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| Place |
Date |
Time |
Summary of Events COMPILING OFFICER Fg. Off. C.W. Powell |
REFS TO APPENDICES |
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|
| Jever |
1.8.55 |
|
STAND-DOWN |
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| Jever |
2.8.55 |
|
STAND-DOWN |
|
| JEVER |
3.8.55. |
|
Operational
Today was a full working day after the August Grant. Only a few pilots were
available today, as seven are on leave, and one is going to Wunstorf on an I.R.E. course,
and one or two pilots are busy on subsidiary jobs, such as Summaries of Evidence.
Even so, 28 sorties were carried out on cine exercises and high level battle
formation. |
|
| Jever |
4.8.55. |
|
Operational
Only four aircraft were available all day and almost all the 17 sorties were high
and low level cross countries.
One pilot had a tyre burst during the take-off run and managed to bring the air-
craft to rest in the overshoot area with little damage to the aircraft. |
|
| Jever |
5.8.55. |
|
Operational
After one or two cine sorties, the squadron started doing G.C.A.'s at Ahlhorn.
This is the first time that they have been tried on our Hunters and everything went off very well
under very good controllers. |
|
| Jever |
6.8.55. |
|
Operational
Only nine sorties were carried out this morning on cine and aerobatic exercises.
A fault was found in the flap mechanism which resulted in all aircraft having to be
checked. This reduced the available flying time. |
|
| Jever |
7.8.55. |
|
STAND-DOWN |
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| Jever |
8.8.55. |
|
Operational
Only five or six pilots were available today, for various reasons and they did
17 sorties on cine exercises and practice G.C.A.'s.
The Squadron has now done 90 sorties this month and about six pilots are now
operational with over 50 hours on type. |
|
| Jever |
9.8.55. |
|
Operational
The usual high level battle and cine exercises were carried out today and a total
of 29 sorties were made. This included two sorties by the Wing Commander, who
is doing some conversion trips with the Squadron. |
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| Jever |
10.8.55. |
|
Operational
Eleven sorties were carried out this morning, on high level battle and cine
exercises.
Also two trips were made in the
Vampire T X1 on the necessary dual checks before
flying operational aircraft.
Sports afternoon.
Personnel
Flt. Lt. Dennison joined the Squadron after a few months as flight commander
at the C.S.U. Buckeburg. |
|
| Jever |
11.8.55. |
|
Operational
Good weather today, but few aircraft are serviceable about 4 or 5 are on minor
inspections. Seventeen sorties were carried out and included G.C.A.'s, cross-countries
and high speed runs. |
|
| Jever |
12.8.55. |
|
Operational
One aircraft was damaged yesterday when a brake seized, the tyre burst and the
aircraft ran off the runway.
The Squadron hit rock-bottom today when for the first time, not one Hunter was
serviceable. Later in the day, one aircraft became available and Flt. Lt. Dennison
did his conversion trip. |
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| Jever |
13.8.55. |
|
Operational
A colour hoisting parade was held this morning. The Squadron was unable to do
any flying because of unserviceability. |
|
| Jever |
14.8.55. |
|
Operational STAND-DOWN |
|
| Jever |
15.8.55. |
|
Operational
Unserviceability again limited the Squadron, flying six sorties, on G.C.A.'s and
cine quarters. |
|
| Jever |
16.8.55. |
|
Operational
A slight improvement in serviceability enabled the Squadron to do some cine and
battle formation. A total of 14 sorties. |
|
| Jever |
17.8.55. |
|
Operational
A section of four aircraft were airborne this morning. Later, a check for fuel
contamination was made and a couple were grounded for a while. |
|
| Jever |
18.8.55. |
|
Operational
Six aircraft were serviceable this morning and some high level battle was flown.
Later in the day the aircraft were split up to do cine exercises, G.C.A.'s and con-
version exercises. A total of 2 hours 55 minutes were flown on 2 sorties. |
|
| Jever |
19.8.55. |
|
Operational
A lecture was given this morning on the characteristics of the Hunter when engaged
in air to air firing.
After this, five aircraft were about to get airborne, when the airfield colour state
changed to 'red' as the cloud base dropped to 400 feet and rain reduced the visibility.
