This couldn’t be more 1970’s if it tried ! Everything from the music to the legendary narrator Patrick Allen is just class. I am intoxicated with the heady aroma of jet fuel and Old Spice 😎
As a teenage ATC air cadet I had the great pleasure to attend a week long camp at RAF Church Fenton during the Easter holiday of 1973. What the film doesn’t show is the long line of Chipmunk trainers sitting on the flight line every morning, with their engines running. Dozens of them. It was sheer heaven for the enthusiastic cadets of our Squadron. Must have been a complete pain in the neck for the ground crew we shadowed. Almost unlimited flying and hours spent on the range plinking with Lee Enfield rifles and SLRs. Under the watchful and unforgiving eyes of very strict RAF regiment NCOs.
Holy Crap!!!! I used to fly with Chris in Airtours in the mid nineties - I didn’t realise he’d flown Phantoms, he had been a Herc skipper before coming to the civvie world. Lovely guy, with a lovely family. Amazing to see him as a youngster! Thanks for sharing!
I seem to remember that Chris was just acting the part here for the training film and didn't actually fly fast jets. I could be wrong, but that's what I remember.
Wonderful.. reminds me of the Test Pilot school series I watched as a kid avidly in the mid 80s. I was lucky to have an AEF in the Chipmunk followed later by a later flight of 45 mins aerobatics as a cadet in the ATC This was all back when the ‘Great’ in Great Britain was still something to be proud of..
A wonderful piece of nostalgia. Brings back some super memories of flying in 'Chippys' at RAF Church Fenton when I was a Civilian Instructor / Warrant Officer withh 110 (City of York Squadron) ATC. The pictures of the Drax power station flyby were just fantastic. The Volunteer Pilot in the seventies at Church Fenton was a wonderful guy and he loved aerobatics. Fantastic memories also at RAF Leeming when I was part of a ATC 'Principles of Flight' seminar, the highlight of of which was a flight in a Jet Provost. More fantastic nostalgic video to remind me of my youth!
lived on wildenrath raf base in the early 80's, my dad was the station commanders admin guy, but because we were part of the raf bruggen gliding club i had the chance to sit in a 92 squadron fully armed, in a hardened aircraft hangar, phantom that was ready to scramble at any second!, imagine that nowadays, school boy in armed phantom!
Great story, would have been my dream! Did you, perhaps, ever hear of a female RAF pilot called Sue Cavener from Phoenix Gliding Club from RAF Brüggen? She was killed at 29 in her glider. Please have a look at sites.google.com/site/raflaarbruch/home/toedliche-abstuerze You have to scroll down to "Absturz Segelflugzeug - Two Rivers Gliding Club Laarbruch - Phenix Gliding Club Brüggen" Thank you for any help!
Father was an F4 pilot stationed at RAF Bruggen, 31 Sqn. I often had the chance to sit in a Phantom and loved it. The crowning glory was a few postings later we were stationed at RAF Leuchars where father was in charge of the Phantom simulator, and yes, I had several chances to ‘fly’ that which at 16 or 17 years old was a dream!
I love these British documentaries. "The pilot often emerges covered in nervous perspiration." In the American version: "The pilot climbs out drenched in sweat."
you all prolly dont give a shit but does someone know of a trick to get back into an Instagram account..? I was dumb forgot my login password. I love any tricks you can offer me!
This takes me back to my childhood when I lived at RAF Wattisham where 2 Phantom's squadron's were based 56 & 23.I lived there from the 70's to early 80's as my father was on 56 sqd,happy days.
@ 2:35 - Even now I recognise the gates and "Reception" at RAF Biggin Hill. I went there a few years after this was released for the same reason the Brylcreemed chap in the film went there. For young chaps like me, brought up not far from RAF St. Mawgan and seeing RAF F4Ms, RN F4Ks, Nimrods, Buccaneers and Vulcans many times a week, becoming an RAF pilot was one of those things I just had to be. Unlike our hero in the film, however, I failed. Oh well, them's the breaks. Thanks for the upload +freddielaker2. [edit] @3:45 - the medical. I remember that too, especially the part where the ME stuck his hands where only me (and my Mum, when I was a toddler) had ever ventured. "Cough" he said. Cough? I nearly f**king choked.
