Phil Perry

I'm inclined to agree with your take on this Mr. Hargreaves . . . San Carlos was a disgraceful leadership Clusterfeck of giant proportions, and No senior Naval nor Army officer ever took responsibility for leaving all those men exposed at anchor in those two troopships. . .What a juicy target for an air attack that was. . .fish in a bloody barrel. Shameful.

Thanks for that Sir. It is mildly ironic to note that for at least 15 years prior to the Falklands conflict, Argentinian military pilots received their basic training at Kidlington Airfield in Oxfordshire, UK.. . .

Sorry Mr. Hargreaves, I'm having difficulty understanding what you are saying here, But then again, I've always been a bit thick. . . . what is 'lomy dozo' ? Genuine question here.

Agreed Dave, mind you,. . the temperatures in the South Atlantic were not exactly warm either,. . . BUT in the Baltic and environs, they WERE extremely low temps. . .the greatest problem aboard HMS Sheffield, along with most of the casualties, was the fire damage as you say, which is why they scuttled her in the end. Not worth saving, and too far from home to tow anyhow. I'm, looking forward to BP's part three in this series. . .he's a damned good writer. ( His fictional writing is edge of the seat stuff - the man was Obviously a soldier,. . .he just knows Too much ! ) His series about the Iraq war in the early days was really good, some history there that I'd never read. Might paste those too if there's anyone interested. ( Pre WW2 )

Silly but amusing. . .

