Sapper Porn

Hi Guys. following on from another thread where my picture of the HGB went down rather well, I thought that we could have a thread with pictures and stories of our favourite equipments/tasks/jobs. Anything engineering both military and civilian acceptable, including stories of success, failures and difficulties overcome.

Please do not turn this into an armoured/planty/CoW/knocker/EOD/para/commando/trade et al slanging match ... you can do that elsewhere on any number of threads. The idea of this thread is to show some pride in what you have built/operated/achieved and perhaps also to pass on some lessons learned.

I start with my picture from the previous thread; this is an HGB ramp/bridge constructed in Plymouth Naval Dockyard by 8 Fd Sqn in January and February 1979. It was designed to allow articulated trucks up onto the deck of HMS Ark Royal to carry off stores at her decomission. Finished and handed over on the 14th February 1975 it was called Valentine Bridge. An epic construction task it earned the QMSI who designed and built it the BEM. I don't know who stripped it out after completion as 8 Sqn deployed to NI shortly after.

 

Nice one K13!
Got me thinking about a 'project 'we got involved in, in Jamaica in 1980.
The person in charge of good Ideas at the time thought it would be a good Idea if the 'chaps were sent out in to Blue Mountain range and build a helicopter landing pad on the top of a hill/mountain. The side would not have been a good Idea.

Then, when it was finished, the good idea would be complete when the O.C. jumped into the J.D.F (Just. Don't. Functions. as they were lovingly titled at the time) helicopter and tested it. A proper pilot flying it though.

The not so good bits of this particular idea involved tabbing with all the gear in said jungle (jungle...in Jamaica? Honest) Emperor Mong took care of the one chain saw allowed once it had been lugged up there and the other thing was that no nails or rope could be used... local produce only. Oh , and by the way, the Helicopter must be able to approach near horizontal so you will have to clear jungle of said angle of dangle.

The reason I include this job was that it was a massive task with just the bare minimum of hand tools. Three of the pics speak for themselves but the bottom left is meant to show how much had to be cleared and that is a pic of the 'flight path' from the pad itself. All held together with vines and clever use of tree stumps. This job made the 'Soldier Mag' around July '80 and included a pic of the pad a few hundred yards out from the Helicopter. I don't think I would like to have tested it though!

Not really high tech stuff but worthy of christening the pad in a shower of 10cc of something or other!!

I apologise in advance as ever because I'm still shoite when it comes to 'sizing' pics on this site.
Edit for 'splash' spelling

 

hmmmm looks a lot like a raft on a mountain top..........was the OIC of good ideas called Noah.. and by any chance...did it look like rain??

 

I'll go blind...................