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."

More of the BBC's legendary accuracy? :hmm: Perhaps this is why flying BA to the states is so tiring?

:suspect:

Hmm. Let me guess . . . Will it be the Sqn Ldr F3 (Ex) Nav or the abo that gets chopped .. . . . . . .. . .

Hard times. I remember when I got chopped. The reason given was that I didn`t listen to what was being said to me (or something like that, I wasn`t really paying much attention at the time :p !!!

What the chopee needs is a Multi`s slot. That`ll bring a smile to his face !

Good series, it actually shows the RAF in a positive fashion for once, unlike the damn adverts we're showing currently.
What I would like to know is, where the hell did they get the music from?! Xylophones and French Horns??? Come on BBC, we're fighter pilots, not ballet dancers! What ever happened to some good old fashioned rock and/or roll.......

Whatsa matter you... hey !!
 

Good old fashioned rock and roll would be nice, however there would be the matter of who would pay for the fees. Also, if they played the old stuff, the RAF would be seen to not be 'keeping up with the times'.

Instead of the good old Guns and Roses, Kiss, or ACDC, it would have to be The Darkness, Peter Andre, or even the inevitable soon to be released Jordan single.

Bring on the porny French horns... :p

For those of us who have access to Sky but did not watch the start of this surprisingly good series due to the clash with 'Spitfire Ace', heads up. It is about to start a run on analogue TV (BBC 1) in Wales which also happens to be available on Sky on channel 942. It will start broadcasting on Wed 18 Feb at 7.30pm. Apparently it has been given the prime time slot on BBC 1 due to it outperforming any other programme on the digital channel it has been running on and universally positive comments.

Word from Valley is that there have been no adverse comments from either the personnel there or from the Taffia. Personally I think it's streets ahead of any programme I've seen about the RAF and as Gordon is going to say shortly when he taxes our few remaining shekles, "I commend this programme to the house".

Here in the USA we can't see any of the wonderful programs you in the UK have on television. NBC tried to make a program about F-15 training, and made an episode of MTV Real Life (the most unreal program you have ever seen!).

The British are just so much better at making "you were there" documentaries which dont insult the viewers intelligence. (Maybe its just having a father who was an Indian Air Force pilot and still uses "Dash it" and "Bang On" in his conversation!)

The only one I have seen is "Test Pilot" the BBC documentary of ETPS around 1985. I have the "books accompanying the BBC/ITV/ etc presentation of X" for the rest

Is there some way to obtain these videos?Will some kind soul point me towards viewing heaven? The ones I am interested in are
1. Test Pilot
2. Fighter Pilot
3. Top Gun (29 Sqn in Canada)
4. Flying Soldiers (AAC pilot training)

And now off course
5. Combat Pilot and
6. Spitfire Ace

I would pay good money for these!

Cheers
Worf

I think I saw some of the said vids on Ebay and/or Amazon, perhaps worth a look there?

MT

Chromate: Can people receive "Discovery Wings" 'over there'?:oh:

GIjoe,

As far as I am aware, the good Sqn Ldr used to be a nav on Phantoms and later the F3.

If you missed it 1st time .......
 

The six part series of 'Combat Pilot' is to be repeated on BBC2 (Analogue), starting on Monday 10th May 2004, at 19:30 (BST).


Also on BBC Wales Digital (2W), at 20:00 (BST).

Bloody hell it's almost 20 years since I last bumped into Les Garside-Beatty. He's obviously been hammering the sausage and mash!!!

Great news about Combat Pilot going out over the network. I've seen it and it's well worth a view, especially for those few remaining studes in the FJ pipeline who will end up at 4FTS.

Worf

Send an email to BBC America and ask them to show it out there.

Worf, another good one was 'Phantom Pilot', made in the 70s with a holding Phantom pilot (good egg, but chopped at the tactical flying training stage and went on to Hercs) as the budding fighter jock. It had some good flying shots but was marred slightly by the unreal fact that every time he bowled up at a new base he had a different, new sports car. Just didn't happen in those days!

Just a reminder, 2nd episode is on BBC2 tonight at 1930.

'Muzak'.............
 

.......where do they get it from?
It's like the stuff you get when you're put on hold on the phone these days - or 'elevator music'
...That apart, seems quite a good series to me.....the 38 y.o. former Nav certainly has balls for sticking to his guns and getting what he wanted - so far, at least..........

So which one of the two got the chop?

I can remember when 208 Sqn used to fly Buccs out of Lossiemouth!!

I wonder if anyone else sees the slight irony of the RAF's future FJ pilots being trained by an outfit that started out life as an RN Sqn?

I watched for the first time last night, looked good on tv, albeit some bits were predictable, e.g CCS training, no doubt all good PR - just as we are about to cut the need to recruit for a few years, great timing eh!!

Can anyone tell me if this is any more than a re-hash of the series 'Fighter Pilot' made in the 80's. i.e is it more than just a modern version of what has been done before??

FIGHTER PILOT
 

I think I was about 14 at the time and I watched the original avidly. However, it's a while back, so please forgive me. IIRC, the previous started at OASC with the selection tests, and followed with Cranditz punishment. It also included JP trg. Perhaps what I am trying to say is that the previous programme covered more of the lead-in to be a pilot, and I think (as a programme) was better for it. These guys appear to have just popped-up at Valley (even though previous phases of trg are often referred to), giving the wrong impression. That said, overall, the programme doesn't do us any harm, so I am all for it.

Again IIRC the only guy who got through was the ex-milkman (name anyone?) who went Buccaneer.

I haven't seen the rest of the series, but I think next week we will see some of the non-pilots that enable it all to happen. Too often the myriad of supporters don't get a look-in, but NBC and E&E Exercises are worthy of public interest?

I've got the book somewhere. The glossary contains the colloquial RAF term W@NKER with the explanation 'Someone little liked or trusted'. Searched the book but could never find the word used anywhere but in the glossary. How times have changed ...

I was interested to see in the programme that there was a "creamie", that is (as I'm sure most of you aircrew types know) someone who is streamed directly from FJ training to go back as an instructor.

How often does this happen? I would never had thought that the RAF would do this, and particularly not on FJ training. I would think they would at least do 1 tour on a front line Sqn, and then perhaps be fast tracked to become an instructor, but to go directly from training ...???

What ever happened to instructors having experience and passing it onto the students?


Flarkey

Sir Toppham, The ex milkman who made it all the way in the original Fighter Pilot series was John McCrae. Where is he now??