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PHANTOM JET FIGHTER picture archive |
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Trevor's picture page
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About Trevor.
I started my RAF career in May 1962 when I was 17. I signed on for 12 years as an Instrument Mechanic Did 3 months "square bashing" at RAF Bridgnorth Shropshire and then was posted to Wattisham to await my mechanics course. I passed out as an instrument mechanic from RAF Melksham in Wiltshire in 1963 and was posted to 64 Squ Javelin mk 9's at Binbrook in Lincoshire. The Sdn was a great fighter squadron and some of the pilots were Polish pilots who had served during the battle of Britain great blokes. We did lots of detachments including India and Cyprus. The Sqn was posted to Singapore 1964 because of the "confrontation " with Indonesia. We were put on a high state of alert some times sleeping underneath the aircraft.I came back in December 64(the Sqn being eventually disbanded) and spent the next two years in the instrument bay at Binbook. In 1966 I was sent on my fitters course to RAF Newton Nottinghamshire and qualified as an electronic fitter (Navigation Instruments), I went back to Binbrook but was shortly off again to be trained at B Aerospace Warton on Lightnings and then back to Newton to qualify on Red Top/ Firestreak guided weapons systems. This gave me the grand title of L fitt Nav Inst/ Q AL3/ IFR (Electronics fitter Nav Inst specialist qualifications Lightnings Mk3 /Red Top/Firestreak guided weapons. A grand title but with no extra pay. I always wanted to get on heavy aircraft like the V bombers but fate decreed I was going to be a fighter man !. My next posting was back to Binbrook on 5 Sqn, Mk 6 LIghtnings where I spent the next two years. I was just about to hang myself, when the gods smiled on me and posted me back to RAF Tengah Singapore to 74 Sqn MK 6 Lightnings where I spent the next two glorious years. In 1971 the Far East Air Force pulled out and 74 Sqn was disbanded. I was posted back to RAF Wattisham which i'm sure you know well and guess what ? yep Lightnings ! this time in the shape of 29 Sqn with Mk 3's. I ended my career with the RAF in 1974 at Wattisham and was expecting to emigrate to South Africa to work for the Atlas aircraft corporation. Things were not to be though, and I ended up in Saudi Arabia working for British Aerospace on - yes you've guessed it Royal Saudi Air Force Lightnings ! I stayed for three years at Dhahran International airport and ended up running the Instrument bay. I came back to England in 77 and after three months of being bored went to work for the Kuwaiti Airforce in Kuwait. The Lightnings had just gone out of service with the Kuwait Airforce and looked very miserable lined up by the side of a perimeter track. Although in the Instrument bay the names of several of my old Air force buddies were still on the board, ( I told you its a small world) I ended up working on MIrage F1ck and F1Bk aircraft. I stayed in Kuwait for two years and then returned to my home in Hadleigh with my family. After a year at Mel Aviation in Sudbury, Suffolk, I joined Britannia Airways at Luton in 1981. I had 10 years in the hangar working on 737,757,767 aircraft as an Avionics Engineer, the last 10 years i've been a defect control Engineer. "Lightning Taylor"
Click the tumbnails for larger images
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nick@f4phantoms.co.uk or robert@f4phantoms.co.uk
© Copyright 1998 Nick Hewgill & Robert Small. All rights reserved.