Dave Hunt

As a famous German fighter pilot put it, "The three most useless things are fuel you've used, runway behind you and height you've lost." Dave

At least it wasn't green (or Flying Scotsman 😝) Dave

There was a famous incident in Vietnam when a USAF F4 was hit by flak and lost all his fuel in short order. The crew were then faced with ejecting over hostile territory but the formation leader got the stricken aircraft to drop the arrestor hook then came up behind and lodged the end of the hook into the rain clearing slot just in front of his windscreen. He then pushed the other aircraft back to the south and when near base backed off so the crew could eject over friendly territory. I believe he got some sort of medal. Dave

The situation wasn't of my making - honestly. I actually got praise for coping with what could have been loss of an aircraft. It's too involved to go into in detail but it resulted from rapidly deteriorating weather that hadn't been forecast and multiple screwups by air traffic and operating authorities. The thing that saved me was that I got so p!ssed off with what was going on that I declared UDI and ignored what the above mentioned nerks wanted me to do, which would have resulted in us running out of fuel and jumping out. Dave

Since much of today has been the overflow from my birthday, I was presented with a second birthday cake….. …… complete with finescale Thomas. There was no need for anti bear and hippo defences as it is a coffee and walnut cake (not on Bear’s list) and HH is currently hors de combat. It has been washed down with a couple of glasses of bubbly and there is a piece left that later could well accompany a libation of the Talisker 15 that I was presented with yesterday. It’s a hard life sometimes. Dave

I won’t go into detail is but the closest I ever came was landing a Phantom one night in Germany with the low level fuel light having been on for quite a while and about 250 lb showing on the gauge. There was a warning below the gauge that indications below 600 lb were unreliable. The next day the senior engineering officer told me that the amount of fuel they had put into the aircraft was the same as the book said it would hold. He reckoned that I must have had less than a minute of useable fuel left. I didn’t actually have brown strides but it was close. Dave

Sometimes disguised by “Errr, any gravyboats (tankers) on towline (standard refuelling area) X with a few tons giveaway?” or, “Errr, Firebird 3 is just nipping into Keflavik for a spot of fuel. See you later.” Don’t bother asking how I know about such things. Dave

Apologies Bill. It will come as no great surprise that it took me three goes to pass O level German. Dave

We ought to start the OFWAT club, Bob. Nothing to do with water supply regulation but rather the Old Farts Walking And Tottering club. We seem to be on the same sort of regime at the moment with walks of a mile or so before various body parts start to complain. I managed just under a mile and a half to the Sainsbury’s Local and back today before my back and legs gave out then had to have a rest. My reward will be cake and bubbly starting shortly. Dave

In German, “Zwei kleine Ente,” to which the reply is, “Flak, flak.” Dave

Bingo means you have reached a fuel state where you can just complete the sortie as planned but have none to spare. Joker means you have just got enough fuel to get home with none to spare. Dave

That day is so marked in both the schools I attended and in the RAF. Funny that….. Dave

We tend to buy meat, fish and some fruit and vegetables from market traders on a Wednesday and Saturday and bread, cakes and pastries as well as cheese from a local delicatessen. Milk is delivered in glass bottles to our doorstep three times a week. Other things are mainly bought from a supermarket but we don’t use delivery services because we prefer to see what we are buying, want to reduce the amount of single use plastic we use and to help preserve the existence of real shops. Dave

Many thanks for all the good wishes for my birthday yesterday. I was royally treated by Jill who chauffered me all day (I’m not supposed to drive for another 3 weeks) after a bacon butty and coffee in bed then taken to a rather nice place for lunch with some friends. This was a prolonged affair featuring cake and champagne and just in case I need more there will be a repeat performance this evening with more friends. This, of course, is doing little for the current aim of reducing the amount of DH that is in evidence but I feel that it would be churlish not to take full part in such things. Tomorrow, as they say, is another day. Dave

I normally drink Prosecco rather than Champagne but if someone presents me with a bottle of the latter it seems churlish not to get stuck in. Dave