Tac Blaze

[Durranhill]

Hi Danny , .
Yes it was a great 2 days of action at Carlisle but 3 or 4 would have been better , just a pity about that poor info going around but I don't think the tower were kept fully informed of what was going either .

And yes it was very nice to see and talk to people on here , we should do it more often ,we just need the Military to have one of these does every 3 months .

Only heard one Mil callsign today which was Army air ??? going south west of the city but high up , tower mentioned that there were Army tents on the infield near some intersection & there was no sign of that yesterday so I'll have a pop along in the morning .
Webmonkeyuk's SBS log for Teesside shows D-101 + D-666 heading south Fri so that leaves D-662 as the faulty one at the Airport , I assume it's still there as I've heard nothing on the scanner .

Still no word on the Forum about the French or the new Dutch Helicopters that Frank & another Forum member said maybe working near Dumfries ?? .

Stewart .

[Duane Hewitt]

A friend on the exercise has mentioned probable moves back to Carlisle. I'll try find out more.

just a pity about that poor info going around but I don't think the tower were kept fully informed of what was going either .

Sounds about right. Our exercise program changed timings, locations and aircraft type by the half hour. Much to the annoyance of 100sqn, ATC, Ops and any other assets and airfield controllers we used

[Durranhill]

Hi Duane , any news on the French stopping at Middle Wallop overnight tomorrow , a poster on the Wallop thread said they would be night stopping ?? & I've had a message about the French going into East Midlands for refuel tomorrow which makes me think that they are still at West Freugh .

Stewart .

[Duane Hewitt]

9 regt ground element at least should be back through Carlisle tomorrow, would expect some Lynx also.

As for Wallop I have no idea, sorry. I really should change my location, I've been at Odiham for 8months now.

[Durranhill]

One of your boys passed through the Carlisle overhead at 10.48 this morning , Vortex 01 routing West Freugh to Durham Teesside at FL50, he returned about 2 hours later but was flying low level this time but still with the same number of people on board .
The French are back at Middle Wallop tonight having refuelled at Blackpool so I take it they must have left West Freugh then across the Solway & down the west coast.

Stewart .

[Durranhill]

Carlisle tower 123.6
11.25 Shawbury 63 in for refuel & dep towards Lockerbie at 12.03 .

12.05 Machetti section , 2 x Apache inbound for airfield .
12.17 " " report finals , on landing hover taxi between tower & windsock for refuel on apron .
12.55 Apaches are still on the ground as I type this .
Pity I'm back at work but I did see them coming inbound over the Marshalling yard .

Stewart .

[Durranhill]

Danny ,
The 2 Hawk T MK2's we missed Thu eve , serials ZK027 & 035 , thanks to the SBS-1 log of Mike S for that info .
Did any of your pics come out ?? .

Stewart .

[kieron]

The 2 Apaches are ZJ188 and ZJ205, and both refuelled at the FARP by the tower and are now tied down and parked at the end of Rwy 19. There are still 3 Oshkosh tankers on the airfield and rumour is that Wednesday might be busy !

[Durranhill]

14.21 Vanguard 2 Lynx XZ274 came in from the north ,landed ,dropped off packs & dep back to West Freugh at 14.26 .

Shawbury 63 Who had come back in & landed earlier dep again at 14.25 .

15.30 Vortex 310 a Merlin called up to say he was south of Gretna & would pass abeam Carlisle routing to Linton on Ouse then Benson .

15.35 Vortex 01 a Chinook inbound the field from the North to drop off an underslung load .
15.43 " " cleared to drop off load on the disused runway then land .

He may still be still be on the ground at Carlisle ?? .

Stewart .

[toom317]

Danny ,
The 2 Hawk T MK2's we missed Thu eve , serials ZK027 & 035 , thanks to the SBS-1 log of Mike S for that info .
Did any of your pics come out ?? .

Stewart .

Nah, silhouette, head on belly shots. Looked at once on the computer and binned. Your putting the hours in at Carlisle, bet you'll be glad it's all over. I took nearly 1400 pics over the two days, so I'll be sorting those out over the coming weeks. (Surely one of them must be in focus ).

[Durranhill]

Have not been down since Friday afternoon , 1st day back at work since last Monday , workshop was cold & dark today as having them on interfered with the scanner , that's dedication for you .

Watched the Apaches come in over the north end of Kingmoor yard , then got some poor video of the Merlin flying past & of course I heard the Chinook coming in before I seen him .

No word on the Dutch Chinook but I think he must have Dep as the tower made no mention of it to the Vortex pilot when he was landing .

Must get some work done tomorrow at work instead of keeping movement logs .