The airfield remained 'red' for the rest of the day, so four aircraft had their
compass swung. |
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| Jever |
20.8.55. |
|
Operational
This morning's parade was the first rehearsal for the A.O.C.-in-C's visit on
September, 16th. |
|
| Jever |
21.8.55. |
|
STAND-DOWN. |
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| Jever |
22.8.55. |
|
Operational
A late start was made this morning due to the fact that all barostats in the
ejector seats had to be checked after a suspected failure of one at Oldenburg.
Personnel
Fg. Off. Faulkes returned from leave after touring Europe by car. |
|
| Jever |
23.8.55. |
|
Operational
A few high level battle sorties were flown today. Yesterday afternoon, four
Canadian Sabres, Mk. 6 arrived and today we did some P.I.'s with four of our Hunters
against them. The two aircraft seemed to be fairly evenly matched.
One of the pilots had a canopy break at 33,000 feet. The canopy rail had moved
and internal damage made the aircraft Cat. 4, although nothing was visible from outside
except the broken canopy.
All aircraft are now having the canopy jettison system checked. |
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| Jever |
24.8.55. |
|
Operational
Another parade rehearsal was held this morning so flying did not commence until
quite late.
Another four R.C.A.F. Sabres Mk. 6 arrived yesterday, and the only detail flown
this morning was in conjunction with them.
This time the aircraft took off in pairs, one sabre and one Hunter running up on
the brakes and releasing them at the same time. Both aircraft then opened up to full
power and took off and climbed to 40,000 feet at their climbing speeds.
When they reached 40,000 feet it was found that only a couple of hundred yards
separated the two aircraft. This happened with all four pairs, so it seems that the
performances are identical.
A high speed run as a pair showed no differences, and even the airbrakes oper-
ation was almost identical.
The only difference seems to be in the initiation of a turn, where the Sabres tail-
makes things a little easier.
This afternoon was a sports afternoon. |
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| Jever |
25.8.55. |
|
Operational
Only three aircraft were available today, and the usual high level battle and cine
exercises produced a total of 16 sorties. |
|
| Jever |
26.8.55. |
|
Operational
Exercise "LOCO" started this morning but the first detail was cancelled due to bad
weather. The idea of the exercise is for aircraft from this station to fly in sections
of four over a fixed route to targets in Belgium and Holland.
The weather cleared up quite early, and normal flying was carried out between the
"bombing run".
All our targets were in Holland, three today and one tomorrow.
Altogether 32 hours were flown today by six aircraft which were serviceable.
Personnel
Fg. Off. Craig returned today from Wunstorf after successfully completing the
I.R.E. course there. |
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| Jever |
27.8.55. |
|
Operational
Another 22 sorties were flown today on high level battle and some more cross-
countries on exercise "Loco".
Because of the exercise, flying carried on until 16.00 hours. |
|
| Jever |
28.8.55. |
|
Operational
STAND-DOWN |
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| Jever |
29.8.55. |
|
Operational
Low stratus and fog prevented flying until 10.30 hours when each Squadron was
allowed to have only one pair airborne.
The early part of the morning was taken up with aircraft recognition and a film
on ice acination. |
|
| Jever |
30.8.55. |
|
Operational
Another good day's flying after a poor start due to more fog. The Squadron total
for this month is now over 300 hours on operational type.
Another dog-fight was carried out with R.C.A.F. Sabre 6's. |
|
| Jever |
31.8.55. |
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Operational
Once more flying was limited due to fog. When flying did start, the usual high level
battle formation was practiced and a box formation trip of 8 aircraft was done to finish the
months flying.
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Aircraft
Hunter IV
VampireTXI |
FLYING |
HOURS. SQUADRON STRENGTH
Hours Mins Sorties Officers 17
331. 10 381 S.N.C.O.'s(Aircrew) 1
22 15 30 S.N.C.O.'s 8
353 25 411 Cpl's 18
A.C.'s 49
signed CharlesGibbsS/L
(C.M. GIBBS)
Squadron Leader
Officer Commanding
No. 118 Squadron
Royal Air Force
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