Inspired to become a Navigator

RAF Recruiting Leaflet from 1970

My interest in navigation in the broad sense started with me being a member of the School Scout Troop and being sent off on hikes with a 1:50,000 Ordnance Survey Map. By the time I had finished at school I had become a Queen's Scout, had qualified with A&B Gliding Certificates, and had what I believe to have been a good education. The RAF then gave me the opportunities to expand my passion for navigation by running small expeditions on land and sea, and I eventually became a BMC Mountain Leader (Summer) and a RYA Coastal Skipper. 

By July 1976 I had started the Vulcan B2 Operational Conversion Unit at RAF Scampton, and was eventually posted to IX (Bomber) Squadron at RAF Waddington. As a Navigator (Radar) on the Vulcan I was responsible for finding the target and delivering the weapon. By the time I was 22 I was fully operational and saw myself being entrusted with the arming keys for a nuclear weapon that would bring considerable destruction if it had been dropped on our Cold War enemies.

Five years with IX Squadron saw me taking part in numerous detachments in North America and Europe, bombing competitions against the USAF, and one landing short of the runway that could have done for us all! The motto of IX Squadron was “Per Noctem Volamus” - “We Fly Through the Night”. Well we did lots of night flying and with it lots of sextant work; this was a discipline that I thoroughly enjoyed because of the sense of satisfaction when, after several hours of just using the stars to navigate by, you turned the navigation kit back on an hoped that the error between where you thought you were and where you actually were was less than 4 miles. Remember, the Vulcan was flying at 480 knots and up above 40,000 feet on astro sorties.

The Vulcan was an awesome machine with so much power and agility and I'm always sad that we don't have one flying any more. I am convinced that if you stand an ex-Vulcan aircrew member blindfold in a Vulcan cockpit he will know that it's a Vulcan by the distinctive smell of the wiring, the rubber seals, and the oils.

The Vulcan nuclear bomber was about to be phased out when I opted for a complete change of direction and went to Support Helicopters in 1981. Having trained on the Puma HC1 as a Navigator and Crewman at RAF Odiham I was posted in a specialist reconnaissance job in Northern Ireland for 2 years. Being able to see out of the window was a novel concept for me as my time in the Vulcan had been spent in the dark facing backwards. Returning to the Mainland from Northern Ireland I then served with 33 Squadron Pumas carrying out the roles of a Crewman and one of two Squadron Navigators. Our jobs were to ensure that any detachments went well for the Squadron, who regularly deployed all over Europe as part of the then Allied Command Europe Mobile Force as well as supporting various Air Mobile Brigade deployments. The list of things to organise seemed endless – ordering maps and charts, preparing diplomatic clearance signals, checking the Rules & Regulations for each country's airspace, booking accommodation along the route, drawing up routes for the crews and filling their aircraft nav bags – this was before the introduction of the Ops Support Branch in the RAF. When the deployment got underway you were given the privilege as Navigator of leading the formation to its destination.

I then found myself as the Brigade Air Liaison Officer with a British Armoured Brigade in Germany. This involved not only being a bit of a soldier, but also being a Forward Air Controller (FAC) Instructor for both Ground and Air FACs. This led to me being attached to an infantry regiment during the 1990-91 Gulf War as their FAC. Five and a half months living in the desert was an interesting time, but I did have to use basic navigation skills on at least two occasions during that time.

I was one of the few officers with the regiment who had been given an early version Magellan GPS and I used it to great effect; however, there were occasions where the satellites were turned off or were being repositioned and I was forced to travel one night for several hours by just using a hand-held Silva compass, my 1:250,000 map, and identifiable bits of local terrain. At the end of my trip we appeared about 400m out from where we should have been, so I was very satisfied that basic skills will always work. During the Gulf War I also had to produce a detailed 1:50,000 scale map from aerial infra-red line-scan imagery for an impending attack by the Royal Scots on an Iraqi position.

I eventually went back to flying and worked as a Trials Flight Navigator on Pumas before becoming a Puma Navigation Instructor, then a Chinook Navigation Instructor, and finally a Helicopter Navigation Examiner and Agent of the RAF Central Flying School. During that time I had the privilege of leading the 29 helicopter element of the Queen's Golden Jubilee Flypast at Portsmouth. After 4500 flying hours, I finished my career in the RAF working as a technical editor of RAF documents at what was then Handling Squadron at MoD Boscombe Down.