Plane Tales

Oct 23 2024 300 ep. 18 mins 403
Plane Tales Podcast artwork

Captain Nick Anderson, aka The Old Pilot, takes us on an aviation audio journey each week on the Airline Pilot Guy Aviation Podcast

  Leisure  Society & Culture  Comedy
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RAF Form 414, Vol 30

Oct 23 2024 19 mins  
My logbook tales continue and after 5 months without an income the bucket of shekels I had to keep us afloat was starting to run dry... I could see glimpses of the bottom. Luckily the mortgage on our modest 2 up, 2 down, 250 year old, Scottish stone, terraced cottage at Leuchars wasn’t excessive and we had pared our living expenses down to the bone. The sniff of some flying work

RAF Form 414, Vol 29

Oct 09 2024 16 mins  
Stories from my logbook continue with the last few weeks of my service career, which were a blur of form signing, return of equipment, formal dinners, informal parties, speeches and gifts, all accompanied by feelings of regret and excitement at to what my future held. I flew my last flight in an F3 leading a 3 ship out over the Scottish highlands and then, after everyone had landed

RAF Form 414, Vol 28

Aug 27 2024 16 mins  
Log book stories still abound but I’m now on the last volume of my small collection of RAF Form 414s. Unbeknown to me back then, my time in the Air Force was fast coming to a close. When I was offered the job on the Tornado it was on the understanding that I would serve an additional year to amortise the cost of training and I was now in coming up to the completion of my term of

The Guinea Pig Club

Aug 27 2024 18 mins  
In the words of it’s benefactor, “It has been described as the most exclusive Club in the world, but the entrance fee is something most men would not care to pay and the conditions of membership are arduous in the extreme.” Other clubs that sprang up during the World Wars are more a measure of the bravado, luck or good fortune of its members to make use of an aircraft’s eme

RAF Form 414, Vol 27

Aug 27 2024 20 mins  
My logbook tales continue with my tour on Tremblers flying the F3 Tornado which had got off to a difficult start when our compliment of brand new aircraft were shipped off to other squadrons and, in return, we received the dregs of the RAF’s Tornado ADVs. They certainly weren’t in the best of condition and I began to think I was fated when I was forced to divert following a gen

See and Avoid

Jun 28 2024 21 mins  
It’s the summer of 1971 and Helen Reddy is singing about hiking down to the canyon store to buy a bottle wine and having such a good time. I have no doubt that the nine prominent Salt Lake members of the Fishy Trout and Drinking Society returning from their deep sea fishing trip were feeling equally relaxed as they boarded their flight back home from Los Angeles. They were gettin

The 1 to 10 of Aviation

Jun 27 2024 20 mins  
The numeric version of three previous Tales covering the A to Z of Aviation. Now we look at what numbers might mean to pilots? Babylonian numeric text The Japanese Zero fighter A 'tongue in cheek' three engined Airbus The twin hulled S55 flying boat The North American F-82 Flying in Vic The Piaggio Avanti EVO The Old Course with RAF Leuchars in the b

RAF Form 414, Vol 26

Jun 10 2024 18 mins  
As you may recall I was undergoing the training course for the Tornado F3 Air Defence Variant having completed four previous flying tours. Now being a senior officer it made the job of working as a student again a little more bearable. The Old Pilot's logbook tales continue: An RAF Tornado Air Defence Variant 67° wing sweep Ait to Air refuelling from the wing stations of

RAF Form 414, Vol 25

Feb 06 2024 19 mins  
Form 414, my RAF Logbook continues with me leaving Australia and the Hornet unhappily in my rear vision mirror as I was heading back to Blighty and a cold winter in Lincolnshire. No 229 Operational Conversion Unit was the training unit that would give me my first taste of the Mighty Fin, the Swing Wing Super Jet, Mother Riley’s Cardboard Aeroplane otherwise known as the Air Defen

RAF Form 414, Vol 24

Feb 05 2024 21 mins  
After I landed my aircraft I clambered out of the Hornet with the cold realisation that I might have flown my last sortie. The spinning sensation had ceased and the sortie had gone beautifully, it was almost as if it had been a bad dream. A continuation of tales from the Old Pilot's logbook, RAF Form 414. Was the sun about to set on my career? The surgery span round and roun