Buccaneer 1992 - 1994 (5)

It was during this exercise, that the old girl started to show her age. Having just come off the tanker and brimming with fuel, XX867 entered low-level and during the first part of an S1 (long range Sea Eagle) tactic, at around 500kts, the undercarriage door cracked open. This led to the gear coming down and over-

extending, which in-turn damaged the drop tanks. 19,000lbs of fuel suddenly dropped to internals, normally plenty but the nearest base with a cable and better than yellow weather conditions was RAF Leeming – one hour away! The eventual landing was uneventful (despite coincidently making the News at Ten). Sadly, XX867 was never to be flown again.


This was closely followed by an even more telling failure. Two crews had flown to Schiphol for the exercise debrief. At the last minute, Stevie Tait (the back-seater on the previous incident) had asked to swap crews so that he could fly his last trip (the RTB) with Fras. This was to prove an exciting change; after an uneventful departure and transit, on selecting the airbrake on the break at Lossie, a disturbing noise was heard (not Stevie for once). Fras landed and was surprised to be met by the Sqn WO suggesting that he shut down rather sharpish. The crack turned out to be the airbrake mount, with nearly a tonne of airbrake now being held on by the actuator, had that failed it is unlikely that the aircraft could have been flown. Steve was now running out of clean flying suits and departed for the A6 with all haste. (Amazingly, none of this seems to have made it into the F540). We weren’t grounded, which seems to happen an awful lot twenty years on – however, they now call it 'a pause in operations', so we continued to support Ex Elder Joust, Ex Falcon Nut (not Wing Nut, one of the remaining pilots) and another JMC. By this time, 12 Sqn had folded, with many of the remaining crews coming to 208 for the last six months. Despite previous bar room hostilities, the Sqn remained a happy place.


January 93 saw the final Bucc detachments, RNLAF Volkel was the chosen destination for Northern Europe but we still managed to get away to Gibraltar one final time to assist with the work-up of our sister ship, HMS Liverpool. In the background, plans were being drawn up: these including the Endex celebrations and the possibility of extending the Sqn’s life by retaining six aircraft in the tactical tanker role, which was dismissed, to the relief of almost everyone.

…...continued

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