Bideford Booking form for April 2012
2012 AGM & Social Weekend Booking form link (Form amended 23/1/12)
Annual Report
The Annual report is now available to view , please click here.
Bristol 2011 ACA AGM Weekend Photos
The photos of the 2011 AGM at Bristol are now available to view
New addition
ACA Constitution
To view the ACA Constitution click here.
ACA Forum
Please use the ACA Forum to leave your comments
Message from the Buccaneeer Association
HMS Fulmar Reunion 2012
Hi Guys,
Happy New Year to you all. Can I ask if you would put this in your magazines and cascade down to your members? This reunion is open to anyone who served at HMS Fulmar in any capacity.
It will be held at the Eight Acres Hotel and Leisure Complex in Elgin over the weekend of the 25-27th May 2012. The prices are as follows:
£68 pp for 1 night, £105 pp for 2 nights and £138 pp for 3 nights.
Contact details: Dave Clark 1 Hampton Close, Stoford, Somerset BA22 9UN (Only until 10/02/2012)
Tel 01935 474852 (again only until 10/02/2012) then use my mobile 07949 478428 or Email daveclark@faaba.co.uk
For latest information visit www.www.faaba.co.uk and click the Fulmar link on the Home Page.
ACA Golf for the AGM
at Bideford 2012
The golf will be played on Friday 27th. First T will be at 1300, with lunch before hand at 1200. The golf will be held at Hartland Forest Golf Club, about 9 miles SW of Bideford. Cost will be around £25.
Full address is:-
Hartland Forest Golf Club
Woolsey,
Bideford.
EX39 5RA
Tel 01237 431777
Anyone wishing to play please contact me (John Sheldon) either email me, or telephone me on 07733108441, Payment will be required before hand by cheque or BACS please
Remembrance Parade 2011
Once again your Association fielded a platoon for the March past at the Cenotaph on Remembrance Sunday. A strong team including our Patron, Andy Barnwell, mustered on Horseguards prior to the parade.
In beautiful sunshine we formed up in a column with several other Fleet Air Arm Associations. With the sun beating down and numerous hip flasks in evidence we were soon warmed up inside and out. One particular hip flask had a special message and purpose. Commissioned by the ACA and sourced by Andy Barnwell, it is a memorial hip flask with which we can toast and remember absent friends on this particular day each year.
Although, on this occasion, we were not mentioned by the TV spokesman as we marched past, there was a good video clip of the whole platoon on the TV.
On completion of the Parade we formed up once again and with our fellow FAA Associations, marched to the FAA memorial where we held another short ceremony before returning to the UJC for refreshments. It was a good day which we all enjoyed.
I would like to offer my thanks to all those who attended, to John Fagin for arranging the accommodation, and to Andy for bringing the (full) memorial flask.
Pete Imrie
About us
Although not always known as Aircrewmen, we have been around for longer than many realise.
During the second World War the first generation were called 'Telegraphist Air Gunners' (TAG's). They flew in the rear seats of Fairey Swordfish and other similar aircraft performing the navigation, communication and air-gunner roles, and took part in all the major Fleet Air Arm skirmishes during WW2.
Soon after the war, the helicopter hovered onto the scene, and as the versatility of this new aircraft became apparent, so men from the various branches were 'loaned' to become Rating Aircrew, and carry out the wide variety of tasks that the role demanded.
During this period TAG's and Aircrewmen, and more recently Women, have served with distinction, many of who's service has been recognised with numerous decorations for gallantry and distinguished service.
Membership
Membership is open to all Royal Navy, Fleet Air Arm Serving, and ex Rating Aircrew, Telegraphist Air Gunner's (TAG'S)
Did you know you can get discount?
Check out the Forces Discount site
As a member of the Defence Community, you can enjoy FREE membership of the Defence Discount Directory. Gain access to hundreds of special services, deals and discounts.
The Defence Community comprises active members of the Royal Navy, Army, RAF, Royal Marines, Civil Service, Territorial Army; as well as Reservists, Veterans and Partners.
