudron techie lads when a visiting A/C came or they were visting .Remember 617 Sqn Tonkas always get Zapped and had to have their Fins and nose always to be painted.We always put our Zaps in the Undercarrige bay or Door.

[mackem21]

Hi Firebird
Do miss painting aircraft these days, but the RAF trade is not the same now especially with the RAF purse strings pulled very tight. Some of the past Tornado and Phantom paint schemes have been brillant.

[Firebird]

Tight purse strings is right.
I can remember when i first joined BA seeing Nimrods, MR2s + R1s, being stripped to metal and painted in Hemp and Grey in our TBK. Was a hell of a surprise. I never saw anything about that being contracted out, especially the R1's. It must have been cheaper/quicker for BA to do it I guess.

[wildcat]

I seem to recall a certain 56 sqn ops guy at farnborough with a tornado zap that was strategicaly placed on a certain black aircraft

[Firebird]

Well you would know, you were my blocker that day!

We even managed to blag our way into a FAF Alpha Jet, which was cool.

[Stewart Pearson]

Ha Zapping ,!!!! a Painters Nightmare .I recall that this was a pastime hobby for the sqaudron techie lads when a visiting A/C came or they were visting .Remember 617 Sqn Tonkas always get Zapped and had to have their Fins and nose always to be painted.We always put our Zaps in the Undercarrige bay or Door.

Well to be honest 617 deserve it at times.

Some of their aircrew have had the habit of strutting around believing that they really are Guy Gibson.

[Stewart Pearson]

Well you would know, you were my blocker that day!

We even managed to blag our way into a FAF Alpha Jet, which was cool.

M'lud I would submit that this is indeed an admission of guilt. The prosecution rests.

[Firebird]

*hehehe*

[wildcat]

Well you would know, you were my blocker that day!

We even managed to blag our way into a FAF Alpha Jet, which was cool.

M'lud I would submit that this is indeed an admission of guilt. The prosecution rests.

M'lud,As this was done in the finest tradition of the Royal Air Force,there is no case to answer,the defence rests.

Case dismissed,beers on steve

[MickeyD]

What is a 29 Sqn bird doing at WTM anyway? Did they throw in an odd visitor?

They do state in their doc that visitors from Coningsby, plus Herks visit the station. I wonder if Mr. Tomkiewicz knows if people are paying for his C-130, as well as whomever painted them for the ukmil-ai package (not to confused with UKMIL)?

Yup Mr Tomkiewicz does know and SDB has had his full permission to use his AI models from back in our Alphasim days. And yes we do send him royalties for each scenery sold. Also ALL our repaints are done " in house " by my SDB colleague and ace repainter Frank Safranek. ( Apart from the mistake I made with the FS9 29Sqn bird ). We also have permission from Fernando Martinez from way back then too, as well as many ex-Alphasim devs and also Phil Perrot of Virtavia. Which is great cos I can't make AI. Anyone here offering?

Mike Dews
Team SDB Founder Member

PS. Oops I forgot Nick Black who allowed us use of his B-1B,

[Stewart Pearson]

Yup Mr Tomkiewicz does know and SDB has had his full permission to use his AI models from back in our Alphasim days. And yes we do send him royalties for each scenery sold. Also ALL our repaints are done " in house " by my SDB colleague and ace repainter Frank Safranek. ( Apart from the mistake I made with the FS9 29Sqn bird ). We also have permission from Fernando Martinez from way back then too, as well as many ex-Alphasim devs and also Phil Perrot of Virtavia. Which is great cos I can't make AI. Anyone here offering?

Mike Dews
Team SDB Founder Member

PS. Oops I forgot Nick Black who allowed us use of his B-1B,

Mike,

In ordinary circumstances that would not be a problem. Unfortunately you are posting at MAIW.................which at the moment should also be referred to as "The One Legged Arse Kickers Collective"

[Mirage4FS]

Ha Zapping ,!!!! a Painters Nightmare .I recall that this was a pastime hobby for the sqaudron techie lads when a visiting A/C came or they were visting .Remember 617 Sqn Tonkas always get Zapped and had to have their Fins and nose always to be painted.We always put our Zaps in the Undercarrige bay or Door.

If anyone is interested here's an account from 1976 of a Harrier getting zapped during a squadron exchange at Dijon in France.
http://www.mirage4fs.com/m_gerard_new.html#harrier

[Firebird]

The largest zap I ever saw was on a Vulcan at Akrotiri.
On one fateful APC, gun qualification, our line mechs decided that Vulcan tail reminded them of the days that 56 were based in Akrotiri and had the entire tail in red and white checks. A couple of them got to work and needless to say that by the end of the week it looked quite splendid.

Of course that beastie got zapped by everybody, we just went OTT.

[merlin101]

I have just installed this scenery, looks great, apart from I have HAS's over lapping on the 56 sqdn area! I've left the required files in from the MAIW Apache set as per instructions. Anyone else had similar problem?
Dave