Mallet Blow exercises ??

[Tiger-G]

Hi

I was reminiscing with a fellow old fart spotter today about the old Mallet Blow exercises in the '80's and '90's, where we had up to 150 low level fast jet movements a day through Spadeadam and Otterburn. I had a look online for any low level photographs and there are very few. Probably because they were all shot on film and haven't been digitised, or they are just kept hidden away by fellow old farts. All my pics are crap, due to a combination of a cheap camera and lens, which was all I could afford at the time. They are hidden away in the attic, and it's so far down my list of priorities, they won't be getting digitised any day soon

Are there any fellow old farts, who used frequent Spadeadam and Alwinton at Otterburn, still on here ?? And have you ever thought about getting your pics digitised and put online ?? It would be a crime if some of the best ever low level pics taken in the UK, at Alwinton Valley in Northumberland, were never made public and appreciated by the younger generation of spotters.

Cheers,
Graeme.

[PeteHemsley]

I'm not quite an old fart, but yes. I was part of the "Thursday club" at spadeadam for around 18 years. Had some incredible times. Alwinton and Ros Hill were also favourites of mine. Remember standing up on the hills with the F3s capping overhead and pouncing on the extreme low level gr1/4s, harriers and of course, Jags! I remember my military spotting life started with a book called "the low down". Fantastic little self printed book, I forget the author, but it showed me all the places I needed to be, including wiley sike at spadeadam where I met lots of people whom became wonderful friends over the following years. So many great memories.

Thanks for sparking those memories again. Happy Times.

Cheers

Pete

[Andyph]

Hi Pete,

I wrote the Low level section of 'Lowdown' with my mate Paul Jackson who did the radio bit - glad you enjoyed it.
I'd written a little guide called "Unseen Airshows" before that.

I still have lots of Mallet Blow pics on slide from Spade and Otterburn - should really digitise some of them.

Mallet Blows were the best - I find it a bit funny how people get so excited over very little these days.

Ros hill was awesome - loved watching the CAPs

Also, So weird to see the popularity of the Mach Loop these days - I'd never seen anyone there before I wrote the guide.

Cheers

Andy

[Tiger-G]

Hi Pete,

Did you ever digitise your pics and post them online ?? And if not, will you ever get round to it ?? I'm gonna make a concerted effort to do mine next year.

I remember "Low Down", it introduced me to the low level places in the UK too. Still got it somewhere .

I was at Spadeadam on a regular basis in those days, usually on my motorbike, but I can't remember any names now ?? I do remember "John the Post" (??)..... he was a postman from over Carlisle way I think ??

Graeme.

[Lossie]

Hi, has anyone got a copy of Unseen Airshows they would be willing to sell?

[Andyph]

Hi, has anyone got a copy of Unseen Airshows they would be willing to sell?

I wrote Unseen Airshows back in the early 90s - there is essentially nothing relevant in it anymore - but still have a few tucked away.
Lowdown I did a few years later

[Tiger-G]

Hi Pete,

I wrote the Low level section of 'Lowdown' with my mate Paul Jackson who did the radio bit - glad you enjoyed it.
I'd written a little guide called "Unseen Airshows" before that.

I still have lots of Mallet Blow pics on slide from Spade and Otterburn - should really digitise some of them.

Mallet Blows were the best - I find it a bit funny how people get so excited over very little these days.

Ros hill was awesome - loved watching the CAPs

Also, So weird to see the popularity of the Mach Loop these days - I'd never seen anyone there before I wrote the guide.

Cheers

Andy

Hi Andy,

I bought both "Lowdown" and "Unseen Airshows" back in the day, and remember when you could visit the Mach Loop and be the only one there. How times change !! Thanks for opening my eyes to the low level world 30 years ago

Please try and get round to digitising your pics, it would be a shame if that era was never documented online. I'm gonna make an effort to get mine done next year.

Cheers,
Graeme

[Blackcat1]

Ah the good old exercise days!! Mallet blow, Brilliant Foil / Invader , Welsh Clerics exercises ! Great memories! My best visits to the Loop and my local area the Usk valley where I'd see a load of different types and many of them! 30-50 passes a day by individual aircraft not the same ones going around a few times now I'm lucky to see 1 or 2 aircraft a week in the southern part of LFA7 if that!

[toom317]

I did quite a few Mallet Blows at Otterburn and the camera gear wasn't as good as it is now, it was all film and manual focusing back then. Also got more than a few from Spade of MB's and general FAC days stashed away in the slide collection. I may dig them out some day and digi them, but at approx 3 mins a slide to scan etc, it would take an age to do all my slide collection.

[Andyph]

Hi Graeme,

I'm so glad you not only enjoyed the guide but more importantly got out and enjoyed the low level world.
It's really nice to hear the guides succeeded in their aim - I'm really chuffed.

Yes I've got a friend with slide scanner so will try and digitise them -

Funnily enough i was looking at Lowdown a few day ago for the first time in over a decade and was really enjoying the photos - of course they would not hold up today but still fantastic memories

Cheers

Andy

[Andyph]

Just wonder if anyone was at Otterburn (Alwinton) for the August 1990 Mallet Blow Exercise.