Here Ya go. . . The Opening Shots of the Falklands War- South Georgia 3rd April 1982 HMS Endurance prior to her hurried new paint job and a flying Supermarket Trolley (Wasp) PART ONE On 19th March 1982, the Argentine Navy’s Fleet Auxiliary the ARA Bahía Buen Suceso sailed into Leith Harbour on the Island of South Georgia and put ashore a party of Argentine scrap metal workers. Once ashore, the workers raised the Argentine flag; the so-called scrap metal workers had been infiltrated by Argentine Marines who were posing as civilian scientists. The reason for the Argentine workers’ landing on South Georgia was a contract between Constantino Davidoff and the British company Christian Salversen, for the scrapping of the abandoned whaling factories and facilities on the island. Aware of the contract, the Argentine Navy used Davidoff’s front to establish a covert base on the disputed territory. The plan was given the code name Operation ALPHA. The only British personnel at Leith were a small contingent of the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) headed up by Trefor Edwards. He handed the captain of the Bahía Buen Suceso a message from London that the Argentine flag was to be struck immediately and demanded that the party should leave the island. They were to report to the main party of the BAS at Grytviken before returning to the Argentine mainland. The scrap metal workers removed the flag but refused to either leave South Georgia or report to the BAS leader in Grytviken. A message was sent to the Governor of the Falkland Isles, Rex Hunt, who consulted with the FCO in London. The Governor was ordered to dispatch HMS Endurance to South Georgia with a detachment of twenty-two Royal Marines, in order to evict the Argentine workers. “You have landed illegally at Leith without obtaining proper clearance. You and your party must go back on board the Bahía Buen Suceso immediately and report to the Base Commander at Grytviken for further instructions. You must remove the Argentine flag from Leith. No military personnel are allowed to land on South Georgia. No firearms are to be taken ashore.” Although the Bahía Buen Suceso left Leith of her own accord, on 22nd March, the personnel remained and the Argentine Navy deployed the Corvettes ARA Drummond and ARA Granville to the area between South Georgia and the Falklands. This meant the Argentine ships could intercept the Endurance and remove any Argentine personnel who were on board. To further complicate matters, the Endurance found on its arrival at South Georgia the Argentine Survey Ship ARA Bahía Buen Suceso at anchor. The Marines under the command of Acting Lieutenant Mills RM were put ashore, under the most uncertain of situations. The young officer planned his dispositions and defences and waited. Mills was fortunate to have as his right-hand-man, the experienced Sergeant Leach. By now both countries were on the brink of conflict. Map of South Georgia The Endurance and the Bahía Buen Suceso played a game of cat and mouse around the ice floes and growlers around South Georgia. The captain of the Endurance had ordered the ships bright red hull to be overpainted white to aid concealment, but by 31st March the two ships lost contact with each other. The British orders, pathetic though they were, were to wait until the Argentine forces showed their hand. Mills received a radio message from the Endurance, that he should make only a token resistance to any Argentine violation of British territory. Lieutenant Keith Mills’ reply should go down in the annals of British military history: “Sod that, I’ll make their eyes water.” In the Interim, Mills learned by a message from the Endurance, that the Falkland Islands had been invaded, Port Stanley had fallen and he and his band of twenty-two brothers were very much on their own. The Argentine Navy ordered the Corvette ARA Guerrico to join Bahía Buen Suceso at Leith. The Corvette was equipped with two helicopters, an Army Puma and a navy Alouette III and had a compliment of 40 marines. The aim was the capture of Grytviken. The group would be called Grupo de Tareas 60.1 (Task Force 60.1), under the command of Captain Trombetta, on board Bahía Buen Suceso. At Grytviken Lieutenant Mills ordered that King Edward Point at the entrance of the bay should be fortified with wire and mines and defences dug in around the BAS building, Shackleton House. Endurance remained in the vicinity of South Georgia to act as a communications node between the Marine detachment and London. Mills was given his new rules of engagement, which authorised him to “Fire in self-defence after having issued a warning.” The Argentine plans were for an invasion on 2nd April, but bad weather delayed this. Special Forces under the command of veteran torturer of the Argentinian “Dirty War,” Captain Alfredo Astiz, were to land at Hope Point near Grytviken to secure the area for the arrival of main force by helicopters. The ARA Guerrico would provide fire support with her main gun after having forced entry into Grytviken harbour. The Argentine force thought they were only dealing with the unarmed scientists of the BAS. On the 3rd April the Bahía Buen Suceso contacted South Georgia by radio, demanding the surrender of all British personnel on the island. Mills said he would communicate with London to buy time and suggested that the BAS personnel take cover inside the church, away from the defensive positions and he issued his quick battle orders. But by then an Alouette helicopter was over the town and the Corvette was rounding King Edward Point. At 11:40 Local, the Alouette came to a hover over the dock at the British Antarctic Survey station. As it flared in to land, 23-year old Marine Robert Ashton shouted that he had the helicopter in his sights. He was ready to open fire with his 7.62mm LMG machine gun but Marine John Stonestreet yelled “don’t shoot!” Ashton assumed that the order had come from Lieutenant Mills, so he held his fire while Lieutenant Luna and his men landed from the helicopter and quickly dispersed among the buildings at the point. A few minutes later, a shot was fired by one of the Argentine Marines, beginning the engagement. (1) A Puma helicopter attempted to land fifteen Argentine Marines on King Edward Point at 1141. The Royal Marines dug in on King Edward Point didn’t hesitate this time and opened fire on the Puma with everything they had, little though it was. The Puma was hit and veered across the Bay, crash landing on the southern bank with two killed and four wounded (2). The Corvette Guerrico, according to the Argentine version of events withdrew because the captain was reluctant to have her exposed in such narrow waters (3) Map of Cumberland bay and The Corvette Guerrico’s track A party of Argentine Marines that had landed earlier began to work their way round the Bay, through the town towards the British positions (4). However, and most irritatingly for the Argentine forces, Lieutenant Mills was having the temerity of not following his rules of engagement to the letter. Fortunately for young Mills, Phil Shiner and Public Interest Lawyers weren’t in business in 1982. The Royal Marines pinned down the Argentine forces trying to outflank them with sustained and accurate fire and their commander, Captain Luna asked the Guerrico for urgent fire support. The Argentine Corvette once again headed into the harbour and opened fire at 1155. To her commander’s frustration, the Guerrico;s 20mm guns jammed after the first salvo, as did the 100mm main gun. The 40mm mounting jammed after firing just six rounds. As she swung about to head back out to sea, Mills and the Marines unleashed severe hate on the Argentine ship with sustained automatic fire and rounds of anti-tank missiles from their 84mm Karl-Gustav launcher. Sergeant Leach was armed that day with a L42A1 rifle. A conversion of the Lee–Enfield No. 4, Mk. 1(T). The L42A1 was chambered for the 7.62x51mm NATO cartridge and mounted the 3.5-power No. 32 scope. Lying on the table on the second floor of Shackleton House, the Sergeant sighted on the approaching ship’s bridge. By then, the Guerrico was once again facing the channel and closing on King Edward Point. A moment later, as the other Royal Marines began hammering away at the ship for a second time, Sergeant Leach began firing carefully aimed shots at the vessel. He directed his opening rounds at the five windows across the front of the bridge. At this point, only Captain Alfonso, the helmsman, and the quartermaster were manning that station as glass began to shatter. The three men were forced to crouch down behind ship’s structures to avoid being struck by the rapid succession of accurate shots coming from Leach’s sniper rifle. In his subsequent post operational report, Mills estimated that they engaged the Corvette at 550 metres and killed one sailor and injured four others. An Exocet launcher was put out of action and electrical cables to the 40mm gun were damaged. During the battle in the bay, the Argentines continued to land more troops and once safely out of small arms range, the Guerrico brought its 100mm main gun back into action. The Royal Marines were now coming under effective fire from Argentine Marines and the Corvette’s main armament. His small force was taking casualties and Mills knew that the writing was on the wall. At 1248 he ordered his men to cease fire and finding a white coat, he surrendered to the Argentine troops. He had achieved his aim and had followed his vague and inadequate orders, making the best use of his limited resources. Lieutenant Mills and the Marines had made their eyes water. The Royal Marines were treated well by their Argentine captors, disarmed and ferried to the Argentine mainland, then flown to Montevideo. There was a mutual respect between enemies of the same operational arm. Lieutenant Mills was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross and Sergeant Leach RM the Distinguished Service Medal. The scrap metal merchants remained on the island with a garrison of fifty-five Marines, which would be increased. The Endurance lurked in the area intelligence gathering until the 5th April. The twenty-two at Grytviken before the first battle. Author -Blown Periphery Nov 2017 Going postal blog

