Air Training Corps


Recommended Posts

You wouldnt catch me wearing this gear again.....too bloody hot....no wonder they called it passing out parade!!!....but worst of all boy was it itchy!!!!

Link to post
Share on other sites

yep ya right it is......there was only one sqd to be in............138

Link to post
Share on other sites

It was on Trent Lane Behind Brimingham Waste...which always seemed to be on fire at some point or another....lol......There was a SQD on Wilford Lane or were they "Airscouts"...i know they were something lesser then us...lol...was there from 72 till 74...little round biscuit barrel called Cook was the CO....Can remember that flight simulator they had with the mouse thing that tracked across a map on the table...and everyone seemed to live on toast in the mess hut..lol

Link to post
Share on other sites

Flt lt R Cooke was still C.O , Flt lt Phillips D.F.C. was adjutant , then there was Mr White (Warrant officer) and another older officer whos name escapes me at the moment he was in charge of the radios.

Yes I remember the flight simulator I think it went to a museum at RAF Newton when we moved to Edale Road (Off Sneinton Dale) in the later 70's

I was the proud 'winner' of the "Thunderflash" missile that we had , in an aircraft recognition competition. That also went to RAF Newton when they opened a missile museum there in about 1979

  • Upvote 1
Link to post
Share on other sites

flippin eck....thats a jog on the memory...flt sargent dittor indian lad.....black guy called Barkley....got in big trouble over a nasty incident at RAF Machrihanish on one of the camps...WO reed rings a bell to.....got me wing blues playing rugby for the East Midlands Wing.....

Link to post
Share on other sites

Reed was great (A real pi55 head)

Clement Barkley and I got to shoot for the Squadron at Bisley (We came third in the whole country, still got the medal somewere)

And those fish and chip parties!!!!!!

 

WO Dean used to do the shooting down Triumph Road

Flt sgt Cauthen rings a bell too

And Cheshire (Sgt I Think)

  • Upvote 1
Link to post
Share on other sites
  • 8 months later...

Well I must have been a member of 138 First Nott'm Sqdn ATC too as I recall it was down Trent Lane. And my old man was also in this Squadron in the 1940s and went on to join the RAF in 1944.

Sad to say my stay there in around 1968 or 69 was very brief. I seem to recall it was a Thursday night and Sunday morning and I joined at the same time as around another 5 newbies. We were told we would soon get our uniforms but it just didnt happen. About one month in there was a trip to RAF Newton and I had been told what fun this was what with rifle shooting and all. Then came the bad news - only those in Uniform could go. So come the next Sunday morning nearly all the squadron had gone off to Newton and only a handful of us were left behind with one very grumpy old stickler. As soon as we walked through the gates we were shouted at for not saluting the flag. We then had some boring lectures on different types of rivets and then had a competition to determine the meaning of the RAF motto Per Ardua Ad Astra. Well I never studied latin and having just watched a film about Douglas Bader wrote down .. REACH FOR THE SKIES. Well this didnt go down very well but no-one volunteered the answered provided by Mr Grumpy - THROUGH EFFORT TO THE STARS. Quite how air cadets s with no knowledge of Latin were supposed to know all this was beyond me

Well having had enough of this kind of ridicule and control for 5 days at school the last thing I wanted was some more on a Sunday morning. It was made worse by knowing my mates were having a good time at Newton and my main aim in joining the ATC was to get nearer to aircraft and airfields and not spend time being harangued and ridiculed. So that was that - I went AWOL and never went down Trent Lane again. I do wish now though that I had gone into the RAF but thats another story.

Link to post
Share on other sites

Did 138 ever have an airframe to mess about with on their premises.

An old school mate was a member of the squadron in the 60's, Pip Ryland, anyone know him, I recall him having an air experience flight in a Chipmunk and flying round our school, I presume the 'Chippie' came from Newton

Link to post
Share on other sites

We never had any luxuries like airframes, however we did have a dozen decommisioned .303 Lee Enfields that we messed around with once in a blue moon.

We used to get 'air experience' at Newton every once in a while, and I was lucky enough to be selected for pilot training !!! Our CO hated me so there was no chance he would choose me, but Sqdrn Leader Read - Buckle put all the names in a hat and drew one at random, lucky me, I passed and have never flown solo since !!!!

