Joined up in 1979, following in my dads footsteps, spent 24 wonderful years as an airframes tech, Rigger, or Rigpig, to those who are in the know. This was filmed when Great Britain had an airforce, and a military in general. 😀👍🇬🇧🏴
I joined in 79 too (fairy - avionics). I seem to remember RAF strength was about 102,000 (or 108,000?) at the time. Compare that to the 135,000 we now have in the TOTAL armed forces (RAF now circa 31,000)!!
@@millycarrington, Personally I think it’s a disgrace that successive governments have bled the defence budget dry, living standards and pay are lagging way behind the civilian equivalent jobs market and the recruitment and retention of highly trained and qualified personnel is a joke, and not in a funny haha way, and yet we veterans and current personnel know that if push came to shove, which might possibly happen any day given the current geopolitical situation and wars raging in Ukraine and the Middle East, our military would not be able to fight their way out of a soggy paper bag, and the people who would carry the can for that failure won’t be the politicians but the defence chiefs and down the line eventually ending up with the troops, and unless the government makes a huge additional amount of funding NOW and increases the defence budget to above the 2.5% of GDP NOW that they say they will (but not until close to the end of this governments tenure) then we will all be required to take a huge bite of the Sh1t sandwich that they are continuing to make, it is all very well paying for the big shiny new toys like the two aircraft carriers, the F-35 and new nuclear submarines but there is two problems, 1) who is going to operate them and 2) the munitions required by our frontline forces have been given away, so what are they going to fight with?, sticks and stones?. I don’t think that our successive governments realise that you can’t just pop down to the corner shop and buy the equipment of the shelf, modern weapons take time to build and get delivered, even small arms weapons and rounds are more complex than a .303 rifle and ammunition and can’t be churned out as they were before,during and after WWII, an F-35 takes months, at best, of work to complete, unlike the spitfires etc etc that were able to be built in days, not weeks,months or years like modern weapons do, just loosing one piece of hi-tech equipment could easily take years to replace, and the government just don’t understand that, they seem to work on the assumption that we won’t go to war so they don’t bother with the military, and I just hope that doesn’t come back to bite us on the bum. Sorry for the rant, sometimes I forget how much I write and end up with an essay, but thanks for your reply and thoughts 💭, much appreciated. Per Ardua Ad Astra. 😀👍🇬🇧🏴🇺🇦🇮🇱
@@allandavis8201 Agree with you, the one thing that used to wind me up was the term 'force multiplier' when talking about high tech kit. They always seem to forget the flip side that when it isn't working or has been lost then effectively it is a force divider / reducer!
I Signed up as an airframe fitter in 1976 - the days when most of our aircraft were BRITISH BUILT and THE BEST. I loved the cold war era we got to work on so many classics. Todays RAF has a 'token' number of staff and aircraft (which are mainly American)🙁 It frightens me if another war kicks off our 'armed forces' and Navy are a mere shadow of the past - we would get a real hammering! If not losing ALL our defences. I was sat at the threshold, about to cross the runway, in an RAF coach at Waddington once when they called QRA. We were held where we were and witnessed the AWESOME sound of 16 Olympus engines HOWLING into the Lincolnshire skies! Best moment of my life.
I remember this well. I was on 12 Squadron at the time based at Honington. We'd not long returned from a detachment in Malta and sent our Buccs off to Withering and then down on to Salisbury plain. We had some great aircraft back then and a great pleasure to work on many of them.
I watched this on TV and as it ended we got a crash-out call, all men of 46 Shadow company were to deploy to BAOR, to the feba around Celle, as forwards reinforcements too, help block a soviet build-up, we were driven to RAF Waterbeach and flown to Raf Gutersloh, happy days
Just watched this for the first time in many years. Was wondering if you went into the RAF. The Bulldog is a great little aircraft. One of the last few types I have worked on. Would've loved to fly in one but never got the chance, through did get four flights in Chipmunks.
@@crazybrit-nasafan No I didn’t. At the end of my engineering degree I opted instead for postgraduate studies followed by a career in business. But, I was fortunate enough to marry the daughter of a serving RAF pilot!
@@stephenwilkin5836 nice one, I too went into engineering. Then the oil industry. Now gone into retail /logistics, less stress and not bloody dangerous 😂 All the best to you 👍
I watched this live on television in 1974 at a friends house in Bournemouth. I have been praying for someone to dig it out and put it on youtube. Thank you.
I was just a wee nipper back then but loved growing up in the 70's, I always had my eyes scouring the skies for military aircraft, was blessed to live not too many miles from Upper Heyford, home to F111's and they always passed over my parents house much to my joy.
