Page 247 - Demo

2430710 but you did get 45 minutes of whizzing around in a Mk 5 JP. If the weather was good, you just did a quick check at one of the RLGs followed by a check around the low flying areas. Some years earlier the old low flying areas had been scrapped and we had much more freedom. Although areas were designated on our maps, you could go in and out of them at will. Later you had to book into them with times of entry and departure and report that on landing. This was just a bit of a bind and eventually they gave us a clerk to do the paperwork. You probably had to check the weather at height as well and report all of this back to Linton while flying and give a verbal debrief to the Met Officers when you landed. Sometimes you would take a passenger, although that was not all that popular as it took time to strap them in and that could make you late. Another bit of flying we got for ourselves was being a weather guard at night. If there was solo flying and no dual aircraft flying, you could just stooge about making sure that the weather stayed suitable. Sometimes, fog could form and we needed to have warning of that to get our solos back quickly. Most of the students at that time were not university graduates and so were quite young. In some ways this was good as they were only Acting Pilot Officers and generally did as they were told. On the other hand, they could be a bit immature and had to be watched over. During this course we managed to get to West Freugh for 3 detachments, staying in a hotel. On top of that the course included some landaway sorties and the students could decide more or less where they wanted to go. They could include a night stop which meant stuffing all your clothes and wash kit into a small metal pannier that was stowed in the engine compartment. It had clips to the airframe but was held in position by a bungee cord. This limited the G and you had to remember that, particularly if you were doing a run and break on arrivalwhere you might normally pull a fair bit of G to keep it tight. If you needed more clothes we put them on a hanger and hung them behind the ejector seats.