I've sent this in the wrong order actually, . .I've got Part One somewhere, ie, the attack on South Georgia, and it's defence by a handful of Royal Marines,. . I'll see if I can find where I've put it, as it's very good. . . BP says he's going to send Part three some time next week. . .

Exocets. . .yeah, I reckon our dear 'Friends' the FRENCH were the main culprits for selling those missiles to the Argies. . . the Brit security services perpetrated a brilliant scam though, setting up fake arms companies and buying large quantities of their Exocet stock ( which was never actually paid for ) and then stashing them out of the way in Europe somewhere. . . Superb scam by MI6 that. . .

The Opening Shots of the Falklands War – The Invasion of Port Stanley 2nd April 1982 The shaming of a Nation The Governor of the Falkland Islands and dependent territories Rex Hunt, received a telegram from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office on 1st April 1982. In blunt language it warned of a possible invasion of the Falkland Islands by the Armed Forces of Argentina. It offered the Governor no advice or external help: We have apparently reliable evidence that an Argentine task force could be assembling off Stanley at dawn tomorrow. You will wish to make your dispositions accordingly. Hunt summoned the two senior officers of Naval Party 8901 to Government House in Port Stanley, outlined the situation and observed somewhat dryly: “Sounds like the buggers mean it!” Because of his seniority, Major Mike Norman was given overall command of all defence forces and Major Gary Noott was appointed Military Advisor to Governor Hunt. The Royal Marines Naval Party was larger than normal due to this being a hand-over, take-over or a Relief in Place. Major Norman had under his command fifty-seven marines, eleven RN sailors and around thirty members of the Falkland Islands Defence Force (FIDF), a volunteer force under the command of Captain Phil Summers FIDF. The actual numbers of FIDF is difficult to quantify as differing accounts give differing numbers. I have chosen to quote the median. Twenty-two marines had been dispatched under the command of Lt Mills RM to South Georgia and they were having their own problems to deal with. Phil Summers tasked the members of the FIDF, which included his son, with guarding key installations such as the telephone exchange, power station and radio station. The civilian coastal ship Forrest operated as an ad-hoc radar warning off Port Stanley. Major Norman concentrated his main force in and around Port Stanley, while smaller units were pushed out to cover the approaches to the capital from the airport isthmus with observation posts overlooking Port William and Port Harriet to the south. Operation Rosario – The Argentine attack. Sequence of events during the attack on Port Stanley The Argentine amphibious landing Operation Rosario (Rosary) began during the late evening of 1st April 1982. The Destroyer ARA Santísima Trinidad landed naval Special Forces of the 1st Amphibious Commandos Group, south of Port Stanley in Port Harriet. The plan had been to land in Mullet Creek, but the commandos’ twenty-one small, inflatable boats became entangled in rafts of kelp and headed for the nearest beach at Lake Pont (A&B). The commandos split into two groups. The first under the command of Lieutenant-Commander Giachino, headed directly north towards Government House with the objective of its capture. The second commanded by Lieutenant-Commander Sabarots, skirted to the south west of Stanley with the objective of taking Moody Brook Barracks. Lieutenant-Commander Sabarots’ troops had difficult and arduous terrain to cross until they were in position around the barracks. Here the Argentine and British accounts differ. The Argentines maintain that they used tear gas to clear the barracks, forcing the marines out where they would be captured. After the surrender the Royal Marines were allowed to collect kit from the barracks and found the buildings riddled with machine gun bullets and burns from phosphorous grenades. In any case, Major Norman recalls fire coming from the direction of the barracks, so it was fortunate that the barracks were unoccupied (D). The Argentine submarine ARA Santa Fe had been conducting reconnaissance in Port William since 31st March and it had spotted the trawler Forrest. It was clear that the British were aware of a likely attack, so orders were changed. Fourteen members of the Tactical Divers Group were landed from the submarine at Yorke Bay ©, where they planted beacons for the main landings. They then headed towards the Pembroke Peninsular, where the airport was located. They captured the airport and lighthouse without meeting any resistance (J). This team also mopped up the stragglers and isolated defenders over the next couple of days. The Landing at Yorke Bay At 06:30 on the 2nd April, the tank landing ship ARA Cabo San Antonio moved into Yorke Bay and began landing twenty US-built LVTP-7A1 Argentine tracked amphibious armoured personnel carriers (Amtracs) (F). The vehicles carried D and E Companies of the 2nd Marine Infantry Battalion (BIM-2) from Puerto Belgrano. The landings were observed by a section of Royal Marines commanded by Lieutenant Bill Trollope and the information was radioed to Government House. The Amtracs trundled up the road heading west into Port Stanley. In the vicinity of the Ionospheric Research Station, the armoured vehicles were engaged with heavy and accurate machine gun fire and fire from rocket launchers (H). Lt Bill Trollope’s account gives this engagement more justice than I could: Six Armoured Personnel Carriers began advancing at speed down the Airport Road. The first APC was engaged at a range of about 200 to 250 metres. The first three missiles, two 84 mm and one 66 mm, missed. Subsequently one 66 mm fired by Marine Gibbs, hit the passenger compartment and one 84 mm Marines [George] Brown and [Danny] Betts hit the front. Both rounds exploded and no fire was received from that vehicle. The remaining five APCs which were about 600 to 700 metres away deployed their troops and opened fire. We engaged them with GPMG, SLR and sniper rifle [sergeant Ernie Shepherd] for