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| PLACE |
DATE |
TIME |
SUMMARY OF EVENTS COMPILING OFFICER __Fg. Off. B. Watson___ |
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| Ahlhorn |
1.4.54 |
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April Fool's day to-day saw marginal weather - rain storms and low cloud with embedded
Cu. Nim. The 3 sorties flown amounted to 2 hours only. During a rapid deterioration
further flights to calibrate the G.C.A. at Jever were cancelled whilst the aircraft were
taxying. Two G.C.A.s were carried out before flying was finally abandoned for the day.
The cloud base dropped to 400 ft.
Vampire hours 2.00 Sorties 3 |
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2.4.54 |
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The weather showed little improvement on yesterday. Two Vampires were prepared
for transit to the U.K. whilst other manpower was used for acceptance checks on two
new Sabres. Neither type became airborne throughout the day. Patience, now more
than ever, is required for what is likely to be a frustrating month, at least as far as
the pilots are concerned.
No Flying |
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5.4.54 |
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The runway at Jever has now been completely resurfaced although lesser work on the
perimeter track remains to be finished. Pleased to return, 12 Sabres and 1 Vampire
flew 'home' during the afternoon. The squadron flew past in fours making several runs
over the airfield. (Always appreciated by the Squadron wives).
Two pilots posted from U.K. arrived to-night, Pilot Officer Langstone and Madelin.
Both were American trained and at the moment their individual Sabre hours run the
squadron quite close. During training both pilots completed 72 hours
range work including : rocketing, air to ground and air to air gunnery. It was most
interesting to hear this last phase started after only 8 hours on type.
Sabre hours 6.25 Sorties 12
Vampire hours :20 Sorties 1 |
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| R.A.F. Jever |
7.4.54 |
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Being Wednesday there was only the morning to fly in. Both flights carried out 4 Sabre
sorties of low level and close formation. 3 Vampires as a 3 flew high level battle
formation at 25,000ft followed by a tail chase and Q.G.H. Instrument flying practice
kept the Meteor busy and the dust was blown off the Tiger Moth with circuits and bumps
for an hour.
Sabre hours 4.55 Sorties 8
Vampire hours 2.50 Sorties 3
Meteor hours 1.20 Sorties 2
Tiger Moth 1.00 Sorties 2 |
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8.4.54 |
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The Wing Commander decided after a careful check of circuit work that he would stop all
close formation. He considers that more attention to general handling and aerobatics
is required. Whilst in a few months nobody will think twice about landing on 2000
yards at the moment the approach requires considerable care.
Aerobatics, Q.G.H's and maximum rate turns at varying altitudes comprised all the sor-
ties except two dual checks.
Sabre hours 5.30 Sorties 8 |
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9.4.54 |
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To most pilots the Radio Compass is an entirely new aid, this has added more exercises
to the training syllabus. Having only tried 2 Radio Compass let-downs at Wildenwrath
during conversion most sorties were devoted to this. The beacon which has just
changed frequency is unfortunately only 1 kilocycle off a strong Dutch one. This
makes tuning difficult requiring the pilot to be certain of his position before
attempting to do a let-down. Radio Compass approaches were accurate enough but
further exercises will have to include the use of the manual loop for bad weather homing.
Sabre hours 10.50 Sorties 15
Meteor hours 1.55 Sorties 2 |
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| Jever |
12.4.54 |
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As if in tune with the Monday morning feeling the weather was rainy and cloudy to-day.
Sabres were not allowed to fly through cloud and hence were restricted to low flying,
steep turns, bad weather circuits, and overshoots.
Sabre hours 9.10 Sorties 15
Meteor hours 1.55 Sorties 2 |
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13.4.54 |
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There were a few more aircraft serviceable to-day than has been usual of late.
The groundcrew who have been worked hard are beginning to produce results.
The weather was only fair with an improvement at the end of the day. Bad weather
circuits, aerobatics and Q.G.H's were the exercises carried out.
To supplement the Tiger Moth which is now obsolete, a Prentice flew in bringing back
memories of Flying Training Command. The (flying brick bat) will be stabled at
Station Flight, making its fifth type.
Sabre hours 14.40 Sorties 21
Meteor hours 1.40 Sorties 2
Prentice .40 Sorties 1 |
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14.4.54 |
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Local flying only in marginal weather.
