Ships, Merlins, Harriers, Seahawks, Dauphins... loadsa pics!

[DaveG]

Excellent collection of pictures Pielstick, thanks for taking the time to share them with us

[Captain Pugwash]

that was a fine set of pics. makes me wish i was back at sea in the rfa. the smell of jeta1 on the flightdeck and watching the newbies get zapped on the vertrep. ohh what fun. sadly most of the ships i sailed on have been broken up for razor blades. but i can proudly say i served on the last steam powered tanker with steam operated boom rigs. RFA Tidespring.
have you been deployed on the naughty boys trip yet, the falklands. i loved it down there and wanted to stay for a double run. they sent me back home and back to norway for 16 weeks on the percival.

[Pielstick]

have you been deployed on the naughty boys trip yet, the falklands. i loved it down there and wanted to stay for a double run. they sent me back home and back to norway for 16 weeks on the percival.

I did two trips on Gold Rover down there last year, my first trip as a 3/O(E) nonetheless! I found it pretty novel at first but it got boring very quickly. Five weeks broken down in Brasil helped a lot, as did the tax year

I have no idea where I'm off to next. Apparently Diligence has an absolutely amazing programme coming up, but I did a trip as a cadet on there in 2004 and remember it's an absolute nightmare for the engineers. I don't want any refits as they don't count towards sea time for my next ticket. Given the choice I would probably like to do a trip on Largs Bay - I haven't been on one of the new Bay Boats yet (I have heard they aren't very good) but it's out in the Carribbean, and having done the Far East, South Atlantic, and Middle East... the Carribbean will be the last tick in the box for me and I will have done all the regular foreign trips the RFA still does. I've also heard rumours that several RFAs will deploy with the war canoes to the Far East/Australia next year, and lots of VERY interesting port visits are planned. I wouldn't mind some of that!

Nigel - I have to admit I did get that taxi. It cost less than a quid for a boneshaking ride that got me back to the bus in time to get the last liberty boat back to the ship

[Garry Russell]

What a wonderful set of pics

I relly enjoyed that

Thanks for posting them

Garry

[Techy111]

Hey mate

Don't laugh as i rate the Sten well above the SA-80 as at least it's proper metal and won't break when you hit the enemy with it

probably more accurate than the SA too

Regards
Rick

Gimme a good SLR any day......

Excellent photos mate.....hats off to you boys....you looks like you had it rough.....Right...! ! !

Now in my days in the RAF........blah blah blah.....

Tony

[hobby]

Many thanks for that excellent selection of photos. 'Hell' does not look a nice place at all, I expect you were all glad to leave that place behind!
On Mondays in the UK Channel 5 is showing the program 'Warship' = HMS Illustrious so we were shown that the crew required more training before deployment. I felt quite embarrassed for the present day RN. A chum of mine (RNVR), who flew Avengers in the FAA in 1945 under the control of RAF Coastal Command, was aghast to hear the carrier referred to as 'Lusty' in that programme! He feels that to be an insult to the ship herself and to previous ships named 'Illustrious'.

I do not know how the RN conducts affairs but was surprised to see the flight deck resembling the poolside at a Lido although I do appreciate that the crew must get a good dose of fresh air as frequently as is possible. I also found it difficult to believe that RN pilots are today deployed without any experience of shipborne flightdeck depatures and arrivals. Those we saw achieving that feat for the first time had calm sea conditions but surely that cannot be the case all the time.

The RN always comes up trumps in the end and I hope that will continue.

[DelP]

Don't laugh as i rate the Sten well above the SA-80 as at least it's proper metal and won't break when you hit the enemy with it ...probably more accurate than the SA too

Coughs loudly...are we talking actual Stens here, or what I used to know as an SMG, produced by Stirling of Dagenham... :think:
I think what you saw Pielstick, were similar weapons: the Sub-Machine Gun Carbine 9 mm 1A1, manufactured under license by the Indian Ordnance Factory at Kanpur, and in general use in the Indian military.

I hasten to add that I now have little interest in such matters but was curious, so did a google ..proper metal indeed but I know from experience that when you drop them they will fire off the whole mag......... :o

Apologies for digressing....

Marvellous set of pictures Pielstick, quality in all respects

ATB,

Derek ;-)

[SkippyBing]

I do not know how the RN conducts affairs but was surprised to see the flight deck resembling the poolside at a Lido

Not 100% sure about the Carriers as I've only spent a few months on one, but that looked like a Sunday at sea routine to me with the PTIs arranging inter mess competitions etc. always good for morale.

Not sure about deck landing training for the Fast Jet boys, I don't think it helps them effectively being under RAF control as embarked aviation gets a lower priority. Certainly for the rotary types the final stage of the operational conversion phase is an embarked period operating on a war style footing with lots of deck ops day and night.

Pielstick, if you get the Largs let me know as my Flight are due to take over on there for the next trip.

[delticbob]

....We were due to leave the UK the next week on the ORION 08 deployment to the Gulf, but due to problems with the crew of HMS Illustrious (the Death Star) being bloody useless we were delayed by more than two weeks.

Great Pix Pielstick.

There was a film crew aboard Illistrious & we have been getting the results weekly at 9.pm on Channel Five on Mondays.

I know USS Cole has been mentioned but your ship has so far ( I believe) not featured - 2 programmes left so there is time.

Well done that man

Bob

[Pielstick]

Pielstick, if you get the Largs let me know as my Flight are due to take over on there for the next trip.

Will do. My appointer is pretty good and usually gives me a decent heads up on where I'm going and when. I'm due back mid-August, so I expect to find out sometime next month.

your ship has so far ( I believe) not featured

That doesn't surprise me at all. The sad fact is 99.9% of the British Public don't even know that we exist, let alone know what we actually do. It's quite sad really as we've been doing it since 1905 and we are the best in the world at what we do! The RFA is also the largest employer in the UK shipping industry too. We represent the less glamourous side of things and as such we very rarely get mentioned, if at all.

Suffice to say HMS Illustrious and all the other war canoes wouldn't have got very far without us!