  • Upvote 1
Link to post
Share on other sites

Henry Mellish had its own glider....basically a chair on this weird looking aeroplane frame.......tw*t here was the only one brave enough to be catapulted across the rugby field.

Link to post
Share on other sites
  • 2 years later...

A bit of a gap between now and the last post but I am new. I was a member of 138 squadron ATC based on Trent Lane from 1959 to 1963 when oddly enough I joined the Royal Navy going on to serve in Submarines for 10 years. Clearly I was impressed by the Airforce. During that time we went on annual camps to RAF Ballykelly,RAFKinloss We also did air experience flights at RAF Newton Syerston and Swinderby remember being in the mess at Newton with Apache by the Shadows playing constantly I have been a fan eversince. The Squadron did have a resident airframe it was a De Havilland Vampire we also had a Pre-war link trainer. Remember Flt Sgt Goy SgtKirk Sgt Coxon et al. I have a photograph taken on annual camp of the whole unit in front of a Mark 2 Shackleton "Happy Days"

Link to post
Share on other sites
  • 3 years later...

I fell on this site by accident,(didn't hurt). I was at Trent Lane around '73-'75 known then as Lee Walker I can remember the Clem Bartley incident at Macrihanish. I ran 3 Flt for a while, remember the fish suppers. The move to Dale Street ruined it for me, it wasn't the same unit. Found an old photo from Macrihanish and another from Binbrook the year before. Ralph Reed-Buckle was OC when I first joined, read his obituary some time later, I seem to remember that he died in a plane crash. Cookie came next, remember the Instructors as Wood, Phillips and Neal. I remember that there was a lot of Asians in the squadron which was a new experience for me. The guys seemed to come from Radford and Sneinton for the most part. The photos have brought back a few names, hope that they all went on to do well in later life....Steve Corden,The Barlow brothers, The Cheshire brothers, Scotty, Clem Bartley, Keith Hunter, Carl Armstrong, Steve Dodds, Sharif, Nigel Gamble, Rob Taylor, Brown, Paul Blackmoor, Bobby Latif, Tony Singh, Ditta, 'Biggles' and Ottar Singh.

  • Upvote 2
Link to post
Share on other sites
  • 2 weeks later...

Just found this article while looking for another picture, and spotted Lee Walker's post from 20 June, and his online name which I found quite funny (and have used the same format ;-)

Hi Lee - it's Paul Blackmore. I also have those two photos and two more - I've linked to them.

Nice to hear from you - we last met some 35 years ago at the Colwick Hall if you remember.

I'm still in touch with Steve Dodds (now a prison warder), Nigel Gamble (ex RAF aircrew, left about 3 years ago) and John Turner (ex RAF Regiment, left about a year ago)

Great to hear from you...

Here's one of the annual camp from 1973 at RAF Bicester

138%20Squadron%20Air%20Training%20Corps%

Annual camp at RAF Binbrook in 1974

138%20Squadron%20Air%20Training%20Corps%

and 1975 at RAF Machrihanish

138%20Squadron%20Air%20Training%20Corps%

  • Upvote 2
Link to post
Share on other sites

Nice first post, if you are on the photos, it would be good to identify yourself, and also others. You never know on here, who remembers who!

Link to post
Share on other sites

Hello cadet 1035, a lot of the same faces throughout those years. I can remember how we both once walked all the way to Calverton to set up an assault course and exercise for the following weekend. We stayed in an old parachute canopy. We also completed a 100 mile bike ride together for The D of E silver award.

Strange that we never kept In touch even though our families still live across the road from each other....Cheers Lee.

Link to post
Share on other sites
  • 2 years later...

Someone who hasn't registered with Nottstalgia, only logging in as a Guest, has just placed this message in the "Report" section. That means no-one will see it unless I copy it to here. It refers to a name mentioned in one of the posts earlier in the thread.

 

Richard Cooke was my husband for 30 years. He passed away 29.10.2017 age 66. Thank you for the mention

Link to post
Share on other sites
  • 2 months later...

Richard Cooke can't be the same person.  138's boss was Flt Lt N R Cook.  I'm fairly certain his first names were Noel Robert hence he was known as 'Bob' to the staff and 'Cookie' to the cadets.  He died some 15 years back and would have been in his mid to late 60's then.

Link to post
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...