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At the moment the RAF doesn’t even really have the aircraft left to support the airbourne forces, most troops are jumping from civvy planes or having to do exercises in the States to take part in larger scale jumps
British military procurement in a nutshell.
Yeah you’re not wrong, like most public services the military has been hollowed out by Tory austerity. I’ve heard an opinion recently which pretty much said; below a certain strength you start to loose the corporate memory of how to do stuff, and this is the smallest the military has been in a number of decades.
There is the theory that once a group gets below a certain size, there is not the experience or depth of knowledge sustained to keep a standard of training, i think we're past that unfortunately.
Flew the C130J from '07 to '12. Great aircraft and crews.
Will be missed.
Just thinking about it @dantsw13, if you were one of the first C130J pilots, did you fly me back from Norway in March 02?
It'd be particularly memorable as the panel that covers the life raft in the wing came off mid flight and ripped a hole in the tail. We then made an emergency landing in Stravanger. We had a glorious night in the the Raddison SAS hotel on the RAF credit card whilst waiting on a replacemnt to come out from the UK. No dodgy tv channels or drinks were put on the room, honest........
The only reason I ask is that in the pre flight brief, the pilot was very proud that it was a new "J" and itd take x amount of time off the flight back to teesside. We were gutted when they sent out an old one the next day.
3 hercs just heading towards Northampton.
Cobrakai - not me, but I remember the event as I was on the Ops Desk that day!!
@dantsw13, to be fair, we didn't have a clue what was going on. When we landed at stravanger we all said, "he wasn't kidding, that was fast!" Then we saw snow and hills and thought this isn't Teeside?!
The loadie then pointed up as we went down the ramp and we all went, "aaaah, that'll be why."
After 3 months of snow holes and living out the back of my wagon, it was surreal sleeping in a massive double bed with clean sheets!
<p style="text-align: left;">I think it just passed overhead in Ely but could have just been one of the Mildenhall supply planes</p>
