14 Aug 1985 - as a keen young airman, I managed to blag a pax trip from Brize Norton on VC-10 K.3 ZA150 of 101 Sqn for what was planned to be a routine AAR sortie with 12 Sqn Buccaneers as the receivers on a towline to the East of Aberdeen. We departed Brize mid-morning as callsign Z9C28 with Sqn Ldr Barrell as the aircraft captain and made a routine transit North and established in the towline ready for the first receiver.
scan0005 (2) by gulfdave, on Flickr
scan0003 (2) by gulfdave, on FlickrAs I settled down to take a few air-air shots of our first trade - Buccaneer S.2B XV161 (AF) from the rear of the cabin (a bit of challenge in the VC-10 as the engines often blocked the view of the receiver in the ideal tanking position), when it disconnected abruptly, hoses were wound in and we banked away from the towline in a climbing turn. A short time later, the loadmaster came back into the rear cabin to inform us that we had been re-tasked in support of a Northen QRA Phantom which was being scrambled from Leuchars to conduct an intercept of unknown traffic approaching UK airspace from the Iceland-Faroes gap. Apart from one very slick top-up of the QRA Phantom as it caught us up during the transit North (thirsty beast in reheat!) and then accelerated away ahead of us. Having a live armed jet sat in close formation behind a fully fuelled VC-10K concentrated the mind for me as a passenger, never mind the degree of concentration required for the two crews! The next 45 minutes or so events were a bit of a mystery not being on headset and with the crew focussed on their surprise new mission but in due course we were called back up to the flight deck to discover that we were about 10 miles in trail of 2 x Tu-95 Bears which at the time were being escorted by 2 x Norwegian AF F-16s and the RAF Phantom.
scan0001 by gulfdave, on Flickr
scan0002 by gulfdave, on FlickrAs the Bears continued South towards UK airspace, the Norwegians (without tanker support) had to RTB due to fuel leaving the Northern QRA Phantom and our VC-10 to shepherd the visitors. Despite the VC-10 being notorious as one of the fastest jet airliners, it took us almost 30 minutes to close from 10 miles in trail of the two Bears and once alongside, the noise and vibration from the Kuznetsov engines with their contra-rotating propellers was astonishing.
scan0003 by gulfdave, on Flickr
scan0006 by gulfdave, on FlickrAs we tracked Southwards down the North Sea, we were eventually joined by Southern QRA - a Lightning from Binbrook supported by a Victor from Marham and 2 x Danish F-16s before it was time for us to leave things in their capable hands and give the Leuchars Phantom a final top up before heading back towards Brize. I had to surrender the film from my rather cheap and nasty entry level SLR camera to our aircraft captain for intelligence analysis at JARIC, RAF Brampton but was promised that I would get the pictures back in due course. Much to my surprise prints & negatives did indeed turn up in the post a few weeks later, saving a few quid at Boots!
All things considered, quite a day and quite a catch for a casual passenger on the VC-10K (I heard subsequently that some Phantom crews did a full tour with regular stints on QRA without ever getting a live intercept). Has to be my most fortunate spotting day (so far!).
I'm suprised that tankers got this close in to the action!
