Originally Posted by Doobry Firkin
Despite everyone knowing the airfield was closing at the end of July out of the blue the airfield was needed by 1 Gp to act as an emergency airfield.
Errr....it wasn't "out of the blue" at all. It was identified as soon as it became known that Kinloss may close. Whether or not it was passed sufficiently far up the chain of command for someone to take it into account is another matter.
We even had many posts on this site regarding this at the start of the year.
It is simply another case of those making the decision to close not being in posession of all the facts before making the decision.
There are 2 issues
AFAIK:
1) With Leuchars closing as well, there is no 'military' diversion for use by the Lossie GR4 & Typhoon wing.
2) The GR4 OCU have major issues teaching roller landings to students due to the high fuel weight needed to preserve a diversion further away than Kinloss. Too high a fuel weight = no rollers/minimum rollers etc.