Just been keeping an eye out for more specific dates than i have

216 squadron formed in February 1979 marking the final transfer of all Buccaneer operations to the RAF.  809 Squadron also stopped operating at this time and we inherited some of their aircraft. In some cases we wished we hadn't as a couple of them seemed to have an awful lot wrong with them.

The entire Buccaneer fleet was grounded in February 1980 after one Buccaneer broke up in mid-air during a Red Flag exercise killing the crew. Investigation found serious fatigue problems - a modification made in the S.2 variant had affected the ability of one of the spars to cope with stress and apart from 12 and 216 squadrons (anti-shipping squadrons which mostly flew over the sea and thus did much less of the overland hard manouevring) most Buccaneers were affected. No RAF Buccaneer would fly again until August, when only those Buccaneers not too badly affected were allowed to fly. The opportunity was taken to slim down the force slightly and 216 squadron was disbanded. New spar rings were gradually fitted to the fleet and operation with Laser Guided Bombs (LGBs) and the Pave Spike designation system began (LGBs finding favour after some use by RAF Harrier GR.3s in the successful Falklands campaign of 1982) but by 1983 Buccaneer operations were cut back - the Tornado had arrived. 15 squadron changed to Tornado operation in July, 16 squadron followed in February 1984. 208 squadron was re-tasked with the maritime role 216 had previously undertaken, and a programme to upgrade the maritime-tasked Buccaneers began - Martel was no longer an effective enough missile, and British Aerospace's Sea Eagle was the ideal replacement

Buccaneer takeoff

Is it my imagination or does this buccaneer appear close to the Ground???

Actually the party trick was to go down the runway and wait for the takeoff speed to reach the right speed then wait for a hump in the runway to lift the aircraft off the undercarraige up but not lift off, the bump would take the WOG (weight on ground) switches off load and they would allow the undercarriage to go up even though the aircraft had not climbed.

So it look lower taken off than it did do on it's undercarraige, good trick eh.

Once off the distance to the ground grew but not necessarily by much and they seem to be very close in many shots i have seen. Some of the best ones show them flying past ATC towers, with the people on them looking down.

They had beards!

Having recently read the book "The Phoenix squadron" featuring 809 Sqdn, I couldn't miss a chance here to include pictures of Ark Royal, as we shared the hangar with 809 for their last couple of years. We also inherited their aircraft. One thing that comes to mind straight away is that everyone there had a beard, i never even wanted one but there they were sporting huge amounts of hair, even if they didn't have any on top.

They could tuck all their aircraft in half a hangar which is as story in itself. If you can imagine getting something 55ft long (airbrakes extended, nose closed), 42 foot wide (wings extended) and 16 foot high (tyres inflated)(only joking) into a hangar space, then parking 20 more in the same hangar you can imagine how crowded it was, it certainly didn't pay to absent mindedly extend the wings.

as you can see in this shot below the width of the aircraft was hugely different once the wings were extending and as there was only a metre or two between aircraft so the wings would end up nicely resting on the next one over.

Another part about the parking was that it was a good idea to do the jobs you wanted to do on the folded part of the wings before you parked it in the hangar because it was an interesting job later to try to do them on a ladder with only a few metres of space.

Sorry, i am not an expert

We had this taken in 1978, the photographer did it from the top of a cherry picker. he spent half an hour on it, then a jaguar went over at 100feet, and a couple of hundred knots, with a recce pod on and did the same job in .?? of a sec.

The story of the ECM pod

One day, a fairy was sent up to Avionics to pick up an ECM pod, The pod was duly loaded on to a trolley and brought back by landrover. Onyl trouble was, as they went round the corner to drive on to the pan, the ECM pod fell off. The driver had forgotten to put the locking pins in and it took a trip sideways. The driver was told he had to pay the Quarter of a Mill back.....is he still doing it do you think??

Spotted some other pictures today

This one appears to have been taken opposite 216 as it looks like the bottom end of the hangar, which wasn't ours, or the bottom of the OCU hangar. A relevant picture at least. there aren't many around with the right finish on it, a bit like trying to find the ones that went off on the camoflage trials. they're were two tone sand and white\green, done in emulsion so they lasted a week or two till it rained a lot then it peeled off.

continuing on with the 216 Squadron neighbours

The OCU was quite a busy place, so for towing out 216 aircraft we needed to negotiate with the OCU on space and borrowed ground equipment from both the OCU and 208. didn't pay to leave anything around either.

