Sailor series. HMS Ark Royal. Buccaneer landings and bolters

[Grahampk73]

I bought the DVD boxset this year from the Fleet Air Arm Museum in Yeovelton. Great to watch but sad that we have this capability for ten years.

[pascaljh]

What is the propeller type aircraft on the deck next to the island?

[palmersperry]

@pascaljh Fairy Gannet AEW3.

[pascaljh]

@palmersperry Thank you. Never knew about that one. Interesting aircraft with a unique look.

[pimpleburger]

Yeah, adapting to landing on a carrier must be a real mind bender lol. Still cautious and accurate over and above reckless abandon and bravado every time

[ToonandBBfan]

The good old Bucc was a great airplane

[fillyerboots1]

Lt Cdr Stanley - "No problem" in a toffee-nosed voice - yeah right. Not what he said after the cameras were turned orf, eh what old chap??

[FAAFLYNAVY]

@fillyerboots1 I think you might be wrong, surely that is Keith Summerville-Jones, a bit of a prat but a bloody good pilot, hardly ever missed the second wire.

[fillyerboots1]

What many people don't realise is that it's not the aircraft that's going up and down as it comes in to land but the ship pitching up and down.

[fillyerboots1]

That's Phil McCann, the 'Y' director.

[dave2806]

76 was my call up year . best time of my life .

[ChuckNorr13579]

Zeal Does Not Rest

[dave2806]

@ChuckNorr13579 senior service every time , god bless all hearts of oak .

[ChuckNorr13579]

Im watching the last sail of it right now its sad :(

[ThRealityDysfunction]

My grandad was on ark royal :) he work on the flight deck. You can see him at the start of this vid!!!

[waffoorn]

The DVD set has been re issued and will be avaiable from the 1st of March from Amazon or pre ordered from this site. faaba.co.uk

[englishelectric]

Nice to see this, having just read Pheonix Squadron....

I said goodbye to the current Ark today at Portsmouth. What a que! Worth it though.

[dom86juve]

this is great footage, considering buying the DVD set of the series.

[Popeetog]

@dom86juve good luck on searching the dvd set out. They're as rare as rocking horse sh*t at moment and fetching silly prices. Glad I got mine when I did

[dom86juve]

@Popeetog just had a look around on the net - Amazon 1 new: £249.95 = |o| no way, films2door: £19.95 "Temporary out of Stock", eBay: n/a.

May send BBC an email or letter and ask if they could publish the series on iPlayer.

[Shriekshack]

She is being scrapped. Heard today that the defense review decided to scrap it this year rather than in 2014. The 2 replacements will be built, and one will have the ability to land normal aircraft instead of only harriers so that American and French pilots can land.

[SkipSidekick]

Just reading "Phoenix Squadron" about Ark's role in the Belize "situation". Very interesting.

[Bitsforboats]

@SkipSidekick I`m about 2/3rds of the way through. Great book, and I recommend the same authors book about the lone Vulcan Black Buck bombing raid in the Falklands!

[Bubo25]

Kit: i.e. equipment, weapons, body armour etc.

[Heuri1]

Bubo25 I couldn't agree more and as to the present 'shower of shit', as a commodore my mother met at a reunion termed them, to have to buy your own kit just shows what fucking fantasists Blair and Brown are.

[dru4m]

The brits made a big mistake getting rid of their large deck carriers.

[FlytheUnionJack]

@dru4m what could we do? she was old and there was no replacement plan for her....atleast now we will finaly get 2 supercarriers

[dru4m]

I guess you're right, but let's hope the lessons of the past including the Falklands war were learnt and the new carriers escape the budget cuts which are coming, I desperately want to see them afloat and in operation sooner rather than later.

[Bubo25]

@FlytheUnionJack

Yeah, but there should've been a proper replacement! Typical British government, couldn't run a chimps' tea party even if they had written instructions with pictures! No foresight whatsoever. They got rid of it thinking there was no call for supercarriers anymore, then a few years later we had the Falklands! Doh! Same goes for the tank. After WWI the British government sold off all the tanks because they believed tanks wouldn't catch on...

[Heuri1]

@FlytheUnionJack I really hope that's so, but I have a horrible feeling that if they are completed as a pair we'll be flogging them off within 10 years. The politicos eat dirt when it comes to defence. Grrr!

[Bubo25]

@Heuri1

Either that or we'll be forced to use one for spares to keep the other afloat because the creeps in Westminster want to spend the money on themselves rather than on defence. I've heard it happens right across the forces because they don't get the funding needed; that and our troops have to spend their own wages on proper kit (usually American) because they either don't get the kit needed or because the stuff they do get is crap.

