Page 73 - Demo

69to sea, seldom remaining in the local area, this made sense. The result was that there were not many controllers at Kinloss so it must have been a bit lonely arriving in the mess knowing no-one. Any way this WRAF came and introduced herself to Geoff Baker and myself in the bar just before dinner one evening. We had a drink and then went into eat and probably chatted a bit afterwards. She was called Gabby Garratt and we were to get to know each other better as time went on. She later told me that she had been into the bar several times but just left after buying some toothpaste because there was no one in the bar that she felt she could talk to. Students on the Air Traffic Course were sent to have a flight in a Vampire to see what things were like from the other side. Gabby hated it as she could not stand the smell of a rubber mask. I do not think that I ever noticed that.. In the new year I got a crew change and joined Sqn Ldr Tom Wood our A flight Commander. Presumably, I was considered able as the first pilot was Steve Roncoroni and we were the only 2 bachelors on the crew. In February we were flying a normal training sortie when we were given a Grade 1 diversion to RAF Leuchars. A Grade 1 diversion was mandatory whilst a Grade 2 was advisory. Apparently Kinloss was out in a snowstorm which was very unusual. In fact there was snow on the ground at Leuchars as well. When we landed you always checked the magnetos and on one engine we had a pretty bad mag drop that should have rendered the aircraft unserviceable. However, at that moment we were asked if we were serviceable, and we hoped that Kinloss had been cleared and we could just go back. So, we said yes. To our horror we were then told that we were now the first Search and Rescue (SAR) crew on standby. This meant being able to get airborne in a couple of hours and obviously no drinking, which was a real bind as there were probably old mates to catch up with at Leuchars. The Shackleton had an elsan toilet down the back and a urinal. The urinal drained into a tank which I think the rear crew just opened out into the atmosphere as