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F540 Operations Record Book April 1957 NO 118 SQUADRON.
PRO Kew No. AIR27 Piece 2705 Microfilm Row 1 Draws 52-71
Place Date Time Summary of Events                     COMPILING OFFICER__Fg. Off. A. F. Brewer_________   REF. TO APPENDICES
       
JEVER 1.4.57   An average day, reasonable weather and fairly good serviceability enabled the squadron
to fly 19 hours, mainly on cine and high level battle.
 
  2.4.57   A good day's flying in which the squadron concentrated on high level battle fours.   Day
flying was stopped at 15.30 hours to enable the aircraft to be got ready for night flying.
Night flying lasted until 01.00 hours and a good slice of the monthly requirement was
carried out.   Total hours for the day and night was 34.
 
  3.4.57   We started late this morning due to the late finish last night, and with the normal
Wednesday half day only 7 hours were flown.   Four of the pilots tried out a low-level
rendezvous which, apart from a hold up on take off, worked remarkably well.
 
  4.4.57   The concentration today was placed on cine as we seem to have got a little behind on
this aspect of the syllabus lately.   Good serviceability enabled a constant stream of
pairs to be in the air and a total of 22 hours were flown.
 
  5.4.57   The weather was a little doubtful today but it soon cleared and a total of
23½ hours were achieved.   Several of the pilots attempted to do some air to ground in
Vampires but, what with the range not ready for us and aircraft refusing to fire, not
one successful sortie was achieved.   The Hunter flying consisted mainly of cine pairs
again with a couple of 'fours' on P.I.'s at the end of the day.
 
  6.4.57   Stand-down.  
  7.4.57   Stand-down.  
  8.4.57   Not a very successful day, only 17 hours being achieved.   The main reasons were showery
weather and not very good serviceability.   However, things improved a little in the
evening and 10 hours night flying finished off the night flying requirement for the
month.   All the Hunters did landing away cross countries at Oldenburg.
 
  9.4.57   We started concentrating on 'fours' again today, and it turned out to be a fairly
successful day.   Sqn. Ldr. N.C.P. Buddin took 4 aircraft down to Geilenkirchen over the
lunch period on a liaison visit.   23 hours were flown altogether today.
 
JEVER 10.4.57   Sports afternoon restricted flying to 9 hours today, flown in 3 high level battle
'fours'.   The present total for the first ten days of the month is 165 hours - well
above the target for this stage of the month.
 
  11.4.57   The squadron took part in Exercise 'Guest' today.   The whole exercise was a bit of a
failure as 83 Group didn't seem to be particularly interested in it and very little
trade was encountered.   We flew 6 high level 'battle' fours and 2 'pairs' during the
day and the sum total of our achievements was one Canberra and several aircraft that
were not taking part in the exercise.
 
  12.4.57   The weather started off quite well today but it went to 'Amber' at about 11.00 hours
and to 'Red' at 12.30 hours.   It came back to 'Amber' at 14.00 hours and then improved
quickly to 'Green' by 15.30 hours.   Two of the squadron pilots were diverted to Wunstorf
during the very heavy snow shower which caused the airfield to go 'Red' at 12.30 hours.
Due to this variable weather only 21 hours were flown today on a mixture of cine and
high level battle.
 
  13.4.57   The airfield was 'Red' at first but flying started at 09.20 hours and between then and
mid-day stand-down, 10½ hours were flown.
 
  14.4.57   Stand-down.  
  15.4.57   The squadron visited the G.C.I. Station at Brockzetel today and spent a very interesting
day learning the other side of the interception problem.   Several actual interceptions
by 'Battle Flight' were seen and the pilots also had the opportunity of using the
synthetic trainer.   The squadron also learnt a little of the technical side of the
picture and of the method of controlling the overall battle picture.   In all a very
profitable and enjoyable day.
 
  16.4.57   A pretty good days flying with a total of 27 hours achieved.   The flying was well
balanced, a little of everything being flown.
 
JEVER 17.4.57   Another very good days' flying, magnificent weather conditions and very good serviceability
is enabling the squadron to make 'mincemeat' of the monthly target.   On the strength of
our visit to the G.C.I. Unit on Monday we are concentrating on P.I.'s this morning and with
practice both ourselves and the controllers are getting better and better.   During the
afternoon we fired 6 sorties air into sea to bring the total for the days flying to
27½ hours.
 
  18.4.57   During the period before stand-down for Easter Grant at 12.30 hours we managed to fly
13 hours mainly on high level battle formation.
 
  19.4.57   Stand-down.  
  20.4.57   Stand-down.  
  21.4.57   Stand-down.  
  22.4.57   Stand-down.  
  23.4.57   A very good days flying indeed.   The ground crew did a very good job in getting four
aircraft ready in time for early detail the morning after Easter Grant and from then on
we didn't look back.   The flying varied from high level battle formation to low flying
and low level battle and a total of 27 hours were flown.   This puts the monthly flying
to 310 hours, still well above the target for this stage of the month.
 
  24.4.57   The normal Wednesday sports day meant that only 8 hours were flown, mainly on cine.  
  25.4.57   The squadron took part in Exercise Amled today.   This consisted of two details, one in
the morning and one in the afternoon, intercepting Canberras from the U.K.   This
proved to be very successful, a total of 13 Canberras being intercepted as the result
of some extremely good P.I.'s from Brockzetel.   Altogether 25 hours were flown today.
 
  26.4.57   We concentrated on high level battle and P.I.'s in the morning, and a low level battle
in pairs and fours in the afternoon.   Very good serviceability and weather enabled
29 hours to be flown.
 
  27.4.57   Just a few sorties were flown this morning before standing down for the weekend.  
  28.4.57   Stand-down.  
JEVER 29.4.57   Bad weather prevented any flying from taking place until 11.00 hours today and when it
did come up it was only restricted.   This meant that only 10 hours were flown during the
day.   However, the weather cleared in the evening and 10 hours night flying was carried
out to bring the overall monthly total so far to 396 hours.
 
  30.4.57   The squadron flew 8 hours this morning to bring the total for the month to above 400 hrs.
and then stood down for a well earned rest in the afternoon.
 
 
29.4.57
                        PERSONNEL
The very welcome news that Flt.Sgt. A.J.F. Ward has been awarded a commission
came through today.

 
 
Aircraft

Hunter
Hunter
Vampire
Vampire.


  Day
  Night
  Day
  Night
  FLYING HOURS
      Hrs.              Mins.              Sorties
     371                 25                      481
       33                 35                        45
       50                00                         75
         9                50                           7

                                                                                  signedNCPBUDDINSqnLdr
                                                                                  (N.C.P. BUDDIN)
                                                                                  Squadron Leader,
                                                                                  Officer Commanding,
                                                                                   No. 118 Squadron.
                                                                                   Royal Air Force.

 
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