Overseas Training Flights (1)

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In 1984 I was posted to HQ 18 Group at Northwood kicking and screaming; there were only one or two junior officer aircrew staff posts in the whole of the Royal Air Force and I had one of them! After the initial shock of not flying or being in the crew room enjoying the banter I settled in to the work. It helped that I had two great bosses – Sqn Ldr Rob “Fatty” Williams (ex 12 Sqn and 15 Sqn) and our very own Air Cdre (then Wg Cdr) Ben Laite (as Wg Cdr Recce Strike Attack) who guided me through my introduction to staff work. One of the duties of a good staff officer is to make sure that the Group Air staff Orders are up-to-date and fit-for-purpose and thus I was given the job of reviewing and updating the 18 Gp ASOs. There were amendments, inter alia, on maximum windspeeds for peacetime low level flying and joint operations with maritime patrol aircraft. Whilst going through the document I came across the basic training requirement for OTFs, along with a list of destination airfields. The list of airfields included places like RAF Laarbruch, RAF Gibraltar, Aalborg, Stavangar, Bodo, Keflavik and RAF Akrotiri. Most were in colder climes, with only Gibraltar and Akrotiri offering the possibility of some sun, but inevitably meant staying in the Officers’ Mess with a distinct lack of allowances. Thus, I got out my Red and Green en-route supplements to get some inspiration! Did I get some inspiration or what? Having checked that the potential destinations were military (and often civilian) airbases and that they had suitable support facilities I decided to add Lajes (Azores), Gran Canaria (Canary Islands), Palma de Mallorca (Balearic Islands), Hyères (S of France), Zaragoza (northern Spain) to name a few. So in typical staff officer fashion I added the new destinations to the amendment list and as neither Sqn Ldr Buccs nor Wg Cdr RSA seemed to object (or maybe notice!) I sent the GASOs to the typing pool (before the time of PCs!) to type up the amendments.

By the time I returned to 208 Squadron in 1988, the new version of GASOs had been published and the new OTF destinations were well and truly established. Now it was my chance to benefit from my foresight! So on 5 May 1989 a pair of Buccaneers headed for the French Navy base at Hyères in the south of France. I flew with the boss (Wg Cdr Brian “Boots” Mahaffey) and the second aircraft was crewed by Flt Lt Mike “Spike” Varney and Flt Lt Rob McCormick. This OTF was a little more challenging than usual, as we had to use some basic French to organise ourselves, but between simple French, shouting louder and hand signals we managed to arrange for some fuel and to put the aircraft to bed for the weekend. The French Navy had booked us into a very nice little hotel (Auberge de la Calanque - it would be called a boutique hotel now) overlooking the marina in Le Lavandou – we each had a room with a terrace and a great view. Besides relaxing on the beach and enjoying the restaurants, we took a boat across to Port-Cros, a small island in the Ile du Levant group of islands. On Monday morning we returned to Hyères Naval Air Station to fly back to Lossiemouth. All was going well until Spike got a nasty gash on his forehead from bumping into the flaps (or something) on his walk round.

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