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Going mad in a Hunter !

Posted by MGM on Tue Nov 20, 2001 05:01:56 AM

Morning all.

Been reading through my old Flypasts (again), and I came across the story (again) of the RAF pilot who went a bit (!?)mad because the Gov amd the RAF were not doing a special flypast for the 50th anniversary of the RAF on April 1st 1968.

This pilot ,Flt Lt Allan Pollock ,flew Hunters with No1 Sqn from RAF West Raynham, and he took it upon himself (as you would) to do a very special bit of "flag waving" over (or under) London to make sure everyone knew what day it was, because as he (rightly) reasoned; "an ounce of timely action and initiative was worth whole weighty volumes of passive pompous pontification".

The day itself went by with not much happening, apart from No1 Sqn flying a leaflet bombing raid over several other RAF bases, which some of the miserable buggers didn't appreciate at all, but the squadron was all set for a Jolly at RAF Tangmere on the 4th, including a cocktail party and dance.

They flew to Tangmere, doing a display over Brighton on the way, had a wonderful evening with plenty Champagne and top brass, and prepared for the run back to West Raynham the next morning.

After two and a half hours sleep, he was awakened the next morning by the throbbing downwash of a helicopter, and feeling a bit "hyper" because of the champagne,the high spirits, the anti-histamine and triominic drugs he was on as he had a bad cold, which later turned out to be suppressed pneumonia, he lay awake in bed thinking about the decision of the RAF and gov to not put on a flypast.

Now London happened to be in a straight line on the way back home, although they would actually be skirting round London to the east.
He considered that he could easily get away un-noticed from the rest of the flight, and go off to do a beat-up of London.
They got away from Tangmere, and flew up north to base, and as they started to form up, he slipped away on his own towards London.
As he had to fly at low level to avoid other air traffic, and so as not to inconvenience Londoners too much, he throttled back with his airbrakes open and tootled along the Thames at 80 ft!!!!!!!!!
He beat up the Houses of Parliament, and then circled it three times. To avoid flying over the heavily populated areas of London to the north, he decided to follow the Thames to the East and then turn north for home.
He soon came upon Tower Bridge and wondered if he should fly over or under it, after considering it for an extremely short time (!) he decided the latter.
He lined it up for the bridge, hoping that the damn thing didn't decide to open, and with his heart missing a couple of beats at the thought of impending doom, and a double decker bus lumbering slowly over the bridge, he was through it in very short order !

Getting back to base, he went to tell the boss what he had done, and to cut a long story short, he eventually was "invalided" out of the RAF for political reasons.

Because I'm feeling a bit MAD myself this morning, I thought it might be fun to ask you lot how you would like to go mad in an aeroplane.

For myself, well I've always fancied flying a Spitfire through Tower Bridge..upside down.....at 400mph from a long dive...on the 100th anniversary of the first flight of the Spitfire.....and I'll only be 73 then, and my licence would most likely be taken away on medical grounds (being too MAD)about that time anyway.........

watch this space.

What would you do to "relieve" yourself ?

TTFN
Mad Mick










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