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Air Cadets
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Falklands Blog
Introducing our correspondent in the Falkland Islands We are very pleased to welcome news from Flying Officer Chris Pearson RAF who has volunteered to devote parts of his scarce leisure time during his first Falklands tour to a write for the South West Region web site about Royal Air Force life down under. An enthusiastic sportsman and former Air Cadet with 2185 Wareham Squadron in Dorset Wiltshire Wing, Chris, still young and fit in his mid 20s, now flies a back seat in a Tornado. Week 2 Even here in the Falkland Island, the Officers’ Mess at Mount Pleasant tries to mirror the social calendar in the UK. This week heralded a Burns Night dining in which was enthusiastically received by the Scottish contingent on the flight!
Burns Night was the last opportunity for socialising prior to a station-wide ‘Exercise Cape Petrel’. The exercise was designed to test the integration of station defence assets and simulate war time procedures. This involved the whole station on a heightened state of alert and a simulated attack on the airfield. This caused a ‘survival scramble’ by all of the Eagles of 1435 Flt. It was quite a sight, seeing all the aircrew all dashing to their aircraft a la World War II!! We all got airborne and to the tanker in no time and carried out a Falklands patrol sortie with two of us as ‘red air’ - simulating enemy aircraft.
Two days into the exercise and I was informed I had been picked to take part in an escape and evasion exercise as a simulated downed airman. I was dropped into the bondu approximately 10km from the airfield and my task was to escape and evade for five hours and reach the Joint Operations Centre to the South of the Camp while a helicopter, the ground defence force and dog teams searched for me. At 1800 a jet flew over as part of the exercise and a report was sent by the directing staff that a parachute had been sighted: this signalled the start.
I managed to avoid capture by keeping out of sight in the low ground and using copious amounts of native flora as camouflage. The only company I had along the way was lots of sheep (they hiss in the dark I discovered) and some upland geese. I eventually reached the JOC at 2300 after covering 20km on probably the worst terrain I have had to walk on. For those that have done Ten Tors the terrain is similar to Dartmoor but covered in small clumps of grass affectionately know as ‘baby’s heads’. I take my hat off to those who had to cover great distances on such terrain during the Falklands Conflict.
2300 signalled ‘end-ex’ and my mission was a success. However, after 5 hours of walking and crawling on mud and grass I looked a bit worse for wear, scaring a few people as I went back to the Mess to clean up!!
With the exercise over it was a return to the normal routine. However, I found myself with a rare Sunday without QRA duties. I elected to head into the islands’ capital Stanley and went for a meal in one of the two restaurants in the town. Stanley has its own airport and has all the amenities you would expect despite being so isolated down here. A couple of nice hotels, broadband and satellite TV are available and everyone knows everyone, with little to no crime. It is quite a quaint town with its own harbour which sees a cruise liner visiting every week. All the locals are friendly, always being pleased to hear the ‘sound of freedom’ when we pay a visit from the air! You may be surprised to know that despite the amount of low flying that occurs in the Falklands in the vicinity of habitation there are no noise complaints, just frantic waving as we rock our wings to say hello.
There is lots of wildlife to see in the area surrounding Stanley as well. We went off road and visited Gypsy Cove, a small stretch of beach to the East of Stanley surrounded by mine fields left from the conflict, but well sign posted and cordoned! Here we found lots of Magellanic Penguins who lived in burrows in the dunes and caught glimpses of a pod of dolphins playing in the surf. I find it amazing that these wild animals come to this beach for no other reason than to play in the waves together.
This week also saw the arrival of a new crew on the air bridge who we dutifully intercepted on their approach to the airfield, arriving on the wing of the airliner and giving the passengers a start! The pilot of the new crew is an enthusiastic fisherman and I intend heading down to our nearest tidal river (only ten minutes away) in the evenings to get a big sea trout before I go back. The Falkland Islands are renowned for fishing but I have only managed a few small mullet so far!
