It's 'Recognising Former Colleagues On The News' Time Again

[major_clanger]

Blimey. Watching the news report on the Battle of Britain Anniversary Service earlier (my Skype call to darth_hamster was briefly interrupted by a four-ship of Tornadoes inbound to Westminster for the fly-past) I see that the lesson was given by the Chaplain-in-Chief to the RAF, the Reverend (Air Vice-Marshal) Ray Pentland. Who I remember as the newly-commissioned Rev (Flt Lt) Ray Pentland, CofE Chaplain to the Initial Officer Training Course at Cranwell back in 1990.

I seem to remember him being a bit skinnier in those days. Mind you, he was running round Stamford Training Area with us young officer cadets, so that's hardly surprising...

Comments

[major-clanger.livejournal.com]

Oops, typo fixed.

I seem to recall hearing through the grapevine that the CAA were content to licence subsonic jets (e.g. the Hunter, although I believe they can exceed Mach 1 in a dive) but draw the line at supersonic stuff, probably for the reason you suggest.

There were privately-owned Lightnings flying in South Africa until very recently, but the outfit that operated them has apparently gone into receivership (and lost one of its two-seaters in a fatal crash last year).
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[non-trivial.livejournal.com]

I hadn't heard about the ZA Lightnings' problems - sad to hear.

[quercus.livejournal.com]

The RSA Lightnings also had problems with a lack of AVPIN for the engine starters. Apparently no-one (outside of maybe Russia or China) still makes the ghastly stuff.

I saw a Vampire fly overhead yesterday 8-) (Cotswolds) What a weird noise.