William Lonergan has a photo from the 
last Air Day before the move from Chivenor to Brawdy on 2 August 1972 as the Tactical Weapons Unit, when he was flying in a 36-
Roger Hymans led 63 Squadron in their "2". William says, "After we had all done our individual number practice, Ian Worby decided to fly the big 229. As we overflew Chivenor the formation was photographed from the ground, great so far. When we got back into the briefing room there was a beautiful picture of a 229 formation
but in mirror image. Oops! Ian Worby had seen a perfect 229 but from 3,000 feet above the formation. A quick conference with the squadron commanders and we got it the right way up later in the afternoon."
Nick Spiller was in Roger's formation, "What I remember most is the take-
"We took off in pairs at 5 second intervals, unless you had a T7 in your pair in which case the delay was 3 seconds; similarly, if the pair in front had a T7 and your pair did not, the interval was 7 seconds.
"There were 40 aircraft on the runway, only 6,000ft, so the lead 
pairs had about 4,000ft ahead of them and the rear end were in such foul air that we had to go to 100% oxygen to be able to breathe. The engines definitely did not appreciate air that had already been through dozens of engines. JPTs were all over the place.
"I was about half way back in the formation in a T7 and still recall the foul air, and the end of the runway approaching very fast until we finally lifted off with a few feet of concrete remaining. Goodness knows what we would have done if anyone had aborted their take-
charging down the runway and all scraping off the end."
They had a lot of fun practising, and William remembers that the break and landing were interesting. Amazing he said how many Hunters you can land in a compact stream on a 6,000 ft runway. Nick again, "I forget the exact numbers on the recovery but I do recall that when I called 'Finals, three greens', ATC responded with something like 'Clear to land, 4 ahead and 17 on the runway.' "
Big Formations (04)