about a minute before we threw a white phosphorus smoke grenade and leap-frogged back to the cover of gardens. Incoming fire at that stage was fairly heavy, but mostly inaccurate. The Royal Marines withdrew through the town, attempting make it to Government House. They fought their way through gardens, over walls and fences, coming under friendly fire as they skirted a football pitch. Eventually they reached a house near Government House and were ordered upstairs and given defensive positions by Major Noote. A section commanded by Corporal York had been manning their lonely position at Navy Point, Overlooking Stanley Harbour on the Camber Peninsular. They fired a Karl Gustav anti-tank missile at an approaching Argentine Landing Craft Vehicle Personnel (LCVP). In their debrief they claim the round penetrated the side of the LCPV killing all on board. The Argentine accounts of course dispute this. The Battle of Government House Government House Lieutenant-Commander Giachino and his force of sixteen men and a useless radio faced quite a task in taking Government House. All semblance of surprise had gone, and suspecting after what had happened at Moody Brook Barracks, the Royal Marines were unlikely to go down without a fight. This was where the bulk of the British defenders were located and Giachino’s unit was outnumbered. The attack on Government House commenced at around 06:30 with Argentine commandos and Royal Marines exchanging shots and sniper fire. Giachino and four men attempted to enter the building via the servant’s quarters, an annex at the rear of the main building. This attempt to gain entry was repulsed by Corporals Sellen and Fleet with Marine Dorey who were covering this part of the building. Lieutenant Commander Giachino was cut down as he burst through the door and Lieutenant Quiroga was hit in the arm. The other three retreated upstairs into the maids’ quarters. Giachiano was critically wounded and a paramedic attempting to reach him was wounded with a grenade. Giachiano pulled the pin from his grenade and threatened to use it. The Royal Marines tried to persuade him to throw the grenade away so that he could receive medical treatment, but he refused. Giachiano kept hold of the grenade until the British surrender some three hours later. He died in Port Stanley Hospital from hypovolemic shock. The Argentine commandos were good at their craft, despite being outnumbered by the defenders. They kept firing and moving positions under the cover of smoke and phosphorous grenades, making the defenders of Government house think they were facing a much larger force. Governor Hunt telephoned the radio station and asked them to relay to London that Government House was under attack by around 200 Argentine troops. At 08:00, Hunt decided to have talks with the Argentine forces. He liaised with Vice-Commodore Hector Gilobert who was head of the local Argentine Government’s Airline. Gilobert and Hunt’s deputy went to the Argentine headquarters, which had been set up in the town hall under a white flag and a de-facto cease fire was established. This was continually breached by exchanges of fire. During the negotiations, the three Argentine commandos who had retreated into the maids’ quarters, moved in the upstairs room, trying to sneak away. Major Noott fired his Sterling SMG up through the roof and the commandos tumbled down the stairs and lay down their weapons. Bizarrely, they became POW’s at the point the British were negotiating terms of surrender. The Surrender Marine prisoners being searched The Argentine Amtracs of the 2nd Marine Infantry Battalion had pushed into Port Stanley (I), effectively capturing and occupying the town. They then advanced on to Moody Brook to link up with Lieutenant-Commander Sabarots’ troops, having dropped off units at Government house to reinforce Giachiano’s commandos. Argentine troops took some prisoners in the vicinity of the racecourse and Government House was surrounded. Major Norman suggested mounting a breakout and setting up an alternative Governorship in the country. Perhaps understandably, Rex Hunt was not keen on the idea. At 09:30, British forces formally surrendered to the Argentine Commander, Admiral Büsser. The defenders had fired over 6,000 rounds of ammunition. Meanwhile, across the harbour, Corporal York decided to withdraw his section. After booby trapping their Karl Gustav anti-tank missile launcher, they headed north across Port William in a Gemini assault boat, pursued and fired upon by the corvette ARA Granville. They hid in the shadow of an anchored Polish fishing vessel, before landing on a beach. They stayed at large until 4th April and surrendered to Argentine forces to avoid reprisals against the civilians who sheltered them at Long Island Fam. They were badly mistreated by their Argentine captors. The defenders of Government House and the FIDF were herded onto the sports field and made to lie on the ground while they were being searched. The Argentines filmed this and widely broadcast the images. This backfired in Britain and increased public support for assembling a task force to re-capture the islands. The Royal Marines were flown by C130 to Argentina and then on to Montivado. As they boarded the C130, one of the Marines said to his Argentine captor: “Don’t make yourself too comfy. We’ll be back.” Members of the FIDF were disarmed and allowed to return to their homes. At 16:30 local time on 2 April 1982, the last telex conversation between the operator in the Falklands and an operative in London, announced that the islands were under Argentine control. LON (London): HELLO THERE WHAT ARE ALL THESE RUMOURS WE HEAR THIS IS LON FK (Falklands): WE HAVE LOTS OF NEW FRIENDS LON: WHAT ABOUT INVASION RUMOURS FK: THOSE ARE THE FRIENDS I WAS MEANING LON: THEY HAVE LANDED FK: ABSOLUTELY LON: ARE YOU OPEN FOR TRAFFIC (i.e. normal telex service) FK: NO ORDERS ON THAT YET ONE MUST OBEY ORDERS LON: WHOSE ORDERS FK: THE NEW GOVERNORS LON: ARGENTINA FK: YES LON: ARE THE ARGENTINIANS IN CONTROL FK: YES YOU CAN’T ARGUE WITH THOUSANDS OF TROOPS PLUS ENORMOUS NAVY SUPPORT WHEN YOU ARE ONLY 1800 STRONG. STAND BY PLEASE. ( More to follow. ) Author - Blown Periphery going postal blog 2017

