Tac Blaze

[michael1970]

Anyone up there next Monday??

[Durranhill]

Hi Michael ,
I should be up there from about 10am to 4.30/5pm Mon,Tue ,Thu & then early Friday morning as they tend to leave about 8.30/9am to go home , I'll be in a Maroon Civic Aerodeck parked near the crashgate overlooking the disused runway.
Have not seen or heard much this week but an Apache passed close by my place of work late this afternoon heading west , looked like maybe a sightseeing trip out to the lakes .
Stewart .

[Chris Procter]

Quick friday update from my phone at Carlisle as of 11.55am
All aircraft on deck weather abysmal 4 apache 4 chinook

Couple went out this morning but were back within the hour
The apache have been having problems 2 of them

And by the looks of things 2 chinooks have been stop starting
So not good at the moment

Ramp almost clear of people i could imagine that could be it so i am off home
Poor viz and slashing it down

[Typhoon_93]

Hello All

Has anyone identified the 4th chinook please..

Thanks Gareth

[Chris Procter]

Hello All

Has anyone identified the 4th chinook please..

Thanks Gareth

D-664

[catkins]

Weird day on the range - freezing fog at Wiley Sike put paid to any morning photo opportunities, but thanks to a heads-up by a passing RNlAF chap the claim that it was warm enough to sunbathe in at the north end of the range was too good to miss! And for Chris P, Mike F & myself what a good decision it was to follow his advice as we got treated to some great photo opportunities from a pair of RNlAF Apache and then by one of two RNlAF Chinook in lovely clear afternoon sunlight. Never got to sunbathe though thanks as always to the brilliant pilots and crew of the RNlAF Apache and Chinook - great job!

[Durranhill]

Hello , post is a bit late but better than nothing.
Arrived at the Airport about 12.15 to find 3 x Apache & 2 chinooks on the ground .
12.36 Knife flight 2 x Apache req start up & dep to the NW of spade
12.53 Sabre 1 & Grizzly 1 could be heard working Spade on 308.775, they req smokey sams & Romeo threats
13.02 Sabre 1 & Grizzly 1 asked to dep range for Carlisle & they were replaced by Knife 1 & 2 who contacted Spade on 282.050
13.15 Grizzly 1 landed back at Carlisle & shut down followed shortly by Sabre 1 , so we now had 4 chinooks & 1 Apache on the ground + 2 x Apache on the range , I was told later that the 4th Apache is in the Stobart hangar under repair.
13.43 Knife 1 & 2 req smokey sams & Romeo 208 threats
2 Chinooks as Grizzly 1 & 2 dep to the east for Spade & at 15.10 Knife 1 & 2 the 2 Apaches came back in from Spade , landed & shut down.
15.48 Grizzly 91 did a 5 to 10 min air test in front of us at the crash gate before departing to the NW
16.05 Grizzly 91 came back in arriving over runway 19 & with lovely light on the side from the setting sun passed in front of us before landing & shutting down .
16.30 Grizzly 1 & 2 came back in & shut down
16.35 Lady in the tower said goodnight Grizzly & with that i departed for home to warm up .

Stewart .

[RADS]

Hi all,

Visited the airfield this morning at 07:30 hrs,all eight a/c parked on their ramp,
D-106,663,664,666 CH47's
Q-01,18,19,21 AH64's

Dave

[Durranhill]

Called round to the tower about 2pm this afternoon to find 3 Chinooks & 1 Apache on the ground + another Apache in the Stobart hangar.
1 Chinook had just started up when Sabre 2 the 4th Chinook called up to say he was inbound from spade, he came in over 19 & landed.
A few minutes later the other 2 Apaches called up to say they were 10 miles out coming in from the south west - Warcop ??? , they also came in over 19 & landed .

Stewart .

[michael1970]

Chris it goes to show just how big Spade is 200m viz at Wiley and 10K + within a few miles to the east madness.
Glad you got some good shots and as Ive said before its a cracking spot for the choppers with good light and an amazing backdrop.

Lets hope Lightnig Force gives us the same

[Durranhill]

Heard something on the scanner tonight & as it sounded like RNLAF ?? I popped round to the Airport in case anything new had come in , found 2 Apaches ,Redskin 1 & 2 working on runway 25 with the runway lights off , they were doing touch & go's .
The tower then knocked the street lights at the Airport off so they may have been using NVG's , this went on for about 30 min before one of them landed & shut down , the remaining Apache then used the callsign Redskin 14 & carried on as before for another 15 min then landed & shut down .

