[Korenwolf]

Ah, BRIXMIS and Gatow Station Flight.

Fascinating stuff: one of those "warbird" Chipmunks is still in the RAF supplying training facilities for BBMF.

Not everybody was happy with the Chippies flying overhead, mind...

And not just the Chipmunks...when I worked at Marshalls in the 80's we had an RAF Herc to repair that had taken a rifle round in the wing

https://www.upi.com/Archives/1981/03/08 ... 352875600/

[Dave W]

There's a theory that says the Chippie wouldn't have been hit because the rifleman wasn't leading it.

[kanga]

The Chippie flying round the Berlin Zone was interesting in that the pilot was usually in the back seat; a RAF photographer would be in the front, with the canopy open to first notch during photography, which was of course typically at steep bank angles and with loosened shoulder harness. IIRC, the photographer did not get 'flying pay' (unless a GD pilot/nav temporarily retrained as photographer, which some may have been)

There were also the AAC helicopters at Gatow, a flight of Sioux when I was there IIRC. They normally flew within the Western Sectors, but right up to the fence/wall.

For equivalent missions the US were using Army Beavers from Tempelhof, and the French Army Broussards from Tegel.

[JAFO]

My first ever overseas flight in the RAF was to Gatow. As I remember it, and this was a lot of years ago so I may well have invented all of it, I spoke to an American controller who gave me the following clearance:

"FY44 you are cleared down the Central Corridor, if you deviate from the corridor, you will be shot down."

I then had to use VORs to stay within the defined limits - I would have given a month's salary for Skydemon right then. The amount of alcohol drunk in the following three days may well have clouded the memory but that's how I like to recall it.

[Irv Lee]

There's a theory that says the Chippie wouldn't have been hit because the rifleman wasn't leading it.

As one other forumite* may remember, we were nearly taken out low flying about 20 miles west of Moscow in 1993 in a Wilga, the missile was an extremely large potato - fortunately whilst the launcher understood “leading” he didn’t understand Wilga stol speeds and led by a metre or two too much.

[XX]

Irv, that story sounds worth telling and a thread all of its own?

[Irv Lee]

@xx are you a potato fan? (Surprised no one has asked if it was a Wilja )

[Tim Dawson]

XX and Irv, you should both come over for a beer and discuss this potato story.

[Dave W]

(Surprised no one has asked if it was a Wilja )

Won'tja tell us?

[akg1486]

We landed 27 at Templehof in 2007. We came in from the north, passed right over Tegel and were routed straight over central Berlin a bit west of Templehof and turned left for a left downwind before landing. We left two days later and I haven't been back to Templehof since. (During taxi for departure we saw a couple of foxes. I heard later that there were quite a few of them, not the least because there were a lot of rabbits.)

The architecture in the terminal is truly aweinspiring. You feel very small walking under those high arches.

[Irv Lee]

XX and Irv, you should both come over for a beer and discuss this potato story.

I have what I believe is the vhs video, as we have discussed before with the thoughts on a beer evening. If I don’t find the dvd copy of said vhs, I shall have to have it recopied. It does not have the potato itself on it, I was a bit busy and the main cameraman was probably in an inverted spin somewhere nearby.
I learned a lot about communication on that trip.... for example, an international form of tuber based Esperanto.... “**** *** and low-fly somewhere else” came through loud and clear with no need for a phrase book

[Lockhaven]

the other GA Berlin airport EDDB has a new terminal costing millions

EDDB GA? Thats like calling Gatwick a GA airport...

I meant GA as in a bizjet.

[Dave W]

@Irv Lee, how about a Forum project for the Spring?