Yesterday at RAF Kinloss No.1 Sqn RNAS was finally confined to the dustbin of history.
No.201 Sqn formed on the first of April 1918 from No.1 Sqn RNAS was finally disbanded along with No.120 and 42(res) after the cancellation and destruction of the Nimrod maritime patrol aircraft, which they flew, by the present government. (B***ARDS)
When I was in the ATC (Air Air Training Corps) as a young wee laddy we managed to wangle a cushie 1 week camp at Kinloss. Spent a day in the Spey bay pulling apart a Rolls Royce Spey Jet Engine. Got two 30 min Chipmunk flights around Piper Alpha oil rig that had blown up earlier that Summer. Night Exercise in the woods near the RAF Station. An a scheduled 17 hour Nimrod flight. Which was awsome. We tracked Mig 25's from Baltic for 2 or more hours, did a few orbits of Iceland an then some dummy torpedo drops. By this time i was falling asleep. Id been up since 3am it was now about 7 or 8. to the crackle on the radio...
'Bomb bay doors open' '3 2 1 torpedo gone'
I er crapped myself thought WWW3 had just started. My friend got a nudge in the elbow from a Naval observer an we was informed it was just practice.
We turned back to Kinloss an did some circuits for about 20 mins. Then landed. Aparently we'd had the flight scrubbed due to an Andover needing to do an Emergancy landing. He tried 3 or 4 times then diverted to Lossiemouth a few miles down the road. Ill never forget that summer camp. Shame about RAF 201 an the Nimrod fleet.
'm not sure about that. Wasn't the decision only made very recently?
Yes, due to cutbacks needed to help fill the hole the last Govt left behind
Yeah....nothing to do with the worst worldwide financial crisis since the 1930's then. Not that I'm defending the tw*ts mate, they are culpable in that they kow-towed to this culture of extreme risk and greed....but on what planet would the Conservatives have done any different? In fact they have consistently and traditionally opposed more financial regulation, far more so than any other party. Don't want to upset their Masters best friends you see. Meh, two side of the same coin. There was very little difference between New-Labour and the Tories anyway...different shades of blue.
So, lets just punish the people who are completely blameless; wreck the NHS, make the concept of 'Meritocracy' and social mobility even more laughable by pricing out poor people from University, sack coppers to make a 'criminal wonderland', dismantle the armed forces (despite giving assurances they would not) while giving the bastards whose fault it was carte blanche to pick up where they left off, pay themselves obscene bonuses and do it all again. Genius. Remember, we're all in it together!
I f*cking hate them all Squid, and that includes Labour who most certainly were and are no better. Lying, odious, duplicitous toads all...without exception.
Rant over. Best not to get into it really lol. Back to ROF.
"I am fond of pigs. Dogs look up to us. Cats look down on us. Pigs treat us as equals".
It would appear that the UK - and Europe in general - have other things to spend their Euro's on. I guess Brussels is content to rely on other countries good intentions. Good luck with that.
"It is useless for the sheep to pass resolutions in favor of vegetarianism, while the wolf remains of a different opinion."--- William Ralph Inge
It doesn't really matter to me which party finally stuck in the knife, it's just that 201,120 sqn's and Kinloss have been a big part of my life.
My Father was a Shackleton pilot with 201 before converting to Nimrods with the same sqn, eventually moving to 120 where he ended his days, being killed in a flying accident, flying a Bulldog, he is now buried in kinloss Abbey on the opposite side of the road from the "Former airbase". So a significant part of my life.
Shame to see them go, used to play American football against the team from RAF Kinloss, the Kinloss Kurgans. When I first moved north they were still flying Shackletons, 3000 rivits flying roughly in formation and watched them doing 'touch and goes' at Wick Airport, then later with the Nimrods doing the same. When I was in the tower at wick the controller had a large pair of binoculars and watched the Shackletons and Nimrods as if their wheels touched the runway, he could then charge it to the RAF as a landing, he did the same thing for the Jaguars from Lossie.