Stewart .

[Durranhill]

Arrived at airfield at 11.15 to find 1 Chinook & 3 Apaches on the ground .
11.19 Grizzly formation called up to say they were inbound from the NW & then Redskin 13 called in to say he was working 5m NW of the field at 300ft .
11.23 Grizzly 3 formation - 3 Chinooks came in from the NW over 19 to land in single file & shut down .
11.30 Grizzly ? with 19 pob req start up .
11.35 Redskin 13 inbound after test , I think this is the Apache that has been under repair all week in the Stobart hangar , he came in to land & shut down at 11.48 .
11.56 Sabre 3 a Chinook & 3 Apaches as Knife formation dep to Spade .

At 12.05 as nothing was happening I decided to head off to Spadeadam , on arrival I was told that the formation had passed by in the distance on it's way to Otterburn , it turns out that the only thing moving up there was us lot trying to keep warm .
Had my dinner up there & a crack with the lad's then figured out that as a sortie would be about 2 hrs long I had better get back to Carlisle . I had no sooner gone through Gilsland when the formation called up Spade & req radar threats , I later found out that they had done 1 pass through the gorge with the Apaches firing chaff & that was it .

13.50 arrived back at the airfield just in time to see 3 Chinooks about to leave for Warcop , they then dep to the SW & had no sooner gone when Knife formation who I had gone to see at Spade called up to say they were inbound from the NE. they came in over 19 , landed & had shut down by 14.07 ,the gang from Spade then turned up but they had missed all the action .

The Gang hung about for a short time before leaving & shortly after that the action started again at 15.05 with 2 Apache req start up then dep to spade which they called up on 308.775 but they had no sooner left when they turned back due to bad weather , they aborted the mission after landing at 15.23 .

16.00 Redskin formation - the 3 Chinooks which had left for Warcop earlier called up & came in from the SW , they then proceeded to beat up the pan before coming round past the tower , landing & shutting down - an excellent end to the day .

Stewart .
P.S note to self - remember to press the pause / record button properly on the camcorder then you will record the action in front of you & not the ground & your feet .

[Durranhill]

Dutch dep Carlisle between 8.35 & 8.45 with the 4 Apaches in the lead followed by the 4 Chinooks, they headed off to the east routing through Newcastle .
No big flypast this time just a quick pass of the pan over the Chinooks by the Apaches then the Chinooks left line astern from 01 towards Newcastle , so that's it until next March / April .
Stewart .

[toom317]

P.S note to self - remember to press the pause / record button properly on the camcorder then you will record the action in front of you & not the ground & your feet .[/quote]

Made me laugh, and of course I have never ever done that. Nice to meet you, and hope all your other stuff was ok. All those long exposure, low light shots I took, were all to badly blurred when I got them onto the computer.

Never mind there is always next spring to look forward to.
Danny

[Durranhill]

Hi Danny ,
Pity about those last shots of yours , they always look ok on the small screen but when shown on a bigger screen it' a different picture .
Yesterday morning was over in just over 15min, the Apaches already had there engines running before the tower opened & when I arrived at the crash gate on the east side they had already hover taxied & lined up on 25 to depart , they dep to the right & did one slow pass of the pan over the Chinooks then dep to the east , the Chinooks who already had there engines running then lined up at the south east end of 19 ( I said 01 in my earlier post ) then took off to the SE before turning east for Newcastle.

Stewart

[PeteHemsley]

Looks the Dutch navy may be paying a visit

[johnhowe]

The following link is already on FC but I think it may be beneficial if its on the Tac Blaze so we can identify any
rotary aircraft that maybe involved in JW 13.1 who may put in an appearance at Spadeadam.

http://kinlochbervie.info/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; just click on Joint Warrior 26.3.2013. http://www.ais.org" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

If you click on "Notices for Shipping" you get the complete MOD Order of Battle for Joint Warrior 13/1.

[ajbc]

Presumably for the Tac Blaze exercise 3 Dutch AH64s picked up on SBS crossing the Thames estuary Northbound in the last few minutes – SBS says it is Q19 / Q25 / Q30 but confirmation required.

[PeteHemsley]

They are at mildenhall for refuel before departing to carlisle

[abyzz]

4 x Apache flight Redskin 41/42/43/44 passed Durham Tees heading for Carlisle at aprox 1330
There was also a Chinook ( Grizzly 3 ) earlier at about 1300