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| Place |
Date |
Time |
Summary of Events COMPILING OFFICER__Fg. Off. A. F. Brewer_________ |
REF. TO APPENDICES |
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| JEVER |
1.5.57 |
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Quite a good morning's flying in which 14 hours were flown, devoted mainly to high level
battle and practice interceptions. |
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2.5.57 |
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Not a very good day's flying, the weather was marginal all day consequently flying
was restricted to pairs. The cloud base went up and down all day until finally clamping
at 16.00 hours after a total of 20 hours had been flown. |
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3.5.57 |
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We started off with 8 aircraft but within an hour this had been reduced to five and
although we started off flying high level battle 'fours' we eventually finished up
flying syllabus trips in the aircraft as they came up singly. The final total for the
day was 24 hours which was not too bad under the circumstances. |
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4.5.57 |
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Stand-down. |
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5.5.57 |
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Stand-down. |
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6.5.57 |
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Once again the aircraft situation was not too good today, and after one 'four' on a
minor exercise the days flying was restricted to individual sorties for a total of 14 hrs. |
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7.5.57 |
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A slightly better day, a total of 6 aircraft being available. The squadron has got a
little behind on cine practices lately so the day was devoted entirely to this form of
flying. A total of 28 sorties were flown for 22 hours. |
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8.5.57 |
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A little bad weather at first soon cleared but with only 3 aircraft we only managed
8 hours during the mornings flying. |
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9.5.57 |
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Exercise 'Argus' today, only four aircraft were available but good use was made of them
flying practice interceptions under ground control. Unfortunately the exercise 'died'
during the afternoon and so some low flying and cine was carried out for the rest of
the day. 12 sorties night flying were carried out to bring the total hours to 25. |
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10.5.57 |
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Five aircraft available today, reasonably well used they produced 23 hours. A good
mixture of flying was carried out with a slight emphasis on low flying and individual
sorties. |
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11.5.57 |
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Station Commander's Parade and therefore no flying. |
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12.5.57 |
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Stand-down. |
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| JEVER |
13.5.57 |
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Day flying today was concentrated on high level battle 'fours' with a little low level
battle and one or two individual sorties. 13 night sorties finished off the night
flying quota for the month, 3 of the pilots landing away at Wunstorf. A better day
with 26 hours flown. |
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14.5.57 |
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A fairly late start was made due to the late night the previous evening but, in spite
of this, good serviceability enabled 25½ hours to be flown. Two of the pilots flew to
the U.S.A.F. Base at Sembach to test their turn-round facilities, a very successful
trip. The remainder of the flying was mostly cine at 40,000 feet. |
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15.5.57 |
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The normal Wednesday half day restricted todays hours to 5½, mainly individual sorties. |
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16.5.57 |
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Exercise 'Guest' today. Four of the squadron flew to Bruggen and back simulating
bombers. They were not intercepted at all and got back to Jever to find that the
exercise had ceased due to unserviceability of the G.C.I. radio. However, good use
was made of the aircraft available for the rest of the day and the excellent total
of 37 hours was achieved. |
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17.5.57 |
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An average days flying with a good mixture of high level battle, cine and individual
trips. |
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18.5.57 |
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Stand-down. |
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19.5.57 |
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Stand-down. |
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20.5.57 |
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Not much flying today as the groundcrew are beginning to get the aircraft ready for
the forthcoming detachment to Geilenkirchen next week-end. |
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21.5.57 |
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No flying today as the groundcrew are doing primaries on all the aircraft ready for
the detachment. |
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22.5.57 |
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The groundcrew left for Geilenkirchen today and only 3 air tests were carried out. |
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23.5.57 |
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No flying. |
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24.5.57 |
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The squadron flew 10 aircraft down to Geilenkirchen this afternoon and settled in in
preparation for the start of Exercise 'Vigilant' at 06.00 hours tomorrow morning. |
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| GEILENKIRCHEN |
25.5.57 |
|
First day of Exercise 'Vigilant'. The squadron flew 10 pairs during the morning and
afternoon simulating bombers attacking U.K. The weather was perfect for it, giving
us an excellent view of a large part of England but, unfortunately, no sign of any
defending fighters. |
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26.5.57 |
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The squadron was lucky in that we were not required in the morning. In the afternoon
we flew five pairs over to U.K., one of the pairs being intercepted this time. |
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27.5.57 |
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Ten pairs over to U.K. and back today. A continuation of the fine weather once again
made navigation easy but while some intercepting forces were seen this time, there was
nothing which could be called a successful interception. Generally the detachment at
Geilenkirchen has been very successful and the groundcrew are to be congratulated on
maintaining the ten aircraft serviceable the whole time. |
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| JEVER |
28.5.57 |
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The squadron flew back to Jever this morning doing a formation flypast over both
Geilenkirchen and Jever. For the rest of the day the pilots turned round their own
aircraft and flew them twice more. This is the first time that we have really got
down to doing this without any assistance and it worked remarkably well. |
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| JEVER |
29.5.57 |
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It was considered that in spite of our success yesterday, that it would be better if
some professional servicing was carried out on the aircraft before they flew again.
Therefore, as the groundcrew had not yet returned from Geilenkirchen there was no
flying today. |
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30.5.57 |
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We had a little bit of trouble with aircraft serviceability today and therefore only
17 hours were flown on a balanced programme. |
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31.5.57 |
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Once again a day when the flying intensity had to be curtailed, due to minor exercises
with Canberras. 6 aircraft were airborne mid morning on these interceptions and 6 in
the afternoon. Some 15 hours were flown during the day, thus concluding what has been
quite a successful month of interesting flying.
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PERSONNEL
Flt.Lt. K.J. Goodwin was selected as the official Solo Aerobatic representative
for 2nd. T.A.F. this year.
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Aircraft
Hunter
Hunter
Vampire |
Day
Night
Day |
FLYING HOURS
Hrs. Mins. Sorties
376 50 555
17 50 25
44 05 50
signedDFDenisonFltLt
for (K.F. Goodwin)
Flight Lieutenant,
Officer Commanding,
No. 118 Squadron.
Royal Air Force.
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