A chance to catch up

Some of you might not remember this but in the late 1970's at Honington the aircraft pan was crowded, because all the squadrons aircraft used the same place. so it was common to have to compete for a spare slot. The OCU always lined up on ther east side and accomodated most of the slots as they had 16 aircraft to fly most days. 216 Squadron, when it came along had to park the far end as the OCU had all the slots.

For pictures relating to 216 Sqdn this one would be a good one

216 Squadron was the first squadron to work up as a laser guided bomber outfit.

They had the equipment fitted in 1979 and were trialling up until the grounding, as far as i remember everything went well. I don't remember well, but there was something about not dropping the Lepus flares in front of the target at night, beleive this was a fundamental aircrew fau pas, please confirm....

A frequent destination for the Bucc

We did seem to spend quite a lot of time at Gibralter. 12 Sqdn one year spent 9 months away, a proportion of it spent with this view, which I thought was rather good. From my Friend Neil.

An unusual shot

I haven't seen another picture like this, it was made whilst the Bucc was trialling the Sea Eagle. As you can see it is actually carrying four of them, and to my knowledge other aircraft only ever carried two. It was quite capable of carrying these a long way so even today it would have been a formidable weapon platform in the face of a maritime enemy.

A trip to Maple flag

This one is from a while ago, I can't remember if i did this trip to Maple Flag with 216, or with 208, anyone remember?

He returns

A returning aircraft usually attracts a few snags to deal with, but a returning major servicing airtest is something else. You could be stood there some time at the crew desk, whilst the test pilot rattles off an hours worth of things he found wrong. Still at least he was in one piece to make the report....

A successful air test

This one is actually at St Athans, the aircraft were towed out to the pan you see in the picture, made ready and then air tested by the resident test pilot, i have forgotten his name but he loved his job and flew both Buccs and Phantoms. usually with a fly past, only on the way back though as something might be adrift in an aircraft that has just had a major service. the phrase "millions of rivets flying in close formation" comes to mind. there were some mishaps, a fire destroyed one Bucc on a day like this because of a piece of blue towelling in a duct in the Avionics bay. not this one though.

Towing out was often done by several people, it was supposed to be done by a tractor driver, brakeman, wingmen and IC. this one had several so quite keen really.  First thing in the morning, it usually consisted of the tractor driver and the brakeman. And if we were late the speed we went at increased.

If it meant going down to the detuners, that was long walk so everyone ended up on the back of the tractor.

Picture from the Major servicing team

The unsung part of operations at Honington was the aircraft that went off for Major servicing, this was done at St Athan and sometimes we would have a get together and take a picture, here is one from early 1980.
Some of the peole in the team had worked there for 12 years when i got there, some went as far back as the Vulcun majors in the 60's.Perhaps you can spot somone...

What were the aircraft on 216 Squadron?

I do believe this one was one of them, along with XV865, 880, 885, xx 900 or 901, and XZ 430 or 431.

Anyone remember all of them?

Where did they all go

Well I must confess to not having all the numbers of the aircraft we had during 1979 because i didn't write them down, it seemd a bit like trainspotting but here is a picture and a story of a few that made it into preservation in 1994. A few ring a bell and i do beleive one of these was in the hangar back in 1979, before they all did when they were grounded of course.

You might recall that in July 1979 there was a families day and there was a group photo as shown here, there were quite a few otrhers, perhaps you have them somewhere if so please let me know and I'll include them.
 the air displays were fairly frentic, particularly the practises. There was one time when they tried a four ship over the hangars approach and converge in front, there wasn't a lot of room when they passed over and by the way they did evasive manouvers i don't beleive it worked out at all as planned.

216 Squadron 1979

Working in the hangars at Honington back then comprised of packing the aircraft into the hangars like sardines, plus we were sharing it with the Navy Buccs. Meant we were having an interesting time keeping enough space to work on everything. the bucc was virual;ly the only aircraft they could have done this with because everything folded up nicely.

Happy memories

There would be many a time when this picture would have been one of the first things we saw in the morning. usually preceded with towing them out on to the pan. A seemingly endless procession of aircraft all being lined up for the days flying, followed by another procession of power sets and paloustes.

The bin reminds me that they didn't all leak but obviously this one did.

216 Squadron

Hi there

hope some of you from 216 are still out there.