Chapter 33

1996 - 2000

RNAS Culdrose - FRADU

FRADU Hawk over Cornwall

My four years working on FRADU were happy ones despite having to travel 30 miles to and from work each day.  I had my own little office and I set about learning about the Hawk and the Quality Systems that had been put in place by Head Office, which was at East Midlands Airport and where I had to visit on occasion.

FRADU had been relocated to Culdrose from RNAS Yeovilton in December 1995, the Hawk having replaced Hunter aircraft in mid 1994.  This meant that there was a lot to learn for most of the engineering staff.  All the staff were civilian with the engineers being almost exclusively ex-RAF and RN personnel.  The pilots were all ex-RAF during my time; they included a number of former ‘Red Arrows’.

One of my jobs was to carry out Quality checks on a permanent detachment of two aircraft at RNAS Yeovilton.  These aircraft were flown by RN pilots of the Naval Flying Standards Flight.  I was supposed to carry out these checks within the normal working day so had to drive 130 miles each way as well as check the systems in place.  Although there were some occasions when I drove my own car, I usually had to have a hire car, which was cheaper.

I also found myself as FRADU’s resident Health and Safety (H&S) advisor, which involved a number of local Culdrose courses.  I had no official qualifications as far as the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) was concerned, but I was still responsible for carrying out, and maintaining the records for, Risk Assessments.  I also liaised with the appropriate authorities if we had any accidents which, thankfully, were few and not life threatening.  Whenever an aircraft is fitted with ejection seats, correct procedures around the aircraft are of paramount importance.  A number of engineers and at least one pilot have been killed by inadvertent initiation of an ejection seat.

During my time on this job, I became a semi-expert on all sorts of computer programs including Microsoft Access and Excel.  I produced databases of all the Tool Kits and Publications and Excel Spreadsheets for some of the flying tasks.  I wish that I could remember it all now!  I had a lot of help with the databases from my son Nick, who had a much better knowledge of Access than me.

As may be expected, pilots like to take fighter aircraft to the limits and this was amply shown one day whilst a pilot was flying on a detachment in Gibraltar.  One of the tasks of FRADU was for the Hawk to simulate an Exocet missile so that Navy ships could practice their defence techniques.  On this one occasion, the pilot got very low and when he banked, his wingtip hit the water.  How on earth the aircraft did not crash I have no idea.  As a result of this incident, the aircraft had to come back by sea and the pilot lost his job.

One sporting event supported by Hunting Aviation was a Golf Tournament and, after some negotiation, I went one year.  I didn’t win anything, although I was very close, but during that event, I was tapped on the shoulder by someone who looked vaguely familiar.  This was John BAKER, who worked for another part of Hunting Aviation.  Thus we rekindled our friendship after a break of in excess of 25 years.  He and Meryl were divorced and John had brought up his two sons alone until he met and married Jane.  She was a widow, also with two sons.  We have remained in touch ever since.

One memorable night in December of 1998, I was driving home in Maria’s Renault Clio; it was dark and as I came round a bend all that I could see coming towards me were headlights, then no headlights, then headlights again before there was a loud bang and I came to a halt.  I was not injured and managed to get out of the car.  Behind me on its roof, slowly spinning to a stop was a Peugeot of some description.

  

As I reached it, a figure climbed out through a window and, although slightly disorientated, he wasn’t injured.  The reason for the intermittent show of headlights was that he was turning head over heels so to speak.  His car actually hit mine on top of the driver’s side door frame, which bent to within about an inch of my head as can be seen from the photos.  

Glass turned up inside my clothing but I was not injured except that I did hurt my left elbow.  I had had a cortisone injection two days before and the sudden stop had aggravated the previous injury.  The outcome of this accident was that the other driver was deemed to be at fault and sent on a refresher course and his insurance paid me £1,000 personal compensation.  The problem was that I now needed another car and I couldn’t get anything as good as the one I had lost within the price range that the insurance decided to pay for the car.  I did have a courtesy car for two weeks, which helped.  I also had a second cortisone injection, which cleared up my elbow.

The contract for FRADU was taken over by Babcock Engineering and that stopped the golf days but in all other respects life went along the same.  During this time I had damaged my left shoulder playing golf and I needed an operation to re-attach various bits; this meant that I could not drive and consequentially had a couple of months off work.  This made for a very busy time when I returned.

In 2000, Serco won the Multi Activity Contract for Culdrose and FRADU formed part of that contract.  For most people this made no difference but for me it did because Serco ran their Quality Assurance departments differently and my post vanished.  Fortunately, Serco had committed to no redundancies and I still had a job, but, what was it to be?

I note that in June 2013, FRADU was redesignated as 736 Naval Air Squadron.