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Harrier Pilots

  • Steve Bond
  • Interview by: Jess Boydon

Transcript

So, as part of the pilots,

the new Harrier pilots on the OC,

as part of their conversion of course,

they would go after Germany

and spend a day or two there, or whatever

just to see what it's like on the possible front line.

Now, the experienced flight crew,

the experienced pilots who knew all the tricks,

would think right, we can stock up the duty free.

And so, they come back

and of course the flight crew

would retrieve the bottles

from the illegal places under the seat

and things like that.

But then it was a job of the ground crew

to take their bag out

from the back of the airplane

because back of the airplane was terribly dirty, oh gosh.

And they were very good to us,

the majority of the pilots were very good to us.

If you got a bag out for them

and carried it back to the line building,

most of them would take a bottle out

and say put it in the crew room,

thank you very much.

But this one guy, Squadron Leader (mumbles),

whose name I meant very well

but I'm not going to say it,

no, he wasn't like that.

He was not a very nice man, let's say.

As far as he was concerned,

it was us and them

and we knew he was like that

and he was always the same,

he would never thank you

for getting the bag out or anything.

And one occasion, it wasn't me, honest, gov,

but he came back from a trip to Germany

and oh God, it's Squadron Leader (mumbles) again,

gonna go and get his bag.

So, somebody got his, two chaps went out

to get his bag, God, how ever many bottles

you've got in this

and you could hear them say cheep, cheep, cheep

as they lowered it out,

so carrying it, one each side of his bag,

back across the (mumbles).

Oops, chuck, tinkle, tinkle, tinkle.

Oh, sorry, sir.

I think he was all right after that.

He got the message.

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