Falling Leader Practice – Michael Bell
My time in RAFMR pales into insignificance compared to others, but I still retain lots of memories. (I can still recite the names of those who shared which room in the MRT Block at Leuchars from 1970, I expect others can do similar in their teams)
For no particular reason I had a flashback yesterday of “Falling Leader Practice” which involved an aircraft tyre simulating a falling climbing leader from a rockface above them, and the belayer below having to stop the tyre as it flew past him, then apply prussick knots to hold it.
The “old hands” took great satisfaction in hurling the tyre off, especially if a novice was the belayer.
I distinctly recall doing this training at Cove Sea Cliffs in Aberdeenshire when Sunshine was Team Leader.
I have no idea which type of aircraft tyre was used, we may have taken one from one of the Squadrons then based at Leuchars, it could have been from a Phantom of 43 Squadron.
Did you enjoy this tale?
Why not write one of your own experiences serving with a Team.
Short tales will be published here.
Longer tales will be published as articles.
Send them to rafmra@gmail.com.
Below is a list of other short tales for your enjoyment, click on the item to view it
- It all started with 60 MU – Bob Naylor
- The Things You Get Away With – Peter Kirkpatrick
- My Introduction to MR at Harpur Hill – David Beach
- Smoking Kills – Stan Sheehan
- The Glyders Hilton – Alan Bennett
- My Arrival at Kinloss – Pete “Sweet” Myers
- Welsh Lessons – Alan Bennett
- From Edale to the Go-Go Grannie – Alan Bennett
- A Grave Mistake – Alan Bennett
- Catapulting Landrovers – Dougie Craig
- How I Nearly Killed Rob – Alan Bennett
- A Vertical Marathon – 2ba / Mark Hartree
- A Fluky Revenge – Alan Bennett
- Hot Stuff – Alan Bennett
- The Uns(t)ung Heroes – Alan Bennett
- Diversion, A Turkish Delight – Alan Bennett
- Stafford – Stuck in the Sand – Bob Hankinson
- It was never my first choice to join the RAF – Martin Gilmour
- How to (or not) write a Sherpa Van Off – Dave Wood
- Driving with Heavy – Brent Craig
- Three tons upside down. – Bob Hankinson
- Call-Out to Beinn a’ Chlachair – Harry Wagg
- Curly Betteridge and his “Wee Walks” – Harry Wagg
- A trip down Memory Lane – Harry Wagg
- Harpur Hill – Tales Before MR – David Beach
- Coincidence – Stephen ‘Harry’ Wagg
- Falling Leader Practice – Michael Bell
- Growing up in the team – Neil McNeil
- The Ben Nevis Bogie 1950’s – Ray Sefton
- The Sting of a “Butterfly” – Alan Bennett
- The Barry McKenzie Callout – Jim Morrison
- Nervous Novice takes on Pentadaktylos – Alan Bennett
- Hells Lum, The Sneer – Peter (Chalkie) White
- Grossglockner 1981 – John Thompson
- North Wales October 1965 – David Holroyd
- Toughest days on the Hill – 19-21 Feb 1993 – Mark (2BA) Hartree
- Worst Journeys – David Holroyd
- Long Weekend on Skye with Kinloss – Harry Wagg
- Glad that we had been able to help out!!!!!!! – Alex Morrison
- My Brush With The SWOMAN – Dougie Craig
- Early memories of RAFMA experience – Mark Ellis
- The ‘RONG HILL – John Cuthbertson
- My First Call-out – Eric Hollister
- The Sloth – Eric Hollister
Memories, some good, some bad – Alex Morrison - The Wee Red Book – Tony Smith
- Sneaking Into KMRT by the Back Door – Dougie Craig
2 thoughts on “Falling Leader Practice – Michael Bell”
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
Jim,
I remember limping John V. A great troop!
On Tue, 28 Dec 2021, 17:40 Has Oldham, wrote:
Happy New Year Dinger!
I too well remember such antics. It was always a high key exercise for team leaders! The potential for injury was high:
1. Ensure two ‘bomb proof’ belay points.
2. Check the waist line (later belt) is fitted correctly.
3. Is rope around back at waist level and a turn taken around the forearm.
4. Wearing ‘Mitts outer leather’, make sure rope can feed through without snagging.
5. launch a lorry tyre from about 15 ft above belay.
(The loading is considerable! 2 lorry tyres would be nearer to actual body weight).
6. The smell of warm scorching signifies success – particular with sisal rope (I won’t mention hemp-it’s not politically correct)!
Thank goodness we have moved on since then!
Happy memories?
Has.
This article reminds me of John Vernon who was the O i/c at Saints when I was there. He later went on to become ILR.
I was the recently appointed DTL to Geordie Armstrong. On one occasion when Geordie was away on an expedition, I was left to run the team. I had been out of the office sorting out some issues on the camp. On my return to the section, I walked into the office to see this guy sitting in my seat with his feet up on the desktop, he was smoking a pipe and reading some papers that had been on my desk. He peered over the top of the papers he was reading and said “Who the f***k are you”, my immediate retort to him was “Who the F***k are you, and get out of my chair”. He gave out a raucous laugh, stood up, held out his hand and said “I’m your new O i/c, John Vernon, as I shook his hand I could see that he was displaying the rank of a Squadron Leader. I thought my newly appointed status was about to come to an end. It didn’t and I think he appreciated the fact that I was prepared to stand up for myself, even against a Squadron Leader, even although I had no idea he was until he stood up.
Why does this story remind me of John? At Saints, he was one of the Test Pilots, a job which he greatly enjoyed. However, after I left Saints and went to Stafford I heard that falling leader practice had ended his flying career. As stated above a tyre was chucked off a cliff and John was the second trying to stop the fall. Unfortunately, the force of the weight coming on to John damaged his knee and rendered him unfit to fly. Those of you who met John will know that he was a great troop as an O i/c and I’m sure as an ILR. I left the service before he took up that position.