Fabulous thanks for sharing. Just goes to show that if Ivan had ever done the unthinkable and attacked the Pebble Mill studios he’d have had a rude awakening. Great effort all round from the RAF.
At 5.40 .i can remember doing OTR`S (OPERATIONAL TURN ROUNDS) at RAF Coningsby (54 SQN) 1973 and if you went over the allotted time you started all over again untill it was done in the allocated time ....GREAT FUN ....
I can’t help but say “this is a fantastic show from the era we actually had an RAF”. @ 10:41 I also have to wonder what the “WRAF ‘girl’ plotters” would say if they were called that today (2024), the narrator would be described as a misogynistic pig or something similar. For anyone wondering who the commentator is it is Raymond Baxter, he was a very successful and regarded narrator on a wide variety of subjects, mostly noted as a scientific expert and commentator for the Farnborough and Paris international aviation shows for many years, and I believe he was a WWII veteran in the RAF. I do love the sound of the “Vulcan Cannon” but tbh the A-10 GAU-1 cannon is much better and it’s no wonder that the sound of it was music to the ears of those servicemen who were relying on it to make their lives easier, and ensured that they stayed alive.
Hiya might be totally the wrong place but my dad was a qfi in the 80s in valley and was flying in Saudi until 97 ish his surname is Brady just wondering if there's any footage of his flights?
Remember watching this in 74, ended up doing 22 years as a RAF Armourer!
So do I! I was 2 years into my 22 as a Rigger on Canberras at West Raynham...wonder why they didn't get a mention?🤔🙂
54Sqn Phantoms and 111 sqn Lightings 1971/76 also a armourer....loved every minute..
Joined up in 1979, following in my dads footsteps, spent 24 wonderful years as an airframes tech, Rigger, or Rigpig, to those who are in the know. This was filmed when Great Britain had an airforce, and a military in general. 😀👍🇬🇧🏴
Thank you for your service sir, and I certainly agree re:- the (lack of the) British military nowadays
@@crazybrit-nasafan You are welcome 🙏. Thanks.
I joined in 79 too (fairy - avionics). I seem to remember RAF strength was about 102,000 (or 108,000?) at the time. Compare that to the 135,000 we now have in the TOTAL armed forces (RAF now circa 31,000)!!
@@millycarrington, Personally I think it’s a disgrace that successive governments have bled the defence budget dry, living standards and pay are lagging way behind the civilian equivalent jobs market and the recruitment and retention of highly trained and qualified personnel is a joke, and not in a funny haha way, and yet we veterans and current personnel know that if push came to shove, which might possibly happen any day given the current geopolitical situation and wars raging in Ukraine and the Middle East, our military would not be able to fight their way out of a soggy paper bag, and the people who would carry the can for that failure won’t be the politicians but the defence chiefs and down the line eventually ending up with the troops, and unless the government makes a huge additional amount of funding NOW and increases the defence budget to above the 2.5% of GDP NOW that they say they will (but not until close to the end of this governments tenure) then we will all be required to take a huge bite of the Sh1t sandwich that they are continuing to make, it is all very well paying for the big shiny new toys like the two aircraft carriers, the F-35 and new nuclear submarines but there is two problems, 1) who is going to operate them and 2) the munitions required by our frontline forces have been given away, so what are they going to fight with?, sticks and stones?.
I don’t think that our successive governments realise that you can’t just pop down to the corner shop and buy the equipment of the shelf, modern weapons take time to build and get delivered, even small arms weapons and rounds are more complex than a .303 rifle and ammunition and can’t be churned out as they were before,during and after WWII, an F-35 takes months, at best, of work to complete, unlike the spitfires etc etc that were able to be built in days, not weeks,months or years like modern weapons do, just loosing one piece of hi-tech equipment could easily take years to replace, and the government just don’t understand that, they seem to work on the assumption that we won’t go to war so they don’t bother with the military, and I just hope that doesn’t come back to bite us on the bum.
Sorry for the rant, sometimes I forget how much I write and end up with an essay, but thanks for your reply and thoughts 💭, much appreciated. Per Ardua Ad Astra. 😀👍🇬🇧🏴🇺🇦🇮🇱
@@allandavis8201 Agree with you, the one thing that used to wind me up was the term 'force multiplier' when talking about high tech kit. They always seem to forget the flip side that when it isn't working or has been lost then effectively it is a force divider / reducer!
