…… it was all the serviceable Hunters that Chivenor's Eng Wing, under Don Stewart, could muster.  

Nigel's briefing the day before was that they were to fly at low level and visit as many holiday beaches as they could find in Devon and Cornwall. One of the questions suggested that Nigel hadn't covered emergencies adequately, which caused him to glower around the room and comment on the number of hours on fighters and on Hunters gathered in the room, and if the questioner didn't feel man enough to join in then he need not. One pilot asked what was the minimum altitude authorized.

"Next question,” said Nigel.

Dave Stanley and I were students on 234 at the time, and we remember watching the take-off. All the aircraft lined up on the runway at the same time, with the leader having to use a lot of Chivenor's 6,000ft runway to let everyone on.  In those days, safety dictated that formations had to stream at 10-second intervals, singletons at 5-seconds, high-low.


I recall it being a calm summer's day using runway 27, and watching the rather scary wing-drop from almost everyone after the first few aircraft, due to the visible turbulence in the slipstream and jetwash, and that the low people didn't have much room over the barrier. Dave remembers that the take-off was in three-ships, perhaps fours, although we were usually in pairs, and that one aircraft ended up in the barrier.

Nigel's RT call was, "Don't just sit there, go and get another one."


Roger remembers the Hunters arriving in low-level battle formation in fours at St Mawgan, a sight never before seen at what to us was a very sleepy Nimrod base, with not much flying ever taking place.


The Station Commander there, still of Coastal Command, was in the tower, and asked if this was how the recently formed Strike Command's Hunters normally arrived.  He was assured that this was indeed SOP - it wasn't that long since these pilots had been in Fighter Command - and thus was set the tone for the flying on the rest of our time at St Mawgan.


We enjoyed that detachment, different from North Devon, but still a delight.


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