You are definitely not alone. I got in through the University Air Squadron. So by the time I got to Biggen Hill I had some flying experience and references from within. All sounds great? We did five training courses after officer training. Some people failed officer training. Some people failed Jet Provost training. Some more failed Gnat training or were killed. Some more failed weapons training at Brawdy or were killed. Some people failed the OCU training to learn to fly the Jaguar , or were killed. Some people failed the squadron acceptance training or were killed. I made it and ejected successfully twice saving my own life. Getting through the initial interview is the start of a long and bumpy road. If you succeed it is a tremendous feeling of achievement no one can take away from you. I take my hat off to the test pilots and astronauts. I still think about all the people who didn’t make it.
The good old chipmunk i remember my very first flying experience in one way back in 1975 at RAF Marham and watching those Victor tankers take off was absolutely amazing.
Takes me back to 1970/73 at RAF Bruggen (Germany) I was an L-Fitt A/C Cpl working on the Phantom loved every minute of it.. Mind you the Taceval's could be tedious.
There's an old Chipmunk still flying these colours at Felthorpe airfield in Norfolk. I regularly see it in the air around the Taverham/Thorpe Mariott area. No Phantoms though, unfortunately 😂
I read that the Gnat was a difficult aircraft to fly, not the ideal trainer. It's interesting to see how small both the Gnat and Provost were, and how short the undercarriage legs were. This short film makes you aware just how much hard work flying was/is. And it's great to see the RAF when it had aircraft!
We have a higher gdp than Russia. It makes me wonder where all our cash has gone? The UK politicians must have billions of stolen tax payers money hidden away in their Cayman Island bank accounts.
I’ve lived in Valley (village) since the 1970’s it’s sad too think of the amount of both trainee & experienced Pilots who have given their lives due too training accidents the most recent death was a Red Arrows technician who sadly died on the runway at Valley when the Plane crashed on take off,the pilot ejected safely.
I was there when 4 instructors died in a mid air one Friday afternoon. Shortly afterwards a student and instructor died at Shawbury. Six in a six month period. It didn’t stop there. I stopped counting at 30 plus fatalities of people I knew.
@@philprice3870 not sure. My recollection was that it was more into mid Wales. There were a lot of accidents though. The Gnat was a great little aeroplane but mishandled it would bite you severely.
When I was a kid I always ran indoors and cried when a phantom from USAF Bentwaters or Woodbridge flew over head....what a ripping noise...what a roar !.......and I'd love to hear that noise now.
@@GoteeDevotee I also miss hearing the drone of a Hercules plane flying overhead in the middle of the night...or the throb of a Jolly Green Giant...or the whine of an A10. The sounds of my youth in rural Suffolk.
Hi Mike, that makes sense sadly. I flew with Chris in Airtours in the nineties. I knew him as having been a skipper on the Herc. A lovely chap who I still refer to today, as he used to ‘bollock’ me for saying ‘Hello’ on the radio. ‘It’s not ‘Hello’, it’s ‘Good morning, Good Afternoon, Good Evening’! - all in jest, but something I now pick people up on, and then go on to bore them with stories of Chris and others from my earlier days..... well, you have to pass the time somehow over 11 hours! 🙄😁
Mike - Chris never made it to 228 OCU, he was "chopped" on advanced flying traing at Chivenor. Great pity, I met him while this film was being made and he was a really nice guy.
The music used at 15.16 onwards was used in "The Sweeney" episode "Jigsaw" also circa 1973. "Bora" by Simon Haseley aka Simon Park www.dewolfemusic.com/trackdetail.php#!/?id=12377901&code=TzQpnl Loads of great incidental music used in The Sweeney that turns up everywhere. This is a link to a lot of the incidental music www.mark-1.co.uk/Sweeney%20tracks.html One of my favourites was Sunny Laze. Bonus points to children of the 60's and 70's if they can tell me where they heard Sunny Laze in the 80's and onwards?
