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[tigers_gonads]

I think you should keep that pinch of salt handy when watching RT. 

It's just like watching any news channel, you get 90% shite and a bit of truth. It's up to the individual what they take from it.

For instance, all the crap on the BBC at the moment about what we're gonna do with our eight planes

Nine with the Vulcan.

Plus a couple of spitfires, and the un-airworthy Lancaster.
 Chirst I'd be scared of that squadron.
 and we've also got monsure guffer on his bike

There's a couple of Lightning's that we might be able to borrow back from South Africa, too..

 

Best I start practicing my liney dance 

[LC0112G]

As I type, there are 3 tankers dragging 8 Typhoons and 4 Tornadoes over Dorset heading south. Some of these may be air-spares, but within a few hours the aircraft available in theatre will have more than doubled to around 20 aircraft. There are a further 2 tankers up, but not sure what these are up to yet.

[aaronjb]

I watched the stats last night on .. some news channel (while I sat in my Bratislavan hotel room), it went something like this:

The UK: 20 aircraft (once we ship some more there, ignoring the fact that the Typhoons aren't really air-ground tasked) - pretty much everything we have, right?
France: 20 aircraft
The USA: 70 aircraft...

I say we leave it to the US, they've clearly got more money than us...

[tigers_gonads]

As I type, there are 3 tankers dragging 8 Typhoons and 4 Tornadoes over Dorset heading south. Some of these may be air-spares, but within a few hours the aircraft available in theatre will have more than doubled to around 20 aircraft. There are a further 2 tankers up, but not sure what these are up to yet.

Money tip of the week for you all ...............

If you have some spare cash, go buy some shares in Air Tanker Services 

[Sir Tigger KC]

As I type, there are 3 tankers dragging 8 Typhoons and 4 Tornadoes over Dorset heading south. Some of these may be air-spares, but within a few hours the aircraft available in theatre will have more than doubled to around 20 aircraft. There are a further 2 tankers up, but not sure what these are up to yet.

Why have they come out of Brize Norton and headed north doing a loop around the Isle of Man before heading south presumably to Cyprus? 

[tigers_gonads]

As I type, there are 3 tankers dragging 8 Typhoons and 4 Tornadoes over Dorset heading south. Some of these may be air-spares, but within a few hours the aircraft available in theatre will have more than doubled to around 20 aircraft. There are a further 2 tankers up, but not sure what these are up to yet.

Why have they come out of Brize Norton and headed north doing a loop around the Isle of Man before heading south presumably to Cyprus? 

Yup 

The price of snide Ray ban sunglasses on Nissi Beach will be creeping up by the weekend 

[Sir Tigger KC]

As I type, there are 3 tankers dragging 8 Typhoons and 4 Tornadoes over Dorset heading south. Some of these may be air-spares, but within a few hours the aircraft available in theatre will have more than doubled to around 20 aircraft. There are a further 2 tankers up, but not sure what these are up to yet.

Why have they come out of Brize Norton and headed north doing a loop around the Isle of Man before heading south presumably to Cyprus? 

I'll answer my own question.  I think it's because the Typhoons and Tornadoes have come from RAF Lossiemouth, so the tankers headed north to rendezvous before turning south for Cyprus.... 

So the next question for the Flyboys here is, what can we send to say hello to the next lot of bombers that Ivan sends to have a look at us?   

[aaronjb]

We'll send Kevin up in his glider.  That'll scare 'em

[LC0112G]

As I type, there are 3 tankers dragging 8 Typhoons and 4 Tornadoes over Dorset heading south. Some of these may be air-spares, but within a few hours the aircraft available in theatre will have more than doubled to around 20 aircraft. There are a further 2 tankers up, but not sure what these are up to yet.

Why have they come out of Brize Norton and headed north doing a loop around the Isle of Man before heading south presumably to Cyprus? 

The Typhoons have come out of Lossiemouth, which is up near Inverness in Scotland. It is standard practice for the first air-to air refuelling to occur before leaving the UK to make sure everything is working. The AR tracks are limited to a few areas over the UK. They appear to have chosen to do this first refuelling in AR13, which is just to the east of the Isle of Man.

The Tornados came out of Marham, and Met up with the tanker over Yeovilton, before heading south.

http://www.mantma.co.uk/pdf/eg_enr_6_5_1_1_en.pdf

[Sir Tigger KC]

We'll send Kevin up in his glider.  That'll scare 'em

With Monsieur Guffer strapped to the back for a bit of extra thrust!   

[Kevin Wood]

We'll send Kevin up in his glider.  That'll scare 'em

With Monsieur Guffer strapped to the back for a bit of extra thrust!   

He'll have to be somewhere near the middle, to avoid upsetting the C of G...
.. and strapped to the underside of the fuselage so I don't have the clean the pebble-dash off the tailplane.

[aaronjb]

We'll send Kevin up in his glider.  That'll scare 'em

With Monsieur Guffer strapped to the back for a bit of extra thrust!   

He'll have to be somewhere near the middle, to avoid upsetting the C of G...
.. and strapped to the underside of the fuselage so I don't have the clean the pebble-dash off the tailplane.

Thanks. Now I'm sitting in a hotel lobby laughing to myself like some kind of nutter..

[STEMO]

We'll send Kevin up in his glider.  That'll scare 'em

With Monsieur Guffer strapped to the back for a bit of extra thrust!   

He'll have to be somewhere near the middle, to avoid upsetting the C of G...
.. and strapped to the underside of the fuselage so I don't have the clean the pebble-dash off the tailplane.

You don't actually think you'd get airborne with Matt strapped to your glider 

[LC0112G]

So the next question for the Flyboys here is, what can we send to say hello to the next lot of bombers that Ivan sends to have a look at us?   

The UK has 108 Typhoons of which roughly 80 or so are in squadron service at any one time. There a 4 in the Falklands, and 8 went to the USA last week, and it appears that 8 are on their way to Cyprus today. There are 20 twin sticks that aren't normally used for combat - but could be if push came to shove. That leaves around 40 single sticks in the UK as of today. Even allowing for the most pessimistic serviceability estimates, that's plenty of aircraft to stand the QRA duty, which is normally 4 aircraft on 5 minute standby, and another 4 on 30 minute standby IIRC.   

[Kevin Wood]

We'll send Kevin up in his glider.  That'll scare 'em

With Monsieur Guffer strapped to the back for a bit of extra thrust!   

He'll have to be somewhere near the middle, to avoid upsetting the C of G...
.. and strapped to the underside of the fuselage so I don't have the clean the pebble-dash off the tailplane.

You don't actually think you'd get airborne with Matt strapped to your glider 

Well, MTOM is 472Kg, empty weight about 245. I'm about 105 with a 'chute on...

Not sure how many kilo's of Naga chicken he'd need onboard to complete the mission...