ON THE WIRE by DAVE PEEL
Just to let association members know that I have finally completed a book that I have been working on for quite some years. I started the project when my wife Margaret was taken ill 15 years ago, initially commenced to fill time during the periods when it was very difficult for us to get out. I then found I quite enjoyed writing it.
The book is simply memories of my time as an Aircrewman mainly in SAR, spanning a period of close to 40 years. It was originally just memories for the family but the people who have helped to proof read it for me have encouraged me to make it available to those who may be interested.
It is mainly Aircrewman related and I hope may provide fond memories for the older ones amongst us who have reached the stage when we feel the need to remember the good times. For the newer guys I hope it will provide some insight to jobs and flying experiences they are likely to face in the future. The Foreword for the book has been very kindly written by our Patron, Andy Barnwell and I have added an appendage about our association at the end.
For anyone interested the book is available now by ordering through this
Link to autherhouse.co.uk "On the wire"
The book is called ‘On The Wire’ it will also be available through Amazon in Soft Cover 6X9 - ISBN: 9781456778057 and Dust Jacket Hardcover 6X9 - ISBN: 9781456778064. At the moment ordering online through authorhouse is the cheaper route.
Rescue 194:
The Incredible Story of the Rescue of the Crew of the MSC Napoli
by the Man Who Saved Them
Authors: O'Donnell
Jay January 2007, and the TV news bulletins are full of reports of a Whisky Galore story of high-performance motorbikes and other goods washed up on a south coast beach. Thousands of people turned up to see what they could scavenge. But what got lost in the heady free-for-all was the fate of the ship that had been the source of all the treasure: the British-registered MSC Napoli …
Rolling in across the Atlantic was the fiercest storm to rock the British Isles for decades. The European Windstorm 'Kyrill' would go on to claim nearly fifty lives by the time it blew itself out, eleven casualties in Britain alone.
Aboard the MSC Napoli a crew of twenty-six feared they might be added to that list. Their ship, holed beneath the waterline where the hull had cracked, had to be abandoned and the crew ordered into their lifeboat by the captain. There, sweltering inside their survival suits, and riding out waves rising higher than forty feet, they waited for rescue.
That was when the alert crews of 771 Naval Air Squadron were scrambled. Within minutes of receiving the distress signal, two Sea King helicopters, Rescue 193 and Rescue 194, took off from their airbase in Cornwall, turned into the wind, and battled their way through the ferocious weather towards the survivors.
Although he was supposed to have finished work for the day, Petty Officer Aircrewman Jay O'Donnell jumped on board Rescue 194 in case he could help. For O'Donnell was a graduate of one of the most arduous and demanding training programmes the British Armed Forces had to offer: he was a Royal Navy Search and Rescue Diver.
Over the hours that followed, in appalling conditions, he would be tested to the limit and beyond . . . In Rescue 194, O'Donnell tells the extraordinary inside story of the rescue of the crew of the Napoli for the first time. It's a gripping tale of disaster at sea, the power of the elements and, above all, of the skill, courage and determination that saw the helicopter crews earn awards for their bravery that day – and for Jay O'Donnell to be decorated by the Queen for gallantry.
New Book "Special Forces Pilot"
Richard Hutchings, who served throughout the Falklands war with 846 Naval Air Squadron flying Sea King helicopters, has waited over twenty-five years to tell his story.
The sensitive nature of his experiences not only made this a sensible course but today provides the reader with some fascinating insights into the conduct of operations.
Dick Hutchings’ role was to insert Special Force units onto the enemy occupied islands either to gather intelligence or conduct offensive operations, such as the SAS’s sensationally successful Pebble Island raid. Without doubt the most dramatic task he undertook was the ambitious but ill- fated SAS raid into mainland Argentina.
Operation MIKADO, as it was known, has been little discussed but, as Captain of the Sea King involved, the author gives a first-hand account of what went wrong both in the air and on the ground. He describes the circumstances leading up to the crash-landing and destruction of his helicopter, encounters with the Chilean authorities and British diplomats in Santiago as well as the debriefing in an M16 safe house on return to the UK.
As well as being the fullest description of Operation MIKADO Special Forces Pilot is a gripping account of the War from the flying and SF angles.