@FoxIslanderSteve if that answer was about the piece called "Bora" i'm afraid not however if the comment was about "Sunny Laze" then top Of The Class. it was indeed used in Color Climax films as incidental music. missed this comment at the time just seen it now courtesy of Commanding Judge Dredd. I got into a whole world of music library clips from this. My favorite artist is probably Keith Mansfield who must have made a fortune from TV rights. You will still hear him this summer, he did the Wimbledon theme. At one point he had weekly exposure from the themes to Grandstand, International Athletics, (I think this tune was used in the US for another sport) The Big Match and US Open Tennis while still producing a healthy stable full of porn tunes including Pop Package that was Color Climax's intro music. www.apmmusic.com/search/%5B%7B%22field%22%3A%22composer%22%2C%22value%22%3A%22Keith%20Mansfield%22%2C%22operation%22%3A%22must%22%7D%2C%7B%22field%22%3A%5B%22tags%22%2C%22track_title%22%2C%22track_description%22%2C%22album_title%22%2C%22album_description%22%2C%22lyrics%22%2C%22library%22%2C%22composer%22%5D%2C%22type%22%3A%22text%22%2C%22value%22%3A%22sport%20themes%22%2C%22is_regular%22%3Atrue%2C%22is_query%22%3Atrue%2C%22operation%22%3A%22must%22%7D%5D
I worked across the lake from the end of the main runway of Carswell Air Force Base in 1971. Those Phantoms would take off, two at a time, belching great streamers of dark smoke, the noise so loud the city had to build their schools underground, and our phone had to have a blinking light for a ringer else you would never know the phone was ringing. Even inside our shop you could not hold a conversation until they were well up in the sky. Two Phantoms were equal to one B-52 in terms of noise and smoking exhausts. All the military airplanes were magnificent sights, but I could not help but wonder what we were breathing after they flew by. My father in law, a Lt Col. Navigator-Bombadier in a Buff, was on Alert time after time during the late 60s, and later came back from bombing Hanoi with PTSB. - During the Cuban Missile Crises I was only ten, but worried because our home was far enough away from the base that we were sure to die horribly from radiation poisoning if The Bomb was used; later I was glad to be closer, within the 'quick death' ring if "they" nuked our busy SAC base. They were tools of war, flown by warriors.
My 1st posting early 1977 OCU (not Charlie Goff - the new Charlie !!) Comms - some real characters - worked hard and have many good memories - God Bless em all. We tried to build a 'Sprite' for use by the groundcrew for PPL training by OCU aircrew - but we went on strike due too some shenanigans with the funding/materials and project participants - not sure if it got finished as I was sent back at Cosford in 1978
My fondest memory is a beautiful Jaguar made an emergency landing at our airfield. the poor pilot had to be hosed off . While approaching his ground target, a strong down draft forced an quick upward correction. Causing him to slice a large & long piece of canopy due to stabilizing wise on an RN station antenna. After landing and pinning & choking this jet. I looked , being a courious person, Inside the jets barrel & noticed a “round” in the breaching mech. Responce was immediate. Avery lucky jet jockey. I never found out if this person continued to fly.
It is tough being a pilot. I flew in a Tornado F3, Hawk T1 and a Typhoon and was pretty buggered for hours after it. After that I’m glad im not a fast jet pilot. I do have a PPL and happy to stick with my put put
The armourer loading the rocket pod at 32 mins looks like Ron Crosby. I could be wrong though as my recollection is from the early 1980s at RAF Wattisham.
Ahhhh, The Phantom, the 'Mud Pusher' my first flt com, flt left Kevin Toal was an ex nav on Canberras & Phantoms in RAF Germany, he once admitted to me that he was lead nav on a sqn exercise in germany &,on taking off 10mins down route he suddenly realised that he was off by 180deg, i didn't persue the issue as he looked embarrassed enough, we all f##k at times................
This bought a lot memories flooding back as i was an armourer on 54 Sdn in the early 70`s. MJ4 what a machine,fletcher tanks,centre line tank,Su 23a what a gun.sneb 68mm rockets ,1000lb bombs.Then there was the 28lb and the 9lb practice bomb, then the camera pod just loved the OTR`s..Those were the days ..... Great film..
Never remember having a hemet issued (As the Guy with the rocket launcher in this film..) to load weapons in the 80`s on 19 Sqn Wildenrath ...Anthony...Memories of cracking your head on Sky Flash fins !!!