[jers59]

What is kit?

[pramboy09]

@jers59 military equipment

[jers59]

@pramboy09 thank you

[pramboy09]

@dru4m They are building large deck carriers again.

[BlueonGoldZ]

@dru4m It wasn't a mistake. We couldn't afford them.

[dru4m]

@BlueonGoldZ I completely understand what you're saying, but sometimes, it's not a matter of whether you can afford to do something but whether you can afford not to do it.

[BlueonGoldZ]

@dru4m in a manner of speaking, yes, we could've afforded not to do it considering our strongest ally typically has 10 or more mega carriers patroling the waters. Yes, we did lose ships in the Falklands War and maybe a large carrier could've prevented that but overall the economy was really bad and we ruly didn't need them. Don't get me wrong, I'm the kinda guy that would love to see large carriers and cruisers in the RN just for the sake of saying we have them but it is what it is.

[Bitsforboats]

@dru4m Couldn`t agree more!

[xsf908]

@dru4m I totally agree this ship has been so useful in Falkands war

[Opel314]

This is the best clip on the entire site. Just love to watch it. Great stuff and I remember when it was on tv the first time round.

[Phil1796]

ist the the start a bit bit like the carrier ops from yevielton

[waffoorn]

What I find strange is the air intakes appear round. I worked on and aroung the Mk 2 for some years and I remember them being eliptical.

[Popeetog]

This got me thinking. Having nothing better to do this a.m. i've trawled though numerous shots of Buccaneers there appears to be two shapes of air intakes. The S1 appears to have the smaller circular intakes while S2's eliptical - I can't believe the FAA were still using underpowered S1 in 1976/7

[waffoorn]

They weren't Mk 2's, I was on the Ark then and that was 809 Sqd. Might be something to do with the picture ratio?

[ralpius]

These most definately were mark 2s. There's a strange bit of picture distortion but I can assure you that these were 2Ds.

[Popeetog]

4:3 squeezing into widescreen!  My fault

[halfleper]

@Popeetog

I get the impression that this video is 'flattened' vertically. Seeing the apparently round intakes I searched for the small intakes at the wing-root leading edge, and didn't see any. I guess the Buccaneers in this film were actually S2s.

[FAAFLYNAVY]

@waffoorn From my fading memory I believe some of the 809 squadron buccs were fitted with these round air intakes around 1975 as an experiment to see if it improved the airflow through the Rolls Royce spay engines.

The S1 buccs were fitted with the De-havilland gyron junior engines

[SONOR4]

At 00.15 how does the Bucc get its nose wheel off the deck?

[Popeetog]

Possibly tug back on the arrestor wire while hook still engaged? Answers on a postcard to..................... :-)

[waffoorn]

The aircraft is moving forward, brakes are applied and the nose dips and compresses the front shock. This then recovers and lifts the nose. Seldom very high but there is a tail skid at the rear.

[Popeetog]

Top man sir! I knew an answer would be forthcoming!

[kittyylou]

Any one know where i can find a vid of the bucanner that landed then fell in the sea? :p

[Popeetog]

a/c serial number, carrier and or date would be a helpful clue?!

[pramboy74]

just love the shape of the buccaneer, one of the great aircraft.

[JollyRodders]

I remember this when it was first shown on TV. The Ark Royal was broken up in about 1980 and of course the RN could have done with her, and her aircraft, in the fleet during the Falklands conflict in 1982.

[YARROWS]

Yep her and HMS Eagle,Remember watching a thing where they were showing Harriers from the new Ark Royal and then they showed the Phantoms taking off from the old one.I know what i liked better.

[Skyhawk501]

3 bolters u have to get your carqual again thats the rules

Nice to see some old Skool carrier ops of the RN

[SONOR4]

That's real pressure on that Bucc pilot who keeps getting a bolter. The more it happens the more anxious he must have been. Hats off to FAA pilots and observers.

[Popeetog]

Real pressure as he was seconded from the RAF - a shock move from acres of concrete runway to a pitching, tossing grey postage stamp surrounded by lots of ocean!

[fillyerboots1]

@SONOR4

he was a Crabfat - RAF - pilot.

[granskare]

great video! superb aircraft - I have a high school class mate who flew from carriers in the Viet Nam war so it does take a certain type of guy to handle that...I flew a desk in the USAF so that was suitable for me...I admire these guys who fly on and off carriers !! thanks for posting this vid!

[Pyramus4Thisbe]

How everything melts into time

Those buccaneers look like old bentlies.

That whole cold war world its gone

[THEkendarkness]

Would be great if you could post the whole series!

[sketchy74]

So glad you keep posting these!

Thanks again!