Operation MARKET I: the airborne operation to seize bridges between Arnhem and Eindhoven, Holland, (part of Operation MARKET GARDEN). Oblique photographic-reconnaissance aerial showing Douglas Dakotas dropping paratroops of 1st Airborne Brigade on to Dropping Zone (DZ) 'X', at Renkum, west of Arnhem. Some Horsa gliders have already landed. The British War Graves cemetery at Oosterbeek is food for thought. . . .about pushing 'Too Far'

Why's that mate ? surely Ryanair would do that route for $5 per person ?

Mr.Terwilliger highlighted a good point there, those of us who are familiar with flying machines of many types have probably forgotten much of our very first experience. . . . I still see this regularly when a visitor appears at our airfield, perhaps for a 'Birthday Gift' voucher flight, . . the wonder in their eyes when they see an aircraft up close and personal for the fist time, and, of course, when they take their first flight. . . A magic experience which I never tire of watching. . . .

Living in the Age of Airplanes (narrated by Harrison Ford, original score by James Horner, directed by Brian J. Terwilliger). Now shipping worldwide: http://amzn.to/2ehdqHO And streaming worldwide: Living in the Age of Airplanes DVD + BLU RAY

I'm quite sad to hear you say that Ausstork, firstly, I do not believe that ANY commenter on this thread has made fun of the pilot. Secondly, as you are a newbie, I must tell you that over the years, we have decided that it isn't a good idea to Speculate, nor try to second guess experienced accident investigators with regard to the cause. Most of us tend to adhere to item 2. Please do not reject us in disgust out of hand as a bunch of wankers, until you have been around a little longer, and read a much larger sample of the years of comments, and thereby developed a much fairer overview of the quality, or otherwise of this rather good site. Kind regards. . .etc. . Phil.

Perhaps one way to fix this controversy would be to ask Ian to delete the thread entirely ? .