Terrific nostalgic video.....Having read the comments it seems that he never actually made it as a Phantom pilot,having failed the Fast jet course at Chivenor ? Interesting they`d progress the video as if he had passed the course and gone on as a successful phantom pilot ? Anyhow,not to detract from any of the film..it was terrific viewing.
do you mean, the fighter pilots are very special apart from ordinary pilot? attitude is also one of the important quality of a fighter pilots. I'm so proud to meet one of them
I was in a college class with two exchange pilots at Wichita Falls, Texas. One was confident, the other was an arrogant skirt-chaser; both were smart cookies and decent enough I suppose.
Is there any information about whether or not the phantom is a progression from the F-101Voodoo and why they changed the wing dihydral and tail plane configurations and who in the hell thought this heavy rockdt with fins would make good carrier plane?
sorry the Gnat was a magic aircraft and was off course complex as you would be moving on to another complex aircraft with power controls!! Best advanced trainer ever!!! The single seater with was built and used y the Indians was wonderful it kill rate was very high!!!
Lots and lots of those and lightnings flew over great yarmouth when i was young in the 70s. Not sure if the phantoms were american because of the black engine smoke.
Few in the chipmunk with the air cadets back in the early 70's ...alas didnt joing the RAF..followed my father into Rolls Royce [path of least resistance :) ]
@@allansmallman We used to wear double ear protection both yellow plugs and then ear defenders it still never worked. I was a painter and doper so we would have oxygen hoods which again did not help with hearing. You would not wear ear protection all the time not around base during t-breaks or if you was walking from a to b then you would not wear them.
We lived in Lake Worth, just across a small lake from the main runway at Carswell. The city built the schools underground to abate the noise; we had a light to let us know if the phone was ringing - the jets shook our whole little frame building and rattled the windows. You could not hold a conversation til the planes got altitude, or landed. I think even double ear muffs were not enough protection to prevent at least some hearing loss.
At 38:45 it looks like the Phantom crew are wearing low quarter shoes or wearing something white over their flying boots. If they are shoes they can easily get blown off during an ejection and you end up on the ground with no footwear.
Good eyes! They don't look quite like the issue (well, USAF issue) rubber protective booties maintainers used and there's no reason pilot or WSO should wear those. They are to protect the aircraft. Earlier "RAF pattern" flying boots had beige uppers and black lowers which look like low quarters from a distance, but I'm not familiar with Cold War era patterns.
I met Chris Kemp a few days ago and here's an update. He is well and has since retired after 7 wars, being hijacked twice, and having had his plane blown up. He recently donated a kidney to his son and said that that was one of the best things he has ever done. He presented this information along with this video at a recent public gathering. It was a pleasure to meet such an inspiring person. - Daughter of Nara74.
Nara 74 - nice to know Chris is still going. I used to fly with him in the civvie world. Lovely bloke and lovely family - it doesn’t surprise me in the slightest that he donated a kidney - he’s simply that sort of chap.
What this doc doesn't tell (because it hadn't happened yet) is that the Phantom FG-1 (F-4K) and the Phantom FGR-2 (F-4M) were to be joined by a third variant. See in the eighties when the Phantoms and lightnings were to be replaced by the Tornado F3, the RAF was so gung-ho about replacing them that they started phasing the two types out before Tornado F3 went into production. So as a result they had squadrons without planes. So as a stop gap the RAF bought more Phantoms but different from the ones they already had, these were former US Navy F-4J's most of them being Vietnam veterans, which were taken from the boneyards, fixed up, modernized with new radar and presto. c1.staticflickr.com/4/3299/3606721710_a58a8fa723_b.jpg The F-4J UK was unique in the fact that it was the only Phantom variant that the RAF flew which was powered by the General Electric J79 engine and not the Rolls Royce Spey which powered the F-4K and the F-4M.