Chlanna nan con thigibh a so's gheibh sibh feoil Sons of the hound come here and get flesh Clan Cameron
Yeah....nothing to do with the worst worldwide financial crisis since the 1930's then. Not that I'm defending the tw*ts mate, they are culpable in that they kow-towed to this culture of extreme risk and greed....but on what planet would the Conservatives have done any different? In fact they have consistently and traditionally opposed more financial regulation, far more so than any other party. Don't want to upset their Masters best friends you see. Meh, two side of the same coin. There was very little difference between New-Labour and the Tories anyway...different shades of blue.
So, lets just punish the people who are completely blameless; wreck the NHS, make the concept of 'Meritocracy' and social mobility even more laughable by pricing out poor people from University, sack coppers to make a 'criminal wonderland', dismantle the armed forces (despite giving assurances they would not) while giving the bastards whose fault it was carte blanche to pick up where they left off, pay themselves obscene bonuses and do it all again. Genius. Remember, we're all in it together!
I f*cking hate them all Squid, and that includes Labour who most certainly were and are no better. Lying, odious, duplicitous toads all...without exception.
Rant over. Best not to get into it really lol. Back to ROF.
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Yep the collapse of the sub prime market. The clue is in the question. And like many of us, Goverments thought it cool to borrow too. After all its a boom time right? To be fair to Labour, they didnt start it. Since thatcher years, every successive goverment has cut taxes and increased spending (mainly on the NHS).
It had to go pop some time, and thanks to the deregulation of banks it hit us very, very hard.
So now we have the current situation. Massive spending cuts, that result in not only defense cuts, but massive cuts across the board. The poorest as always suffer the most, the politicians fiddle their expenses.
I too hate it all, but even the current cuts dont come near to filling the whole we have gotten ourselves into. As luck would have it Labour was last on the scene.
Yes, what are you Brits thinking? You should follow the example of the United States and spend yourselves into oblivion through military expenditure.
We prefer to squander it on the floundering dinosaur we call the National Health Service and a free-for-all benefit system bottomless pit - at the expense of military hardware.
'Find your enemy and shoot him down - everything else is unimportant.'
Yes, what are you Brits thinking? You should follow the example of the United States and spend yourselves into oblivion through military expenditure.
Yep, we are such fools... I thank God that he came down and handed us the largest world economy simply because we are so stupid to be on our own. What I would give to live under the nanny state socialist EU; where all my needs are met and harmony abounds. Wait what? Deadly riots in Greece? How could that be?
Greenspan started the whole thing with his economic rationalisation crap that encouraged people to believe they could have it all without working for it. And the greedy corporates were happy to oblige and con the (admittedly) stupid great unwashed.
This was a major factor in the financial crisis that began in the US. It has filtered down into Europe because they have been equally stupid in trusting a senile old man's misguided philosophies.
Now everybody thinks they can have every thing and get the #%&*$# when they don't. Riots ensue. It is madness.
BTW, I agree with everything young Bigglesworth said. I thought Britain valued history.
Yes, what are you Brits thinking? You should follow the example of the United States and spend yourselves into oblivion through military expenditure.
Yep, we are such fools... I thank God that he came down and handed us the largest world economy simply because we are so stupid to be on our own. What I would give to live under the nanny state socialist EU; where all my needs are met and harmony abounds. Wait what? Deadly riots in Greece? How could that be?
This has nothing to do with socialism. It's simply a matter of what we can afford to pay for. That people like you try to politicize our country's enormous debt is exactly the reason why we fail to quash it. And before you ask, yes, I think we ought to not only slash military spending (7 super carriers? wtf for?), but also raise the retirement age. Social security and the military are two of our biggest expenditures, but no one will touch either because the military is untouchable for the right (but not Ron Paul, thank goodness), and social security is untouchable for the left.
If you want an example of what happens to an Empire that fights in pointless foreign wars, look no further than Great Britain. Funny that this sidetrack actually is relevant to the topic of this thread.
and watched them doing 'touch and goes' at Wick Airport, then later with the Nimrods doing the same. When I was in the tower at wick the controller had a large pair of binoculars and watched the Shackletons and Nimrods as if their wheels touched the runway, he could then charge it to the RAF as a landing, he did the same thing for the Jaguars from Lossie.
