Combat Pilot on BBC2
 

Anyone else see "Combat Pilot" on BBC2Wales (Digital) this eve?

Not a bad effort..IMHO

Saw some familiar areas in the L/L flying scenes.

I thought it was very good and looks set to be an interesting series. Some very good flying sequences in there. Were the members of the course selected on the basis of agreeing to appear or was it just the luck of the draw?

Without wanting to spoil the ending, did enough of the guys get through the course?

Have a friend who is one of the guys being filmed. Members of the course were given the choice of not being filmed, hence you only ever see a few of the guys. Have seen a few of the episodes to come - great series. Music is a bit 70's porn film. Surely some top gun tracks would have been a more appropriate choice!!

I hope they show this on one of the main BBC channels at some point. I can't get BBC2Wales. Oh well, I guess they'll sell it to Discovery Wings if not and I'll see it there :)

Are you on Sky Digital? If so, you'll find BBC2 (Wales) on Channel 961, look you boyo!

BEagle,
I missed the show last night, is the programme just on a Monday evening?
TIA

I doubt that it's repeated at other times as it's a regional opt out. Anyone else know?

Unfortunately not :(

The series is only going out on BBC 2W at first cause that's were the money came from to make it. It will apparently go out on ordinary analogue BBC 2 in a couple of months and they are hoping that the national network will take it up at some point and broadcast it UK wide.

Like Speedbird777 I've seen a couple more of the episodes and it looks really good, the guys come across very well and even the porn music starts to sound OK!

I'm famous.....not!
 

I agree that it's a pretty good effort.
I even managed to see myself for almost two whole seconds!
Would it be ruining it for everyone if I said that unfortunately one of the guys didn't make it through 19?!

BV

Is that a rhetorical question?:uhoh:

Hear that this evenings episode has one of the guys going through de-barf training at Boscombe, should be a hoot! (Sky Channel 961)

A reminder for those that can get it, that Episode 4 of Combat Pilot airs tonight on Sky Channel 961. This is how the BBC website describes the episode:


Combat Pilot 4

The pilots' training reaches a crucial stage and the tough reality of the path they have taken sinks in.

It's just another six flights before three of the trainee pilots at RAF Valley complete their crucial first stage of training. But these final sorties will prove to be the toughest yet for Squadron Leader Dave McBryde, Flying Officer Richard Fawkes and Flight Lieutenant Mark Baker, with every challenge captured on film.

The six months of continuous testing and training in 208 Squadron are beginning to take their toll on the pilots who take viewers on an extraordinary pilot's eye view of low flying in the valleys of Ogwen Valley, Snowdonia and the surrounding area.

The politics of war demands enormous skill from today's pilots since precision low flying is an essential skill in reducing collateral damage. But there's one particularly hazardous factor at low level that even the most skilled fast jet pilots can't control the wildlife.

Bird strikes cost the RAF more than £20 million a year in repair costs, and they're a particular danger at RAF Valley, which is sandwiched between a beach and a bird sanctuary.

Recent footage televised in Combat Pilot (this episode) shows how a large bird of prey hitting a jet windscreen at 500mph punches a hole straight through the Hawk jet's thick perspex canopy. In another recent incident, a pigeon managed to pierce the aluminium casing of a Hawk.

As the crunch day of final flight arrives, 38-year-old Dave McBryde - who's waited 18 years for this chance has technical troubles with his jet and has to spend a frustrating 45 minutes on the tarmac before take-off.

The road ahead for the pilots is long and hard and not all of them will make it. And even if they pass the first stage, they face between another nine and 12 months of constant stress, continuous testing and the realisation that ultimately they are being trained as killing machines.

I thought it was very good - especially the flying sequences. My only gripe (speaking as an old 208 hand from MEAF days) was that the whole thing seemed a bit bowdlerised. The crew room chatter was worthy of a bunch of boy scouts. I suppose the had been told to watch their tongues so as not to upset the Taffs. ;)

"38-year-old Dave McBryde - who's waited 18 years for this chance has technical troubles with his jet and has to spend a frustrating 45 minutes on the tarmac before take-off."
Only 45 mins! And he took off! :hmm:
Let's hope the poor bloke doesn't get streamed Tornado.

As an ex F3 nav it probably felt like being at home again!!

Navs
 

But is'nt a Nav a 2nd Class Citizen anyway Dave........

Ooops you'll go straight to Hell for that one

He meant it in a nice way! With all due respect......

The axe man cometh (Mon 2100 Ch 961)

BBC Precis Follows:

Combat Pilot 5

http://www.bbc.co.uk/wales/northwest...mmander200.jpg
Gp Capt Les Garside-Beattie

The trainee pilots at RAF Valley in Anglesey know how to fly a Hawk jet. But they still have to learn to kill with it.

Combat Pilot turns the lens on Squadron Leader Dave McBryde and Flying Officer Rich Fawkes who become training partners as they make their final preparations for the front line.

Rich Fawkes' dream of becoming a combat pilot started when he flew his first plane while he was still at school. Dave McBryde, 38, has held the ambition since he was nine years old, and has spent the past 18 years trying to get on the fast jet training course. But one of them is about to get the chop.

When they first arrived at RAF Valley, the pilots were reminded that their job was to kill. Yet it remains perhaps one of the toughest aspects of training to come to terms with, and failure at this stage is still a real threat.

Any psychological hang-ups are compounded by the fact that travelling at 500mph more than 20,000 feet above ground level is physically exhausting. Gravity increases sevenfold, scrambling thoughts and making a pilots head seven times heavier - even a simple, crucial action like turning the head to see is extremely hard work.

After a series of poor performances, the struggling pilot is offered one last chance - but he fails. It's time to face the grim reality of being axed from the course and this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

"We can't afford to send anyone to the front line that's going to need to be carried," explains Wing Commander Paul Comer.

"It's a hard thing for us to do to someone - to take away their dream. But we have to do it because it's for his own safety, for the safety of others and also because we need people on the front line who can do the job."