It was the week after Sadam invaded Kuwait.

If you were there you might recall the red finned XV sqn Tornado - every pass that week was mind blowing - I have seen lots of super Low passes but he was very special!.

Also the lunch time A-10s wanting to change target to the shack (which was the FAC's location!) - pandemonium broke out on the radio!

Also (and I think it was that Mallet Blow) the 10 ship of Canadians that also were pretty special at Alwinton - came from directly infront of us and dived into the Croquet valley right infront of the mound .

Very happy days!

Andy

[Vulture 01]

East Anglia also used to be pretty good during those days. I spent many happy hours on the fence watching Wattisham get thumped by Red Force. The sight of Hawks, on airfield CAP, dogging with Noggie F5's is a lasting memory. On top of that were the frequent fuel stops by NATO jets, on their way to or from targets up north. One of the (albeit few) good things about being an old spotter. Now off up the road to watch the F35's at Lakenheath.

Have a good day.

[Andyph]

East Anglia also used to be pretty good during those days. I spent many happy hours on the fence watching Wattisham get thumped by Red Force. The sight of Hawks, on airfield CAP, dogging with Noggie F5's is a lasting memory. On top of that were the frequent fuel stops by NATO jets, on their way to or from targets up north. One of the (albeit few) good things about being an old spotter. Now off up the road to watch the F35's at Lakenheath.

Have a good day.

Not on a Mallet Blow - Targets were Spadeadam and Otterburn. attacks on Wattisham would have Priory/ Elder Forrest/Joust and Central Enterprise Air Defence Exercises -

[DickFlute]

Hi Andy/all

Re...

Just wonder if anyone was at Otterburn (Alwinton) for the August 1990 Mallet Blow Exercise.
It was the week after Sadam invaded Kuwait.

If you were there you might recall the red finned XV sqn Tornado - every pass that week was mind blowing - I have seen lots of super Low passes but he was very special!.

I was there during the week you mentioned, and while I can't recall the antics of that particular Tornado (which isn't surprising as I can't remember what the hell I did yesterday!) it's certainly in my log as one of the particpants.

I lived in Newcastle back then, so it was just a short trip up the road, and I went to Alwinton to watch the Mallet Blow spectacle unfold a number of times between 1988 & 1992. I came to the party late really as the exercises had been running since around 1980, and I didn't realise in the earlier years that watching fast jets hurtling through the Coquet Valley at very low level could be more fun than attending airshows.

Alas even though I took some photos, I never got around to digitising them and my prints seem to have long since disappeared. I guess a) I wasn't very impressed with the results (and they were subsequently junked) as I didn't have a great camera at the time, but worse still I was a shockingly poor photographer! and b) given that I favoured number-crunching over photography I was probably more interested in trying to read-off codes/serials than taking photos.

Going back to this Tornado, my log tells me it was ZA446/F and was with 2 other RAFG Tornados which made two passes through the range in the am & again in the pm - as did many other things as per the usual exercise routine. Said log also tells me that I was up at Alwinton from 09:40 to 17:00 on Wednesday 1st August, and in case anyone is interested I have copied the contents below to give a flavour of the sort of activity one might witness during your typical Mallet Blow exercise day.

Oh & if you're wondering about the question marks appended to the number of aircraft in some of the formations, and thinking "can this idiot not count?"; in my defence some of the participants would attempt to hit their chosen targets and then egress the range in different directions, i.e. 'they'd be all over the shop'.

Mallet Blow 90/2 - Summary
(Note: Some formations used a Mission *** callsign for their attack, and a different one when switching to their chosen radar agency on climb-out.)

"Mission 306A/B" USAF A-10 x 2
"Mission 307A/B" 9 Sqn/RAFG Tornado x 2
"Mission 308" German F-4 x 2
"Mission 309" RAF Tornado (x?)
"Mission 310" RAFG Tornado x 4
"Mission 312" 'UH'/USAF F-111 x 4 (ATC c/s "Noble")
"Mission 313" TTTE/RAF Tornado x 2
"Mission 314" 3 Sqn/RAFG Harrier x 3 (ATC c/s "RAFAIR 593")
"Mission 315" 54 Sqn/RAF Jaguar x 4
"Mission 316" RAF Harrier x 2
"Mission 317" RAFG Tornado x 3 (including the red-tailed example)
"3UK318" USAF A-10 x 2
"Mission 319" RAF Jaguar x 2
"Mission 320" German Tornado x 2
"Mission 321" 27 Sqn/RAF Tornado x 3
"3UK322" USAF A-10 x 2 (ATC c/s "Hog")
"3UK324" USAF A-10 x 4 "ATC c/s "Able)
"Mission 325" USAF F-111 x 2
"Mission 326" 13 Sqn/RAF Tornado x 2
"3UK327" USAF A-10 x 2
"2TK328" AKG-51/German AF RF-4E x 1
"2TK329" AKG-52/German AF RF-4E x 2
"2TK330" JBG-35/German AF F-4F x 2
"Mission 331" Danish F-16 x 2 & Danish Draken x 2
"Mission 332" Danish F-16 x 2 & Danish Draken x 2
"Mission 333" 6 Sqn/RAF Jaguar x 4 (ATC c/s "Turbo")
"Mission 334" 3 Sqn/RAFG Harrier x 3
"Mission 336" German Tornado x 8 (posibly including "Mission 337")
"Mission 338" 20 Sqn/RAFG Tornado x 3
"Mission 339" RAF Tornado x 1
"Mission 340" TWCU/RAF Tornado x 2
"3UK341" USAF A-10 x 2
"Mission 342" RAFG Tornado x 3 (including the red-tailed example)
"Mission 343" RAF Tornado x 3
"Mission 344" 54 Sqn/Jaguar x 4
"3UK345" USAF A-10 x 4
"2TK346" German AF Tornado x 2
"Mission 347" 27 Sqn/RAF Tornado x 3
"2TK348" German AF Tornado x 2
"3UK349" USAF A-10 x 4 (ATC c/s "Caddy")