Have not had a response from my Historian friend, nor can I find reference to the 'Firendly Fire incident which you mentioned Mr. Onetrack Sir,. . However, after their roaring success in the design of the 'Swordfish' in WW2, here was their next Best Known design triumph. . Fairey Delta 2 WG774 Built as a research aircraft to explore high speed delta wing flight, the FD2 first flew in 1954. Early supersonic test flights over the UK resulted in lots of complaints about sonic booms and claims of broken windows. The Ministry of Supply insisted Fairey take out insurance to cover the costs of any damage. Quotes provided were prohibitively expensive so Fairey instead took the FD2 to Cazaux air base in France where they were hosted by the French Air Force and Dassault. It became apparent that the FD2 was a very fast aeroplane and Fairey wanted to attempt a world speed record. Both the Ministry of Supply and Rolls Royce opposed this idea, but Fairey pressed ahead and on 10th March 1956 test pilot Peter Twiss flew the FD2 to a speed of 1,132mph (Mach 1.73) and took the world speed record from the Americans set in the previous year by the North American F-100 Super Sabre. The FD2 exceeded the F-100's record by more than 300mph. In doing so the FD2 also became the first jet aircraft to exceed 1,000mph in level flight. The FD2's record was beaten in December 1957 by the McDonnell F-101 Voodoo when it was flown to 1,207mph. The FD2's world speed record sparked great surprise and interest in 1956 with the Americans coming to have a close look at the design and undoubtedly was a big influence on Marcel Dassault when he designed what would become the Mirage family. A remarkable achievement given Fairey's most well known design previously was the Swordfish biplane torpedo bomber with a top speed of 142mph.

"NASA fires up Voyager's backup thrusters for the first time in 37 YEARS in bid to extend the life of one of the the only two human-made objects in interstellar space" http://www.dailymail.co.uk/...

Have not heard about this one OT, but I shall check my military historian sources tomorrow. . .It's now bed time, approaching the witching hour here, and minus 2.7 Deg C. . . . .

Bomb load code named 'Usual' for a Lancaster 1x 4000 lb HC 'cookie and 12 x SBCs each loaded with 236 x 4 lb incendiaries....

Thanks OT,. . .On a visit to Tutbury Castle ten years or so back, I was made aware of the Fauld story by a local person, since many of the casualties were local men. . . and I purchased a locally produced book on the subject of the explosion, with lots of pictures, I still have it in one of my bookcases,. . .the ones that Mrs. P. regularly nags me to sort out ( ! ) I also used fly from, and operate the tower radio ( volunteer - unpaid ) on weekends from Tatenhill Airfield, ( EGBM) at Needwood, not far to the South West of Tutbury town. One of my 'Places of Local Interest to point out to passengers was the Fauld crater. Thanks for the link to the Kapooka tragedy, I had no knowledge of that. Such a shame that those who died were seemingly forgotten. Most strange.

