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[Norseman]

Pardon my ignorance but what is a rock?
As an aside - I am on Malta and the Germans have landed.

Dave

[regiment]

  ROYAL AIR FORCE REGIMENT  a long story something to do with Gibraltar

[raflaunches]

Here are some nick names used in the RAF for the uninitiated ;

Airframe Tech- Rigger/Heavy
Engine Tech- Fitter/Sootie/Sumpie
Aircraft Electrician- Leckie/Sparky/(a very rude name with dogs involved)
Avionic Tech- Fairey
Weapons Tech- Armourer/Bombhead/Plummer
Safety Equipment Tech- Squipper
RAF Regiment- Rocks
Suppliers- Stackers
All officers- Zobbits (I think I got the right spelling) Flt Lt- Flight Lieuies, Wing Cmdr- Wing Co's, Group Cpt- Groupie, and any officer below rank of Flt Lt- Baby officer!


We had a nice day yesterday at MPA, nice blue skies a really warm temperature of 9 deg C and no wind for a little while. We took our minds off being stuck on camp by going bowling again. Not bad but I must admit that I am not very good at it so I blamed the alley we were bowling down!
Its going to be a quite week, or so I have been told, so I will be continuing my fitness challenge of running around the Falklands on the treadmill- less than 300km to go!

[Bryan Young]

I'm enjoying reading about your deployment.....but you "forgot" to mention "Crab" in your little lexicon.
You did refer to "Pongos" ....so it's only fair that a "fish-head" should reply!. BY.

[Jerry C]

Sail Navy, Dig Army, Eat Crab.

[Netleyned]

or walk sideways in Gib and say Hi to a Rock Ape.

Ned

[regiment]

  good to see that us exservice men can still laugh WITH each other

[Norseman]

Why Fairey with an e lads?

[Bryan Young]

Sail Navy, Dig Army, Eat Crab.

I always thought that the last one was "walk sideways"........BY.

[irishcarguy]

Hi Nick I am following your Falkland exploits with great interest. I too am ex RAF. Squarebashed at Bridgenorth & did my trade training at Weeton. Served @ Felixstowe with the Rock. Spent 3 years @ RAF Nicosia & a year in Aden.We had 70 squadron & 43 Squadron @ Nicosia when I was there. I finished my time @ RAF  Locking before coming to Canada. The Pongo's called us penguins because 97% of us (RAF) could not or did not fly. I was in MT, trade group 5 then & #1 ground trade. In a previous post you mentioned Go Karts, what type & what engines are you using. I was a member of the RAF Kart team 67/68. Many years later I still miss the fun & the good friends we always seemed to have around & wonder where they all are now. Note to Norseman, have improved a bit. I would love to hear from any of my friends back then if they are reading this, I was the crazy Irishman & you all called me Paddy. Mick B.

[w3bby]

... Irishman & you all called me Paddy....

That narrows it down a bit 

[armc40]

Fly Navy (for fun)  Fly Army (for the L plates)  Fly professionally with the Royal Air Force

[armc40]

I'm enjoying reading about your deployment.....but you "forgot" to mention "Crab" in your little lexicon.
You did refer to "Pongos" ....so it's only fair that a "fish-head" should reply!. BY.

Well  to be fair....if a person can't get into the RAF they have to go somewhere I guess !

[raflaunches]

Fairey or Fairies are called so because the black boxes they claim to look after are so complicated, it appears that they are controlled by magic, so therefore all avionic/leckies are fairies. Also considered to be one of the laziest trade in all the techie groups because all they do is remove the black boxes and put a new one back in!

We are still called 'Penguins' or often shortened to 'Quins' or to anyone in the other services 'crabs' or 'land-crabs'! But I believe that the original meaning for crabs is a lot ruder than walking sideways!

We have a lot of fun (simply because if you didn't you would go mad!), we have a lot of nick-names for each other just to keep each other on our toes! I often respond to 'Chuckles' but others have crept in recently, like 'Victorian Dad' because of my knowledge of yesteryear compared to the kids who need to 'get some in'! (for those uninitiated- time in or years done!). Bit unfair since I am only 27 pushing 28.

The weather has attacked us today, high winds have pushed the cloud sown on to Mount Pleasant creating a fog over the airfield, the temperature dropped suddenly last night and feels like winter again, it was so bad the Landie didn't want to start again! At least we got some fresh milk yesterday, we are the envy of the camp!
Hopefully this Sunday I can go sight seeing at Port Stanley and Bertha's Beach providing I don't get 'volunteered' for some more pointless duties! We were going on Saturday but we have a parade for the Battle of Britain that we have to attend so we have had to postpone it again.

