Gotta love the RAF! They were (are) a joy to be around.

[petervdb]

That sounds very very unlikely.

The RAF are not in the habit of taking an expensive trained pilot that has a perishable skill, and grounding him for such a length of time, after years of not flying he would need to basically go through his flight training from scratch again.

If he had been in a lot of trouble, he would have been sent back to a UK based squadron almost imediatly, rather than do as you suggest - give him a multi-year non-flying job...... if he broke a safety rule or another nations rules on noise abatment, then he would get a word or two from his CO, maybe a few days to a week of being grounded, but no more or it would be detremental to his flying.

Just not going to happen.

This was first hand personal experience. I was the interpreter handling the german papers for this and I was based on the station where the pilot was based. I know of several other cases where the pilot was dealt with in such a way (in Germany). If you wrote to the services paper Sixth Sense I am sure they can provide you with the cutting. I've been out of the mob for several years now, so not sure what the attitude is nowadays to infringements of the low flying rule or noise abatement. Just remember that the Germans are still very hot on noise abatement. In many German states you are still not allowed to mow your lawn between 12 and 1, and all day Sunday.

By the way - more recently there was the Chinnook pilot who broke off the rear wheels of the aircraft whilst trying to land on HMS Ocean? After a litter was built on the flight deck in double quick time the aircraft finally landed. Again the A/C commander was moved to a desk job.

[glen_j]

i remember reading the first story in a paper a few years back, think it was the sun. still made me laugh for a while

[Rotorhead]

This was first hand personal experience. I was the interpreter handling the german papers for this and I was based on the station where the pilot was based. I know of several other cases where the pilot was dealt with in such a way (in Germany). If you wrote to the services paper Sixth Sense I am sure they can provide you with the cutting. I've been out of the mob for several years now, so not sure what the attitude is nowadays to infringements of the low flying rule or noise abatement. Just remember that the Germans are still very hot on noise abatement. In many German states you are still not allowed to mow your lawn between 12 and 1, and all day Sunday.

By the way - more recently there was the Chinnook pilot who broke off the rear wheels of the aircraft whilst trying to land on HMS Ocean? After a litter was built on the flight deck in double quick time the aircraft finally landed. Again the A/C commander was moved to a desk job.

If you say so, but it seems silly to waste a trained pilot over a small incident.

[Jamez]

Nightstalker, here you go, have the clap

Touch harsh, STD's for funny post's