Sabre hours 10.15 Sorties 15 |
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15.4.54 |
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The Easter break commenced to-day at 12.00 hrs. lasting until 1200 hrs, Tuesday 20th.
3 sorties were flown during the little time available.
Sabre hours 1.55 Sorties 3 |
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21.4.54 |
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Awaiting the squadron on its return to work was a Special Technical Instruction
on Sabre ejection seats. One of the seat cartridge locking pins, at present curved
had to be straightened and tested to sustain a force of 200 lbs. The rig required for
the testing took much more time than the replacement of the pin. Only Flying Officer
Richardson flew - a local sortie of 45 minutes.
Sabre hours .45 Sorties 1 |
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| JEVER |
22.4.54 |
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Although the weather looked foreboding this morning as promised by Met. a clearance
came. With 8/8 clear blue 28 sorties were flown equally by the flights. Long range
tanks are being used on half the sorties now enabling more sustained practice. The
first 'stream' take-offs and landing took place since the 'prohibition' earlier this
month.
Sabre hours 20.20 Sorties 28 |
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23.4.54 |
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Now that the last of the Vampires have been returned to U.K. and servicing is not
divided any more between two types there are a larger number of aircraft serviceable.
The idea of sending all groundcrew to Wildenwrath is now proving to be a good one.
The squadron flew the largest number of sorties of the month to-day - mainly instrument
flying with shepherd. There is quite a lot of criticism of the I.F. panel as there
is not one in the British sense.
Sabre hours 35.00 Sorties 37 |
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26.4.54 |
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A deep depression, thunderstorms and rain all day, made surprisingly few interruptions
to flying. Using drop tanks thereby increasing most sorties over an hour a lot
of instrument practice was done. Aircraft 'streamed' off and paired for I.F. taking
it in turns to shepherd. One or two 'dead stick' landings were carried out using
72% with air brakes out and 69% with undercarriage down. Most successful.
Sabre hours 27.30 Sorties 26 |
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27.4.54 |
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Both flights flew cross-countries at 35,000ft. to Hannover - Cologne and Groningen to
day in almost perfect weather. At 255 Knts. indicated the route took 1 hour leaving
1700 lbs. for aerobatics at 15,000 ft. and a Q.G.H.
Sabre hours 43.05 Sorties 38 |
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| Jever |
28.4.54 |
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The combination of Wednesday and Exercise 'Wildgoose' kept the hours fairly low during
good flying weather.
Sabre hours 8.50 Sorties 8 |
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29.4.54 |
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To-day was given over to preparations for 'Wildgoose' This station defence exercise
is to test against attack from saboteurs- parachutists dropped within a radius of 15 miles.
The squadron is deployed in the South East Dispersal maintaining a 24 hour watch for
5 days. During this time full flying is to be carried out.
No flying |
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30.4.54 |
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As from 23.59 hrs. last night 'Wildgoose' has been on. All personnel were called
out at 02.00 hrs. One section flushed out 5 enemy but made no kill or capture.
Later it was found that it was the regiment testing our defences. Pilots of 'A;'
Flight stood by from 0500 hrs. but fog prevented any take-offs before 1000 hrs. From
the start it was found that the regiment early warning of air attacks was useless
and 'Jim Crow' patrols were started 20 miles from the airfield by Sabres flying in
special sectors. Even these were not 100% effective. At 1300 hrs. 'B' Flight
relieved 'A' Flight continuing steady patrols and local sorties until 2000 hrs.
Sabre hours 24.40 Sorties 22 |
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Summary for the month
The hours flown this month trully reflect the return of the squadron to normal flying.
At first operating from Ahlhorn with Vampires and Sabres, programmes became disjointed.
Easter took its toll of flying days but the weather has been lenient. Within the
last week however many more sorties have been flown and as 'Wildgoose' gets underway
with dawn to dusk flying, a satisfying ending to April and a cheerful start to May is
given. As the servicing personnel became more familiar with the aircraft and spares
became obtainable there seems little reason why a considerable flying effort should
not be achieved regularly.
Total Monthly Flying Hours
Vampire hours 5.10 Sorties 7
Sabre hours 223.40 Sorties 259
Meteor hours 7.05 Sorties 9
Prentice hours .40 Sorties 1
Tiger Moth hours 1.00 Sorties 2
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Compiled by...............B.Watson.........................Fg.Off.
(B. WATSON)
...................PWGilpin....................Sqn.Ldr.
(P.W. GILPIN) |
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