I had imagined, Chris, that a passenger in a single-seat fighter would be
sitting on the pilot's lap - which your IO might not have appreciated much.
Perhaps I am letting my imagination run too freely?
The panorama was your shot of the sky from the Grob - isn't that a fenland
panorama, with b*gger-all to see from the ground except for the sky?
;-)
Piers
-----Original Message-----
From: Chris Barker [mailto:ftog@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx]
Sent: 06 January 2011 20:48
To: Olympus Camera Discussion
Subject: Re: [OM] OT: A great day back at work
Very low, Piers, unless you know someone, are a very senior officer or are
the right sex. We have very few fast jets now and the 2-seat versions
(trainers) are much in demand for conversion or check rides.
[stop reading now if I have related this story before]
A trip in a Tornado was always pretty rare, but I used to take pax sometimes
(you had to be qualified as a back-seat pilot to be allowed to do so); one
was our (female) intelligence officer. I planned a trip from Marham, at
around 20,000 ft up the North Sea to descend to low level and to coast-in at
Coquet Island by Alnwick. Then we would motor down the Pennines at low
level on a gorgeous day viewing the scenery and enjoying the ride (sorry, I
mean professional training). But the poor girl was sick within minutes of
takeoff so I stuck to 3,000ft for the whole trip -- much less exciting but
also much smoother and less sick-making.
I gained smartie points from the girl by taking her sick bag from her while
taxiing back to the shelter: so that she could climb down the ladder without
ignominy. A chap did this for my wife when she had a trip in a Jaguar
trainer in 1979 and it seemed like a good deed.
The Hawk and Tucano have very good range for little aircraft, but the latter
deploys to Lossie or Kinloss for a week during their course for practice at
the wonderful low level of the Highlands.
Which panorama, Piers?
Chris
On 6 Jan 2011, at 19:07, Piers Hemy wrote:
> Eh? How "low" is the chance of a flight as passenger in *any*
> single-seat fighter, Chris?
>
> We had a Tucano around up here a few times in the summer, and a very
> occasional Hawk, to leaven the diet of pretty much daily Tornado
> flights on the range.
>
> Thanks for the lovely panorama of the fens - looks like you had fun
> :-)
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