On Wed, Jul 15, 2009 at 5:54 AM, David Cragg <[email protected]> wrote:
> There used to be three - two of them Hercules - who train the paratroops. > They fly low to simulate battle (we think) and try to make the new kids > airsick (maybe). They used to be at Abingdon where they are infamous for > doing such low runs over the field that one guy who climbed on top of a > truck as part of the fun had his head knocked off. > > They tend to pass over lots of England on their travels apart from going to > Africa - where both pilots in one plane jumped with the troops and the > navigator flew the plane back to base to find some high up air bod doing a > snap inspection - he was not amused. Maybe they have been back there as we > have not seen or heard them around here lately. (Thought this may be as the > two royal princes are in training at the local helicopter school - so anyone > on the Shroppie/Llangollen may find themsevles being stared at in a > royal/peasants way.) Certainly the Hercules might be considered a danger to > the royal blood line as they are big fast and low and fly a very erratic > course twisting all over the landscape and seeming to target certain > building to go over very low. They used to fly over and if you were in the > fields and waved would waggle their wings. On turns their wingtips were > below tree level to keep under the radar as it were. > > Many years ago, I was Second Officer on a Canadian weather ship. Our station was at 50 degrees North, 145 degrees West. As a navigation exercise, the RCAF used to send their Argus aircraft from the east coast to find us and take pictures to prove they were there. As luck would have it, they would fly over us at about 0300, at about 200 feet above sea level. They had the courtesy to call us up on the radio and advise us not to look up as they flew over, because they were going to take our picture. I'm not certain what they used for a camera, but I'm told that the flash was about 1 million candle power [you can figure out what that is in lux--I don't care!] The sound was tremendous--the only thing I can think of that might be familiar to you occurred when we were doing the Warwickshire Ring a few years ago, and as we were passing beneath a railway bridge, one of the Virgin high speed trains passed overhead--need I say more? cheers, Phil nb nostalgiaaintwhatitusedtobe -- Phil & Anne Irons Sydney, Nova Scotia [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