It's worth noting that not all my days out and about for Mallet Blow resulted in seeing large numbers of aircraft as one of the days I was up at Alwinton the flying activity was suspended when following a pass by A-10s the grassland on the range was seen to be on fire! Also on another day my travelling companions & myself set out from Newcastle in reasonably decent weather conditions, but by the time we'd reached the hilly terrain of Alwinton, the cloud was 'on the deck' so flying was cancelled for the day; cue a lengthy session in a nearby ale house instead - which to be fair was almost as much fun.

Best wishes

[roughcutter]

What a fantastic list of participants. With the exception of the Danish 16's, I bet there wasn't a single "grey" amongst them all. Never did venture up to the LFA's during the exercises, instead (like the rest of the old farts), we used to race around Lincs & East Angular to catch the lunch stops
Waddington, Coningsby, Cottesmore and Honington were the usual venues.

[Lossie]

Hi, has anyone got a copy of Unseen Airshows they would be willing to sell?

I wrote Unseen Airshows back in the early 90s - there is essentially nothing relevant in it anymore - but still have a few tucked away.
Lowdown I did a few years later

Hi Andy, was more just from a general interest point of view than actual location info. I'll PM you.

[Knife 04]

Although not directly Mallet Blow, Scott Rathbone's book has some great low level shots from the 1980s to date

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1399092782/ ... =4&depth=1

[Yorker]

DickFlute

Thank you for sparking my memory. I was at Spadeadam on the glorious 1st August 1990. Everything you noted came through Spadeadam. We were on the road past Wiley Sike. In addition to your list we noted early doors

mission 301 2 RAF Tornado at 0902
mission 302 Single German RF4E at 0911
mission 303 2 German RF4E at 0917
mission 304 4 Danish F16s at 0921
mission 305 4 Danish Drakens at 0921

I did take photos but as you say the jets were either right over the top of us or some distance away. I've digitised them and will try and post. They give some impression of what it was like.

My best memory of low fly at Spadeadam was the previous April (26/4/90) watching 2 French Mirage IVA go through (callsign 4TF376/377). As ever you could never read them off!

Most other attempts at days out on Spadeadam failed due weather.

Yorker

[DickFlute]

Hi Yorker/all

Many thanks for the info on Mission 301 et al... much appreciated sir. Yeah, I mentioned arriving at Alwinton at 09:40 that day and knew we'd missed the first few missions (if only because of the missing callsigns), and I meant to say something to that effect in my post, but got sidetracked - no doubt by something trvial and insignficant. Indeed when arriving on site I did make a note in the log that there were several Danish jets whizzing around the locale, but I hadn't switched on the trusty Signal R-535 by then, so didn't know their callsign or how many of them were in the flight.

Re Spadeadam on 26th April 1990, funnily enough I was at Wiley Sike the day before for the Elder Forest activity. We didn't get any AdlA Mirage IVAs that day, but a pair of 2000Ns came rattling through the range as 4TF267 & 4TF270; but as you might expect they went unidentified!

Best wishes

[Tiger-G]

Just wonder if anyone was at Otterburn (Alwinton) for the August 1990 Mallet Blow Exercise.

It was the week after Sadam invaded Kuwait.

If you were there you might recall the red finned XV sqn Tornado - every pass that week was mind blowing - I have seen lots of super Low passes but he was very special!.

Also the lunch time A-10s wanting to change target to the shack (which was the FAC's location!) - pandemonium broke out on the radio!

Also (and I think it was that Mallet Blow) the 10 ship of Canadians that also were pretty special at Alwinton - came from directly infront of us and dived into the Croquet valley right infront of the mound .

Very happy days!

Andy

I was up at Alwinton quite a bit on my motorbike back in the day. I even took it to the top of the hill to save me a walk.......something I regretted on the way up, and definitely on the way down !!

That XV sqn red tailed Tornado pass was beyond amazing, fully swept. There used to be a couple of pics of it on Google images, but they seem to have disappeared . There's still a pic of it on approach in Google images, but it really doesn't do it justice. I'd love to see some decent shots of it