I Signed up as an airframe fitter in 1976 - the days when most of our aircraft were BRITISH BUILT and THE BEST. I loved the cold war era we got to work on so many classics. Todays RAF has a 'token' number of staff and aircraft (which are mainly American)🙁 It frightens me if another war kicks off our 'armed forces' and Navy are a mere shadow of the past - we would get a real hammering! If not losing ALL our defences. I was sat at the threshold, about to cross the runway, in an RAF coach at Waddington once when they called QRA. We were held where we were and witnessed the AWESOME sound of 16 Olympus engines HOWLING into the Lincolnshire skies! Best moment of my life.
AAD 14 …
Raymond Baxter was the only education i got throughout the entire 70s.
I remember this well. I was on 12 Squadron at the time based at Honington. We'd not long returned from a detachment in Malta and sent our Buccs off to Withering and then down on to Salisbury plain. We had some great aircraft back then and a great pleasure to work on many of them.
back when we had an air force!
I watched this on TV and as it ended we got a crash-out call, all men of 46 Shadow company were to deploy to BAOR, to the feba around Celle, as forwards reinforcements too, help block a soviet build-up, we were driven to RAF Waterbeach and flown to Raf Gutersloh, happy days
Thanks for the upload - I was the student pilot on his first flight!
Just watched this for the first time in many years. Was wondering if you went into the RAF. The Bulldog is a great little aircraft. One of the last few types I have worked on. Would've loved to fly in one but never got the chance, through did get four flights in Chipmunks.
@@crazybrit-nasafan No I didn’t. At the end of my engineering degree I opted instead for postgraduate studies followed by a career in business. But, I was fortunate enough to marry the daughter of a serving RAF pilot!
@@stephenwilkin5836 nice one, I too went into engineering. Then the oil industry. Now gone into retail /logistics, less stress and not bloody dangerous 😂
All the best to you 👍
43 knots? Woof!
'You can't say 'retarded' now. What do we call that, Beryl? We call it political correctness gone mad.'
Live from RAF Wittering. I watched on the TV, and also watched through the window of the MT Section, Wittering, where I was stationed at the time.
great film thanks i was in the RAF fire rescue service for 15 yrs now MOD great footage of the vulcan
I watched this live on television in 1974 at a friends house in Bournemouth.
I have been praying for someone to dig it out and put it on youtube.
Thank you.
I was just a wee nipper back then but loved growing up in the 70's, I always had my eyes scouring the skies for military aircraft, was blessed to live not too many miles from Upper Heyford, home to F111's and they always passed over my parents house much to my joy.
Need a repeat of this in 2020 please - get this done BBC
Fantastic video, I was stationed at RAF Buchan twice, once in 87-88 and later 94-2000.
Fabulous thanks for sharing. Just goes to show that if Ivan had ever done the unthinkable and attacked the Pebble Mill studios he’d have had a rude awakening. Great effort all round from the RAF.
Thanks for the upload, I’ve been looking for the full Skywaych for many years! Thanks again
At 5.40 .i can remember doing OTR`S (OPERATIONAL TURN ROUNDS) at RAF Coningsby (54 SQN) 1973 and if you went over the allotted time you started all over again untill it was done in the allocated time ....GREAT FUN ....
Fantastic - video looks more like mid 90s quality
Awesome.. thanks from NZ 👍🇳🇿
I was 8 and watched this live, Went on to join the Air Cadets at 13.
Good stuff 👍 from the days when we had a good sized potent air force
Just Absoloutely Fabtastic
Proud to be 🇬🇧
Raf
Much respect
I can’t help but say “this is a fantastic show from the era we actually had an RAF”. @ 10:41 I also have to wonder what the “WRAF ‘girl’ plotters” would say if they were called that today (2024), the narrator would be described as a misogynistic pig or something similar.
For anyone wondering who the commentator is it is Raymond Baxter, he was a very successful and regarded narrator on a wide variety of subjects, mostly noted as a scientific expert and commentator for the Farnborough and Paris international aviation shows for many years, and I believe he was a WWII veteran in the RAF.
I do love the sound of the “Vulcan Cannon” but tbh the A-10 GAU-1 cannon is much better and it’s no wonder that the sound of it was music to the ears of those servicemen who were relying on it to make their lives easier, and ensured that they stayed alive.
Fantastic 👍
Wow, that is a spectacular effort :-)
My dad was most probs in the tower controlling the land/take offs for this
Make Britain Great again.
classic.
Stop it, Harry.
I'll tell the king.
Hiya might be totally the wrong place but my dad was a qfi in the 80s in valley and was flying in Saudi until 97 ish his surname is Brady just wondering if there's any footage of his flights?
What unit was this filmed at in the opening sequences?
RAF Honington, the 12 Sqn base at the time
Many thanks
Doesn't Raymond say its RAF Wittering?
@@bigblokeinuk8974 that’s true, just watched it again and he did say Wittering. I served there once but strangely didn’t recognise it.
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