flypast:
Engineers: 1 x IDS officer
1 x ADV officer
1 x Canberra officer
1 x ATC officer
1 x Fighter Controller
20 x Tornado groundcrew minimum.
10 x Canberra groundcrew
Admin: 1 x Officer – Adjutant – Patsy?
1 x Junior NCO admin.
1 x Met Man
That should do it. Reinforcements could follow later, as and when Strike Command decided. Also, the C-130 Hercules would need to carry all of the equipment required for the first few days. Engineers for the other aircraft types could make their own arrangements for the time being. Todd would have to inform these people ASAP, and this he would do after the meeting with his four pilots at 0700. As this thought crossed his mind there came a knock on the door. Time was certainly flying by – it was his 0700 meeting waiting to come in.
8
Wednesday 30 March 1992
‘Tower, Purple Formation – Line Up?’
Todd and Stumpy’s Tornado sat at the entrance to the runway at Marham. The weather was perfect – light winds and blue sky – just right for this final practice for the Royal Flypast on Saturday. All of the other aircraft in the formation – three other Tornado bombers, four Air Defence Tornados, two Recce Tornados, the Canberras, VC-10 and Hercules – were lined up behind the lead Tornado. There seemed to be no technical problems except for one of the Recce jets. The crew had had to change aircraft into the spare due to a failed engine start. However, they had caught up, and had assumed their proper place in the formation. The callsign, ‘Purple,’ had been assigned by the brass as all Royal Flights flew in ‘Purple Airspace.’ Even though the Flypast aircraft had no royalty on board it had seemed appropriate to allocate this ‘royal’ colour. The sub formations were also given colours to identify themselves.
The four bombers were RED, the four fighters were BLUE, the two Recce jets GREEN, and the Canberras, VC-10 and Hercules were YELLOW. This system enabled each formation leader to check in his own team without jamming out the frequency that Todd would be using to co-ordinate the formation.
‘Marham Tower, Purple Formation – line up ?’ Stumpy repeated with some irritation.
‘Roger, Purple, Clear line up, Surface wind two five zero / five knots,’ came back Roger’s voice from the Air Traffic tower.
‘Roger tower, Purple Line up – Purple Check.’
‘Red; Blue; Green; Yellow;’ responded the four sub-formation leaders, letting Stumpy know that they were all listening in.
The first four aircraft slowly edged onto the main runway and when in position Stumpy made his take off call.
‘Red Take-off’
‘Red, Clear take off, turn right and switch to Radar frequency on 366.9.’
Stumpy repeated the clearance and immediately started to run up his engines – as did the three other aircraft
Engineers: 1 x IDS officer
1 x ADV officer
1 x Canberra officer
1 x ATC officer
1 x Fighter Controller
20 x Tornado groundcrew minimum.
10 x Canberra groundcrew
Admin: 1 x Officer – Adjutant – Patsy?
1 x Junior NCO admin.
1 x Met Man
That should do it. Reinforcements could follow later, as and when Strike Command decided. Also, the C-130 Hercules would need to carry all of the equipment required for the first few days. Engineers for the other aircraft types could make their own arrangements for the time being. Todd would have to inform these people ASAP, and this he would do after the meeting with his four pilots at 0700. As this thought crossed his mind there came a knock on the door. Time was certainly flying by – it was his 0700 meeting waiting to come in.
8
Wednesday 30 March 1992
‘Tower, Purple Formation – Line Up?’
Todd and Stumpy’s Tornado sat at the entrance to the runway at Marham. The weather was perfect – light winds and blue sky – just right for this final practice for the Royal Flypast on Saturday. All of the other aircraft in the formation – three other Tornado bombers, four Air Defence Tornados, two Recce Tornados, the Canberras, VC-10 and Hercules – were lined up behind the lead Tornado. There seemed to be no technical problems except for one of the Recce jets. The crew had had to change aircraft into the spare due to a failed engine start. However, they had caught up, and had assumed their proper place in the formation. The callsign, ‘Purple,’ had been assigned by the brass as all Royal Flights flew in ‘Purple Airspace.’ Even though the Flypast aircraft had no royalty on board it had seemed appropriate to allocate this ‘royal’ colour. The sub formations were also given colours to identify themselves.
The four bombers were RED, the four fighters were BLUE, the two Recce jets GREEN, and the Canberras, VC-10 and Hercules were YELLOW. This system enabled each formation leader to check in his own team without jamming out the frequency that Todd would be using to co-ordinate the formation.
‘Marham Tower, Purple Formation – line up ?’ Stumpy repeated with some irritation.
‘Roger, Purple, Clear line up, Surface wind two five zero / five knots,’ came back Roger’s voice from the Air Traffic tower.
‘Roger tower, Purple Line up – Purple Check.’
‘Red; Blue; Green; Yellow;’ responded the four sub-formation leaders, letting Stumpy know that they were all listening in.
The first four aircraft slowly edged onto the main runway and when in position Stumpy made his take off call.
‘Red Take-off’
‘Red, Clear take off, turn right and switch to Radar frequency on 366.9.’
Stumpy repeated the clearance and immediately started to run up his engines – as did the three other aircraft
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