Fairey Gannet Stars on TV Show

Bit of Gannet porn for aficionados:

Episode 4: Mammoth Machines | Monster Moves | Channel 5

It's intercut with the other half of the programme which is about a piece of railwayana, and the presentation leaves something to be desired, but if ASW Gannets were your thing just bear with that.

 

Never ever saw an ASW Gannet just the AEW Gannet, and of course the most important one of them all the COD Gannet:-D

 

OK, I bit.

 

Daddy of them all :-D http://cdn-www.airliners.net/aviation-photos/photos/5/4/9/0521945.jpg

 

the gannet is a TR5, you can see the periscope between the first and second cockpit, used by the instructor, it had no ASW capability.

 

Had them on the Vic '60/61 also Skyraiders.As a seaman all aircraft were a source of puzzlement to me although the Gannet looked a sturdy thing.
We did lose one if I remember rightly,dived straight down in the oggin from a great height I was in the sea boat looking for wreckage at night.
The poor pilot was killed but I don't remember if it had any more crew.It was a mail drop mission.

 

Had them on Hermes 2nd commission good looking aircraft. used to like seeing them land on just like a big
bird and no hurry --unlike the jets . AEW with a crew of three and the big radome slung underfuselage.

G

 

My understanding is that the Gannet got the AEW conversion when its ASW role was put out of business by helicopters with dipping sonar, possibly not until the Wessex arrived as the Whirlwind's endurance was nothiong like what could be had from a Gannet stooging around on one prop. Good novel about a Gannet pilot in "The Raging of the Sea" by Charles Gidley (Wheeler), who was one.

 

22/11/1960XL495425Gannet AEW3849 NASDitched into the sea 20 miles off Malta while delivering mail from Hal Far to HMS Victorious. The pilot abandoned the aircraft when it began to sink but was drowned

 

I'm not sure that tallies with I was told and the subsequent foray in the whaler.
We were told it came straight down and it was pretty hopeless to look for the pilot in a life raft,I remember it well, we picked up quite a lot of aircraft pieces that were not large,the big ones must have sunk,so it didn't look like a ditched plane.
Then again if that's the official report then it must be so but it's strange to what I saw.
The biggest parts we found were a few surviving mailbags but searching at night in a heaving sea in a sea boat with an Aldis is not easy.
Think the pilot was a subbie.

 

Victorious
COLLINS, Rex N, Sub Lieutenant,

 

Yes I can remember that Gannet going in, also the 849B flight Skyraiders, painted in the dark blue colour, the flight had a RAF pilot named I think Fl/Lt Davies.

 

One of my few regrets , I never took the offer to go in the COD.Only one time ,on Ark, did I & many others go up to the goofing deck to watch a Gannet do a free take off , a sight to behold.

 

I had the honour to take a flight in the COD from Ark to Luqua and return. Pilot was Lt Pickles. Going off the cat was better than sex.

 

AEW Gannet Free Take Off

As Scouse will remember on the Vic 65-67 we had just got back to UK from the far flung.
Our FDO Lt CDR Robinson Decides he is going to fly the last AEW Gannet off free take off.
We lined it up as best we could for an axle deck launch. He ran it up held the brakes then let go and went for it. As he approached the JBD;s it was obvious he was drifting to port. By the time he got to the port foreward twin 3.5 his port oleo was in outer space above the turret. He manage to hold her level on the starbord oleo and she just got airborne on leaving the bow round down. Flyco piped "Flight Deck we will not be trying that again". lol
fred

 

Also used for ferrying Admirals... : ) http://www.navy-net.co.uk/history/62977-admirals-barges-3.html

 

COLLINS - Sub-Lieutenant Rex Noel - HMS Victorious.
Died 22nd November 1960, aged 20 years. Buried at Kalkara Naval Cemetery.