A bloke whom I correspond with quite regularly on 'Tinternet' blogs. . .sent this story to me after he found out that I am interested in Heavier than air flight too. . . .He is a Pom too . . . NOW, how much of this story is true, and how much is romance, I don't know as we've never met up fizzog to fizzog. . . .So I take his story at face value. I hope that it will paste in sequence with the pictures. . .These things sometimes don't. . . . ************************************************************************************** Rottnest Island It was another hot morning in Fremantle, Western Australia in early January. Forecast for 36 degrees Celsius, 97 in old money. “Gonna be a scorcher, Kiddo!”, said my benevolent host and long-time friend Dave, whom alongside his wife, made me feel very welcome in their stately six-bedroom home for the next three months. I had just finished a long-term development contract with a blue chip and was taking a three month break to visit my Western Australian friends in order to travel, sample the fine wines and seafood and generally chill. Oh, and having recently obtained my multi-engine and instrument rating, I was hoping to take a nice twin engine bird around the South West coast. For today’s sortie, I was going to visit Rottnest Island, or Rotto as it’s colloquially known, 10 nautical miles west of Fremantle. I was quite looking forward to meeting the island’s native small marsupials, called quokkas. Quokka My ride for the day was a twin-engine Piper Seminole PA-44 with a cruise speed of 162 kts and a 700 nautical mile range. It was based at Jandakot airfield and had the callsign VH-HQZ (“Hotel Quebec Zulu”). I got my flight plan logged, picked up the keys and carried out an external check of the aircraft and then got settled in the left-hand seat. I left the aircraft’s doors and vents opened as the heat inside the cockpit was pretty intense. Back to the checklist: Ray Ban aviators on: check. Left fuel selector: crossfeed. Right fuel selector: on. Mixtures: rich. Props: forward. Throttles: ¼” open. Magnetos: on. Master switch: on. Fuel pumps: on. Primer: quick squirt. Starter: engage. The left prop turned lazily for a few seconds and then the engine caught and spluttered into life, shaking the aircraft from its slumber. I adjusted the engine rpm to 1,200, switched on the alternators and then proceeded to start the right engine. By now, Hotel Quebec Zulu was in full chorus with both engines running at 1,200 rpm, I’d got the clearance from Jandakot Tower to runway 06L and taxied to the threshold checking brakes, steering controls and instruments. I got to the run up area and went through the before take-off checklist, then checked each engine separately by increasing rpm to 1,500, checking mag drop, carb heat, alternator output, gyro suction, engine temps and pressures in the green, and idle throttle setting. Both engines looked and sounded good and everything was within limits. There’s a lot to go through before taking-off and checklists are vital to make sure that if you are distracted you don’t miss an important step. Although I’d been through this many times before, I still systematically went though every step of the checklist, confirming each step along the way. I always remember the apocryphal tale of a pilot jumping into his aircraft and rushing to the threshold and not bothering with the checklist. As he thundered down the runway, his aircraft lifted and then climbed. He pushed down on the yoke only to find it wouldn’t move, despite him pushing harder and harder down on it – it was jammed because he forgot to remove the elevator control protector. The aircraft climbed and climbed until vertical and then it stalled and crashed into the ground killing all on board. Part of the checklist includes two steps where you must make full deflections on the yoke and rudders to ensure free movement. That checklist step would have saved lives. I’m lined up on 06L and have been cleared for take-off. “Hotel Quebec Zulu cleared for take-off”, I replied to Jandakot Tower. Brakes on, throttles forward to 75% power, temps and pressures in the green, full power and release brakes. The Piper Seminole lurches forwards as the crescendo of the engine noise rises until full power is quickly achieved. I use the rudder to keep the aircraft on the centreline, right hand on the throttle quadrant in case the throttles slip back and we lose power, there’s a slight crosswind but it’s fine. Airspeed indicator is active and I’m waiting for 75 KIAS (knots indicated air speed), plenty of runway left, pull back on the stick and we’re up, accelerate to 88 KIAS, it’s a positive rate of climb, gear up, power to 25”/2500 rpm, fuel pumps off, fuel pressure checked, accelerate to cruise climb of 105 KIAS. Phew! A lot to do in a very short space of time. I turn the aircraft towards the west and climb to around 4,000 ft and head towards Rottnest. I adjust the air/fuel mixtures for maximum power and efficiency, switch the autopilot on with heading and attitude selected and contact Rottnest CTAF (Common traffic advisory frequency – an unmanned common radio frequency that aircraft use to communicate their positions and intentions to other aircraft). I switch one of the navaids to point to the Rottnest NDB (non-directional beacon) to make sure I’m on track. Sadly there’s no GPS on this aircraft so it’s back to radio navigation basics. It’s at this time of proceedings that I always feel I should crack open a beer now the autopilot has taken over. All I see in front of me is glorious blue sky and glorious blue sea as I leave Fremantle behind me. My camcorder has been recording the events and the radio chatter so far. Slight drift from the wind so I tweak the autopilot heading bug to realign the aircraft on the correct track to Rottnest. It’s not that far out and we should be overhead in about 10 minutes. Suddenly my headphones crackle and a voice with a strong Australian twang says, “Rottnest UNICOM this is military jet carrying out a procedural NDB approach, request all aircraft to stay clear of the area, please report your positions”. What? WTF? This wasn’t in the training manual? Who was online? Shall I call first? Now? What do I say? I started getting flustered, my original plans to approach Rottnest in peace and tranquillity were now thrown out of the window and I moved the autopilot heading bug to the south of the