So, before we start with French dayglo, USMC and USN carrier visits, Bahraini Hunters with Sidewinders and his time as a movie star (yes, honestly!), I thought we'd start at Phil's spiritual home at Northolt. The following are from a small selection added to his Flickr photostream, and there'll be more to add as I come across them - Shackleton anyone?
Starting off with a base visit on 18 May 76:
Andover C.1, XS597 of 32 Squadron
Varity T.1, WJ915/W, ready for the fire dump
Gazelle HCC.4, XW855, of 32 Squadron - always did like the look of these
On the same day, a German Transall (5094) and this French Noratlas, 90/62-QW, were also around
And finally, I know this isn't technically the best image you'll ever see on here, but this Dutch Navy Neptune, 214, was one of a pair that visited on 19 May 1976, the day after his base visit, typically! Also logged was Norwegian Twin Otter, 184 and US Army C-12A, 73-22261.
Whilst on the subject of visiting aircraft, Phil's log book has the following entries at around the same time:
141002 - US Navy C-131F from Rota on 6 May 76
914 - French Navy PA.31 on 10 May 76
9T-TCB - Zaire Air Force C-130H on 12 May 76
A pair of US Army U-21A Utes on 17 May 76 along with a West German Army CH-53G plus a US Navy CT-39G and US-2B
KY2/OT-CDB - Belgian Air Force DC-6B on 20 May 76 along with N586, a Danish Air Force C-54 and C-4 a Dutch F-27M
1103 - a West German Air Force Jetstar was present on 25 May 76
As ever, there's more on Flickr, just click on any of the above images to see the remainder.
Cheers,
Lee