The reason that the UK purchased F4Js, 29 sqn FGR2 phantoms from Conningsby were sent south for the Falklands conflict, leaving a gap in the UK air defence. The UK purchased a sqn of F4Js, which were stationed at Wattisham, the tornado was phased in to service as and when they became available. The RAF never had squadrons without planes, I was on 92 sqn Phantoms when this all took place.
stevej48 Although, I should point out that all three variants of the RAF (The F-4K, the F-4M and the F-4JUk) were based on the F-4B which didn't come with Gun armament as a stock, they could be fitted with central Gun Pods but not like later F-4 types like the F-4E and the F-4G with guns in the nose. Those gun pods were fitted when during Vietnam the pilots flying the Phantom were complaining that they couldn't do a proper dogfight since both the Sidewinder and the Sparrow missiles weren't designed to be fired at close range. Because the Phantom being designed to be an interceptor to catch high flying Russian bombers, the gun armament was omitted from the design completely, the Sidewinder and Sparrow were enough to deal with what the plane was designed for. Imagine: you're on a MiG-19's twelve O clock, you have the guy in your HUD, the moment is right to blow him out of the sky but then your board computer tells you that you can't fire your sidewinder because the MiG is too close in proximity to get a target lock. I'm pretty sure your reaction would be "Why doesn't this @#$%#ing plane have a $%$#@ing GUN?" One thing the high command had to accept was that the pilots had to be properly trained to be what they were supposed to be FIGHTER Pilots. And thus "Aggressor" and Top Gun training schools were set up to teach fighter pilots how to dogfight.
Mistaken again I'm afraid. The J variant was effectively it's own variant, later updated to the S variant, the final type used in US Naval service. The F-4G modified from the the F-4E specifically had there gun removed, to make space for the additional electronics required for the anti-radiation role
I'd been out of the Air Cadets a couple of years when this came out, but it was standard "Wet friday afternoon in november parade" stuff to get a film like this. It worked too as one of our merry band went on to fly Harriers and command No 1 Squadron. The rest of us ran away.
I often noticed at UK Airshows that US aircraft were always squeaky clean and that UK ones always had exhaust marks all over them. I don't think we have the cleaning and polishing staff the US have
How many airbases then? and how few now! Tragic. The main military recruitment drives today are looking for part timers, painful to witness. British forces being reduced to figures so low we might struggle to deal with a civil war let alone a foreign one.
Well chap, 25 years back everything was analog. We have to continuosly monitor our cockpit instruments . In short 60 calculations simultaneously . However once you get hold of it , it was subtle and smooth. I was always very cautious during low level bombing runs. It required immense concentration. No room for error. Just a little push to the stick and you are done.
It's the uniform. Let it never be said, that they don't have the best looking uniform on the planet. (I am not American, but even I know the U.S.M.C. has the greatest looking uniform on earth!)
Funny how I wanted to be a fighter pilot as a kid. I never attempted it as I got Crohn's disease when I was 15. . When I fly Emirates I don't even like decending to land. Unless being in the pilots seat is like driving a car versis getting sick in the back? Now that I'm older it doesnt bother me though I would have loved to fly the English Electric Lightning.
Davman I have had Crohns Disease when I was 15 too. I wanted to be a fighter pilot too. Once you have Crohns it’s an automatic rejection. I am 61 now with many resection operations under my belt. I can officially say Crohns sucks big time. It’s one of the most painful disease out there. You can still live a full life but imagine having a stomach ache or something like food poisoning every day of the week. It is not fun.
That’s a shame love the de Havilland chipmunk fascinating though that you could find the fate of that particular aircraft and indeed the fate of basically any other aircraft in raf service due the fantastic records that exist.
@@thetourettesgamer8851 I flew in Chipminks when I was a cadet in the ATC, I went on to become a Warrant Officer in later life and flew in the Grob Tutor many times but I will always remember the Chippy
Because it's a Swedish car? "He" was driving a Saab to his previous posting if I recall correctly, then upgraded to something more sporty later on (Triumph?)
Either those Phantoms taking off at the beginning have radial "flotation" landing gear tires on them or somebody forgot to "kick the tires" before they "lit the fires" because those tires look FLAT.
Aahh - A real Phantom Phixer. Got my badge when I visited Keflavik 1987 - did an exchange with one of the USAF guys there. Was with a detachment of Tornado F3's at the time. But it brought back memories of my time on Tooms in the early 80's at Coningsby