island. “Er, this is Hotel Quebec Zulu, PA-44, one on board, at four thousand, heading two five zero for the south of the island”. “Roger Hotel Quebec Zulu, just remain clear, let us know when you see us bust through the clouds” “Er, yeah, roger that” Piper Seminole PA-44 vh-hqz I started to look at the sky above the island. I could feel the growing sweat in my armpits even though at 4,000 ft it was considerably cooler in the cockpit than on the ground. It’s really hard to spot an aircraft above land. It’s even harder when all you have is blue sky with blue sea and no horizon. It’s very disorientating. Thank goodness for the autopilot taking care of all those important things like keeping the aircraft in the sky while I’m looking for other aircraft! I thought I saw the other aircraft but it turned out to be a squashed fly on the cockpit window. I was heading out to sea, well past the island. This was the Indian Ocean – there was nothing for thousands of miles where I was going. I turned to the left again keeping well away from Rottnest. I stated my intentions on the UNICOM, “Hotel Quebec Zulu turning left heading one zero zero”. Nothing. All of a sudden, I see a bizjet diving towards the island and then climbing rapidly. “Hotel Quebec Zulu we’re cleared of the island, thanks for your cooperation, have a good day”. “Good day, Hotel Quebec Zulu”, I said, in a slightly too high a voice that may have betrayed my flappiness. Well, I pointed the aircraft to Rottnest airfield – the winds were coming in from the north-east, so I set up my approach for runway 09 and I called out my intentions on the UNICOM, “This is Hotel Quebec Zulu coming in for zero nine landing straight in approach five miles out”. Nothing. Good, presumably no other aircraft around. Still, it’s good airmanship to scan the area meticulously. Back to the checklist. Christ, no, no time for the checklist, I’m almost at the threshold. Aaaah, this is all going horribly wrong. That military business jet had really unsettled me, I’m approaching the airfield from a position I hadn’t planned for. Right quick: Er, fuel pumps on Cowl flaps, er, dunno, leave them, not important Mixtures, er, red levers, fully forwards Belts, harnesses, yeah, yeah, whatever Flaps 15 Throttle off, need to lose altitude, oh bollocks, now there’s a pretty nasty crosswind here and it’s getting choppy as the hot air rises from the island due to the intensity of the sun. Now that has thrown me. I noticed that the aircraft has shifted to the left of the centreline of the runway. I point the nose right and apply right rudder and left yoke and crab at quite an angle, more than I expected. *beep* *beep* OK, looking better, not drifting any more. OK, ah yes, another thing I remembered from the checklist: Landing Light On. Click. Done. Mustn’t forget the shiny thing. *beep* *beep* Ok, looking better. Airspeed still too high, need 75 KIAS and we’re doing 85, throttle off, little more sideslip, full flap. *beep* *beep* Was it cowl flaps open or closed? Dunno. Not important. Christ, that was a quite a bit of turbulence. Get the nose up again. Right here we go, 600 ft, all aligned, looking good, 80 KIAS, damnit, still too high. *beep* *beep* What’s that beeping sound? Is it a navaid? Dunno. 500 ft. PUF checks… And right at this moment, one of the most important checklist tasks that I had assigned to memory, rather like the motorcyclist “lifesaver” check before he overtakes, this little beauty saved my arris big time. *beep* *beep* The PUF check is used just before you land are on finals. It’s a scan that goes from left to right across the cockpit. We sometimes say “Two Blues, Two Reds, Three Greens”. The P stands for Power. I looked at my throttle quadrant: throttles set, prop levers max fine, red mixture levers full rich, three greens… WTF!!!!! $HIT!!! NO LIGHTS!!! I ONLY WENT AND FORGOT TO PUT DOWN THE BLOODY GEAR!!! That’s what the beeping sounds was: an alarm that activates when a combination of low power and no landing gear are selected, normally when the aircraft is in the landing configuration. I dumped the gear selector down and three greens came up in a few seconds. The F part of the step was for Flaps which were at full. I performed a landing that was infinitely better than the one that would have occurred if I hadn’t remembered the PUF check before hitting the deck. ****** When I returned to Fremantle, I went downtown and took a nice basket of red snapper and chips from Cicerello’s restaurant and wandered over to the beach to watch the sun go down. I had learned my lesson. Never miss going through a checklist, even if you are in a state and flapping. And thank heavens some of the vital steps are repeated in checklists, because they know we’ve all been down that route of forgetting things under duress. And as the orange sun kissed the crimson sea I thought about the quokkas and how ferking strange they looked to my jaded European eye. But perhaps not quite as stupid as me crawling out of an aircraft that had belly “landed” without its undercarriage in the down and locked position. I can just imagine the phone call if all this had gone badly wrong and I'd had to crawl out of a badly scraped aeroplane with two shockloaded engines and a couple of very bent props. "Er, Hello Jandakot Flying club, - -.Er,. . have you got a big trailer, plenty of tools and a big boat ? ? ? " * * *EDITED TO ADD* * * If this is a true story and recent, Please don't get my mate into trouble. . .there's too much information here and I'd appreciate it if it was not abused. He sent the article to me as he'd read a few of mine. . .and apart from some edited invective and some syntax errors, it seemed fine. I asked his permission to repost it, but I never said Where ! He is going to post it on a blog, but I'm not sure which one. . .there are quite a few. Thanks. . .Phil.

Good result that, although I doubt if the poor bloke feels that way at the moment. . .

The underground Bomb dump crater at Fauld, is not far from my location. Some people believed ( at the time ) that the devastating detonation was caused by sabotage and kept secret. Behind-the-scenes' photos of RAF operations | Daily Mail Online

That one from RAF Leuchars ( Scotland ) who suffered a complete flameout which resulted in an Ejection, , was NOT court martialled for running the aircraft out of fuel apparently. . .( Mentiioned this incident further up the thread )