Stewart

[Durranhill]

Just switched on the scanner to find Lynx's Vanguards 1& 2 are in for refuel , tower asked them to hover taxi over the cut grass to the FARP next to the Seaking .

Stewart .

[Durranhill]

Although TAC BLAZE has finished there is plenty still going at Carlisle & Spadeadam .
Talon 71 was flying around Spade for at Least 1/2 hour & Ascot 420 a C-130 did a low pass at Carlisle before dep for the lakes .
I've listened to Helicopter traffic going in & out of Carlisle today on my scanner at work when things were Quiet & on popping round tonight at 19.30 I was surprised to find not a few but 11 Helicopters around the Airfield .
3 x AAC apache
3 x Lynx
3 x Chinook
2 x Seaking Commando

I was then informed that about 20.30 there would be a mass take off of the helicopters taking French & British troops into Spadeadam for a night excercise , by 20.30 2 seakings , 2 Lynx & 2 Chinooks had started engines , the Seakings & Chinooks took troops on board & awaited departure.
20.40 The 2 Lynx using a Vanguard callsign dep followed 5 min later by the Seakings & finally the Chinooks dep 6 min later at 20.51, the Chinooks took a right turn on departing & headed for Spade passing between the airfield & the setting sun on a nice clear night .
23.06 They are inbound to Carlisle again probably for the 3 time tonight , the 2 Seakings have just called up again to say they are about to land on runway 25 & are in 2 way comms with Vanguard 1 who is dep again , all are using the Carlisle tower freq of 123.6 although the tower closed at 20.00.
.
23.12 A chinook using the callsign Vortex has just called up to say he is 5 miles out & inbound for 25 .
23.17 He is on the ground & waiting for the Seakings to collect packs .

Sounds like this could go on all night .

I've been told that the Chinooks are leaving Carlisle 1st thing in the morning, where they are going to I do not know .

Forgot to mention earlier that Seaking Rescue 177 had been in for refuel this afternoon & departed at 15.15 heading for Lockerbie .

Stewart .

P.S Fighter Control is very slow to load up tonight for some reason ?? .


I

[Durranhill]

The Heli part of last nights Ex involving 2 Lynx, 2 Commando & 2 Chinooks finished at 00.35 with the last in the air, Vanguard's 1+2 a pair of Lynx's parking up after refuel , they all did 6 round trips from Carlisle to Spade & back & received a well done from Vanguard on dep Spade for the last time .
This morning I heard the Apaches , Commandos & Lynx's working to & from Spade ,at 11.37 the only Chinook I heard Vortex 437 started climbing south of Longtown for his return south via Pole Hill at FL 60 .

At 11.56 the pair of Seaking Commandos dep south & were asked to report passing Penrith .

By 12.20 the Apaches were all on the ground & only Vanguard 1 a Lynx was flying , bringing people back in from Spade , he landed back at 13.20 .

The only other dep I heard in the afternoon was Army Air 969 who left at 12.52 heading south .

About 30 minutes ago the tower informed another chopper pilot who fancied swapping his machine for an Apache that they would be leaving at 7 in the morning .

That's all folks .

Stewart .

[johnhowe]

Stewart, I would like to thank you on behalf of all the members of Fighter Control and especially those of us who have regularly visited Carlisle Airport for your factual reports on the aircraft/helicopter movements.

A big thank you also to Danny, Duane, Geoff, Keiron and anybody else who have posted their photographs of the
participants in Tac Blaze, a Big thank too you all.

[Durranhill]

Thank you for that Frank , some of my reports are based on listening to the scanner while at work or at home & I just like to keep people informed of what's going on , I was just lucky on Wed night as I turned up to take a few pics & found out that an exercise was about to start .
At 21.14 last night Vortex 420 a Chinook called up blind on 123.6 as the tower had closed at 18.00, he was inbound the field & landed at 21.19 for refuel & night stop .
Just after 7 this morning the Apaches dep using the callsign Machetti formation ,again calling blind on 123.6 as the tower was not open at that time .

There maybe stuff still on the ground this morning but I don't know for sure , only that I have heard nothing on the scanner .

Stewart .

[johnhowe]

Message for Stewart, Geoff, Kieron, There are some new Dutch Helicopters on Exercise at Edingham, Dumfries, they are supposed to be going to Nesscliffe, in Shropshire, could somebody have a chat with our friendly Dutch
and find out if they are going to visit Carlisle on there way to Nesscliff. Frank.

I went to the Landowners Day at Shawbury, informed that the Dutch Helos refuelled at Shawbury and went to Nesscliffe, according to another of my local correspondents.