Cape Wrath training

[wigan1895]

I was up in the North West of Scotland in September and was watching the RAF(?) practising bombing An Garbh-eilean . Being no pilot I was amazed at the number of times the pilots managed to hit this small island. Is it as difficult as it looks? To an untrained bystander like me the combination of high speeds and low altitude and the accuracy is amazing. And no I could not tell how fast, how high they were.

[KarlADrage]

By no means an answer to your question (others are much better qualified than I!), but I've been up to Cape Wrath a couple of times.

Here's my best shot from Flying Rhino '05. 20(R)Sqn doing the dropping.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v473/KarlADrage/others%20pics/050916CAPIMG_2044-01.jpg

Was up again for CQWI in November where the weather was truly foul. Top marks to the boys of 15(R)Sqn for their successes on that occasion! Even got to see the in-cockpit footage the following day!

[Bo Nalls]

Garvie, as it's known to the RAF is a very difficult target to hit, just ask some (ex) jag pilots how difficult it is ;)

[ranger703]

I was there that very day! The Jag guy hit Am Balg,an island south of Cape Wrath lighthouse,just off Sandwood Bay! Seem to remember it didn't do his career any harm;).

Theoretically,the island should not be too difficult to hit at all really,its 107ft high at its highest point,about 800ft long and 30ft wide,however from many years of experience I know only too well how often it is missed!!

Not too sure who you would have seen in September,as GR9s and GR4s utilised the range.You must remember that if you were watching from Balnakiel Beach or from the Faraid peninsula then that is some 5-6km away from the rock.However I do agree with you that it is by far the most impressive sight that you can see of fastjets operating in the UK.

I was there on Tue/Wed and sod's law,as is mostly the case when there is no activity, the weather was glorious!

BTW,nice shot of an impact and shockwave on Garvie on the month of December of the RAF Aviation Safety Group 2008 calendar;)

[soddim]

I remember in the heyday of the FGR2 in multi role we were tasked by the UK TACEVAL team to plant some HE 1000 pounders on Garvie. We asked them what the aim point was and they said the whole island - sounded a bit sloppy to me and I voiced that opinion. Their response was that they had done Waddington the week before and they couldn't hit the island.

Seems they had similar problems at Stanley.

[Chicken Leg]

I was amazed at the number of times the pilots managed to hit this small island. Is it as difficult as it looks?

its 107ft high at its highest point,about 800ft long and 30ft wide

Indeed, how do they do it! :hmm:

[Pontius Navigator]

Soddim,

Indeed you are right.

Back in the 60s, about 67 IIRC, a Vulcan was entrusted to drop 21x1000lb HE on Salisbury Plain.

Before they were authorised to do so they had to practise on Garvie to see if they could hit it. They did and they went on to SP.

[Tim McLelland]

I was lucky enough to grab a passenger seat on some GR4 bombing runs over Garvie last year. It's certainly a remote and desolate place and on the day we picked the weather was absolutely foul. The cliffs and rocks kept disappearing in shrouds of fog so our plans to get some shots of the bombing were thwarted. It was a miracle that we kept visual contact with each other as it was pretty nasty out over the sea. Just to make things even more frustrating, the planned weapons load was 1,000 HE bombs but the wind direction meant that noise abatement procedures were in force so we had to opt for lil' practice bombs (*boo sob*). Even in such foul conditions it was good to see that the folks at the range control came out to wave! And yes, they hit the island; top marks 13 Squadron:)

[ranger703]

We are hardy folks us range staff!!