[Martin (Admin)]

Great post again Nick!   


 ...... it's like having our own South Atlantic correspondent! 

[irishcarguy]

W3bby I know it is not very narrow but if you knew me then I was unforgettable LOL to the point that when I left Nicosia the pewter mug they gave me as a parting gift was engraved Paddy Burke. I still have it now. Mick B.

[roycv]

Hi, I was a Fairy, there, after all these years I can admit it
What used to upset the NCO's was that if the black box went wrong they could never blame you for it!  They went wrong quite a lot of the time.

I think I earned my upside down stripe one morning when a Canberra came in, stopped on the runway and the crew dashed out.  There was a black box with smoke coming out of it.  I did a lonely walk, went into the aircraft disconnected the box, and returned with it still smoking. It was part of GEE H, used for bombing, ironical in its' way.

That was on 59 sqdrn, one of those squadrons that came and went, After I left Germany I think it melded with 3 squadron.
Does the SAC Tech have a separate insignia for the tech bit?
I used to have the hand with the lightening badge, I found out years later that having this badge meant you could directly address an officer!  Just in case you might have something important to tell him!
On the Squadron we hardly ever saw the officers / pilots, when you read about a squadron it is the pilots that are "the squadron".  I reckon it took 5 workers to keep each and every  aircrew in the air!
regards Roy

[essex2visuvesi]

Great post again Nick!  


 ...... it's like having our own South Atlantic correspondent!  

LOL and if you see Kate Adie arrive. PANIC!

[Circlip]

Rock apes, crab fats and you haven't got round to Snowdrops yet.

  Regards  Ian.

[raflaunches]

Don't get me started on Snowdrops! (RAF Police)

Oh well Roy, I think we can forgive you now for being a 'fairey' there are much worse things to be in the military! (PTI seems to spring to mind at the moment).
To distinguish the techies from the rest we have the SAC badge (three bladed propeller) and have a ring outside the blades- looks like a Kort nozzle, often described as the ring of power' because it took 18months to earn it! I had to go through a BTech, NVQ Level 3, and several other pointless qualifications to justify the ring of power!

'

Great post again Nick!   




 ...... it's like having our own South Atlantic correspondent! 
Martin,

Hi Martin,
Whilst I am enjoying my time down here I hope you aren't expecting me to stay on down here as the Mayhems permanent SA correspondent are you? What's the going rate for that? 

Its my day off today so not much has happened, I finished my basic welding course last night and might learn the ancient techniques of metal bashing later on in the month! Weather is still over cast but dropped two degrees over night!! Now its back to 6 deg C.

[Norseman]

"I hope you aren't expecting me to stay on down here as the Mayhems permanent SA  correspondent"
Nope - we're asking for the frozen north - getting Santa airworthy for X'mas 

[irishcarguy]

At recruiting at Cardington they told us that all you needed to be a Snowdrop was to be 5ft 8inches & have nasty disposition & boy were they right. Mick B.

[essex2visuvesi]

"I hope you aren't expecting me to stay on down here as the Mayhems permanent SA  correspondent"
Nope - we're asking for the frozen north - getting Santa airworthy for X'mas 

Already in hand
Reindeers have been rounded up and are currently in training

[raflaunches]

At recruiting at Cardington they told us that all you needed to be a Snowdrop was to be 5ft 8inches & have nasty disposition & boy were they right. Mick B.

Too true Mick, I have run a foul of the dreaded snowdrops a couple of times, and for such pointless things too.

The weather at the moment is amazing, it is actually in the double figures and I know this because I had to take my jacket off for the first time! There is very little wind and it feels like a proper spring day.
We are very busy preparing for the Battle of Britain parade tomorrow, I have had to polish a cardboard spitfire for the Officers dining in night to commemorate this important date in the RAF calendar. As you can imagine we can't get much down here so we have to make most of the decorations ourselves, the cardboard spitfire being one of them!
Its been a very impressive day for flying, seeing the VC-10 and Hercules take off, and the Typhoons doing their power climb take off's! I presume its for the BoB day tomorrow.
The mountains are amazing at the moment, the other day it was like watching a waterfall of clouds pouring over Mount Pleasant! Just wish I had my camera with me at the time, would a fantastic picture of the clouds over the mountains with the VC10 and Hercules in the fore ground!

[Netleyned]

The weather at the moment is amazing, it is actually in the double figures and I know this because I had to take my jacket off for the first time!  There is very little wind and it feels like a proper spring day.

Beware perfick day for snowdrops to appear out of the ground...   in small clumps   

Ned