Chris Pearson Flying Officer Mount Pleasant Falkland Islands
February 2009
DETACHMENT to the FALKANDS: who, why and how? Since the Falklands conflict there has been British military presence on the ‘Malvinas’, whose job it is to provide deterrence to any potential threats. The British Forces South Atlantic Islands comprises of a joint force from all three services working together, including a resident infantry company from the army, currently from the Mercian Regiment, a naval presence in the form of a ship, and servicemen/women of all three services running the base at Mount Pleasant Airfield (MPA). Perhaps most important of all, the real potency of our deterrent is provided by an RAF VC-10 tanker, a C130 Hercules and ‘the Eagles’ of 1435 Flight, aka RAF Tornado F3’s from RAF Leuchars. Every five weeks a crew from each of the fighter squadrons at RAF Leuchars, 111(F) and 43(F), is sent on detachment to MPA. The relatively short deployment is sometimes seen as a welcome break from life in the fast lane on a frontline squadron, with secondary duties and day to day trivia, to somewhere one can concentrate on improving low flying skills and dog fighting, working in an Op Theatre and building fitness when not on duty! The journey starts at RAF Brize Norton, with an eight hour flight in a civilian chartered airliner to Wideawake airfield on Ascension Island in the middle of the Atlantic. From this relatively warm and pleasant location, passengers board the same aircraft, saying good bye to sunshine and palm trees to complete the second eight hour leg of the air-bridge to MPA. WEEK ONE
The first day was mainly taken up orienting myself to the new environment (where the gym and the bars are!) and receiving a hand over from the outgoing crew. I was given the secondary duty of QRA (Quick Reaction Alert) Officer. Crews take it in turns to be on very short notice to get airborne and we do this for a 24 hour period. Should potentially hostile aircraft be inbound there are always crews ready to jump into aircraft at a moments notice, to be airborne within minutes. This means living in the ‘Eagles Nest’, our QRA building. There are certain creature comforts essential to help keep the QRA crew busy. They includes films, computer games, comfy chairs, decent food, and it is my job to keep this all in check. The arrival of another air-bridge means new faces on the Island. Arrival evenings are affectionately known as ‘Timmy Nights’ from when the air-bridge was performed by RAF Tristars (Timmy Tristar). Newcomers are welcomed with arrival drinks, in the Officers’ Mess for me, and later on I was introduced to the famous 1435 Flt bar, known as “The Goose”. This non-profit-making bar is tentatively looked after by the aircrew of 1435 Flt and is treated as a matter of pride, being decorated with much artwork from previous squadrons stationed here, aircraft memorabilia and the name badges of every crew to serve on the F3 in the Falklands. Truly the perfect aircrew bar! The new routine of a six day week takes some getting used to. Two days on QRA duties (‘on Q’) followed by two days of normal training flying and maybe a day off if Sunday falls when you are not required to be on Q. My first flight is an introduction flight so I can get used to the terrain and the operating procedures, as well as which areas to avoid - penguins don’t appreciate really loud noises! By the end of the week I am briefing and leading sorties which include 1v1 low level supersonic practice intercepts (PI’s) followed by tanking with the VC-10 and then some low flying in formation with a simulated bombing attack on a Rapier Battery to finish. One of the pilots down here during my first week is Flt Lt Roy Macintyre, probably the most experienced on the F3, with nearly 5,000 hours. This has been his 11th and last deployment to the Falklands. Therefore to mark his last flight here, we launched a fourship formation and flypast and he was met by the Officer Commanding British Forces South Atlantic to congratulate him when he landed. The next day he left on the air bridge back to the UK and we escorted him out of Falklands airspace on the wing of the airliner, giving him a wing flash good bye, much to the delight of the air stewardesses! Next week looks to hold lots of fun with a full scale escape and evasion exercise at MPA that I was volunteered for, a bit about the wildlife on the Island, and hopefully lots of flying! Chris Pearson Flying Officer Mount Pleasant Falkland Islands
January 2009
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