Big Formation over London next Saturday (14th June)
 

From NATS AIC site,

Further details with map of route here:
http://www.nats-uk.ead-it.com/aip/cu...8_M_036_en.pdf

Formation Details

49 RAF aircraft up to commerate the Queen's 82nd birthday - Saturday 14th June.

The formation leaders will be the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight Hurricane, Spitfire and Lancaster.
The main formation will comprise: a C-130 Hercules with two B200 Super King Airs, nine Typhoons, VC10 K3 air refuelling tanker and Sentry AEW1, nine Tornado F3s in diamond formation, C-17A Globemaster III, Nimrod MR2 with two Tornado F3s, Tristar C2 with two BAe125 CC3s of 32 the Royal Squadron and bringing up the rear 16 Tornado GR4s in diamond formation.

In other words:

Lead - BBMF
1 x C-130 + 2 x King Airs
9 x Typhoons in 'Typhoon' formation
1 x VC10 trailing hose with 1 x Sentry following
9 x Tornado F3s in diamond formation
1 x C-17
1 x Nimrod + 2 x F3
1 x Tristar + 2 x 32 Sqn 125s
16 x Tornado GR4s in diamond formation

ETA Buckingham Palace 13.06

That's my mums birthday. Her real birthday that is. Which would be the same as her official birthday, if she had one. :)

I shall look forward to a nice sunny day and a pint in the garden of my local and hope the formation passes over my local as it did last year. Low over my village (just NE of Halton) would be much appreciated....... at least by me!! Last year the weather kept the formation at cough, cough a reasonable height.

Good luck to all involved.

What, no Scampton darts team?

Any chance Typhoon #3 can get 'in' formation this time ???

Beatriz

There is a good reason for that, they are enjoying themselves in the USA.

Are the americans looking for a new pilot trainer by any chance???

Just had a very large (and very welcome) formation of aircraft over my shed, and very nice it looked too.

Congrats to the 16 GR4's for keeping such a tight formation, I bet it looked great from up there.

I hope I get buzzed again tomorrow....

All passed over RAF Waddington approx 13:05, heading North

1301:00 actualy :ok:

As someone who watched from the A15 side of the fence, it looked bloody good....:ok:

V1

Oooooh
 

Sorry, just trying to do the mental maths. So thats a 9-ship of F3s. Right, brief as a 24-ship (do we have that many, damn), walk as a 12-ship, launch as a ....................

"Neatishead, this is Blacksmith formation, as fragged minus nine.......":E

Don't forget the VC10 and C-17 had a pair of F.3s as well

V1

A few quick snaps from my back garden. I'm extremely lucky as the practice formations overfly the village (Ruskington) in Lincs where I live. I reckon I would have needed a wide-angle to fit the 16 ship GR.4s in! I just stood there in awe as they filled the sky!

Congrats to all involved :ok:

http://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h2...O/4cedceef.jpg

http://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h2...O/7d8f391f.jpg

http://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h2...O/2ca8adc6.jpg

http://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h2...O/0336155a.jpg

http://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h2...O/ec67732e.jpg

http://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h2...O/6e7ef94d.jpg

http://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h2...O/68cc4161.jpg

http://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h2...O/22f1a48e.jpg

http://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h2...O/1396ae90.jpg

Cheers

TJ

Don't wish to be a party pooper, love the RAF, served for ages in it and am very proud of it and fiercly protective of the armed forces in general. Not only that but I saw the tail end of it over Shipdham yesterday in Norfolk as I was driving through and it was very impressive.

However, I would have thought that with UK forces people dying in 'stan because we can't afford the helicopters to keep them safe, that the money spent on this annual flypast and the practice flypasts beforehand could be better spent on other things.

Just one viewpoint and fully expecting to be comprehensively shot down, but as both of my nephews are serving army people and one is in 'stan and one in Kosovo I may have an even stronger viewpoint if the unthinkable happens to either of them.

Doc C

WTFO?
 

Would someone please tell me, and I'm sure there are enough Pruners out there from the various stations that put the aeroplanes in the sky for this, just how much, whole station, effort went into this PR campaign. ALL those aircraft, all those maintenance hours, all that gas, all the sodding deconfliction and hours, nay days, spent planning this sodding thing. All for HMQ's birthday!!!!!!!!!!!

Yes I understand the Army wear silly outfits and stand around having pictures taken outside Buck palace - I think thats dumb too (someone will no doubt sell it as Ceremonial=Public Awareness). What I find mind blowing is that, in this era where we are all (or so i thought) trying to save money everywhere to make the defence budget go that little bit further, when money was so tight that we can't find enough cash to pay for people's travel claims - that this sort of :mad::mad::mad: is being approved?!? BoBMF, yes, some Typhoons, sure. But the whole bloody Air Force - and don't try and fob me off with the argument that they would have been flying anyway. Of course they would. The VC10/C-17 would have been ferrying people (Army) in and out of warzones. The E3D would have been conducting training/an exercise. The mud-movers would have been slotting Terry Taleban or training for it and the Air Defenders...........ok, thats a tough one. Why not just put a prime time advert on Sky that says "We're short of attention and feeling a little sensitive about it":ugh:

If this is just for HMQ's 82nd just wondering what the RAF will do if the old duck reaches a ton? :eek:

Probably not much. Given the current state of things, I think the photos above are a pretty good representation of our potential total ORBAT in 18 yrs time!

And if we do move to UAVs, I really can't see a 16-ship of spotty teenagers carrying Playstation handsets down the Mall having the same sort of impact!

The Red Acne's? Nah, doesn't have the same ring.

All the logistics/co-ordinating is good training. You raise your game when you have 12 million or so people looking at your work.

Yes the pilots 'train' for close formation work, but getting to actually do it is a bit different.

All the money being spent on this when it could be spent on kit for the bods in the 'ghan? Sure. But then again maybe this gives the civvies a reminder as to just how good HM forces are and why it's worth pressuring our elected reps to keep giving them the best kit, keeps them in the public profile and makes sure they're not out of sight & therefore out of mind. Hence it actually works in favour of the front-liners.

If the noisy wheel gets the oil, then I hope they go over with burners on & make as much noise as they can.

I recall a few years back when the RAAF and RAN spent much time & effort locating and rescuing Tony Bullimore and Rafael Dinelli in the Southern Ocean. Some :mad: press idiot complained to the then defence minister about the cost. "Cost?" Sir Ian Killen thundered straight back. "You couldn't pay for this kind of training!" Apparently they'd packed every ship and aircraft involved with as many bods as possible, to give them the exposure to high-intensity ops. Headline cost ain't everything. The aircraft are there to fly, not sit on the tarmac, and if Saturday's task is to make a lot of noise over London, then so be it.

I for one will be on my roof on Saturday, camera in hand (and tear in eye as the BBMF drones over!). :ok:

Taildragger - your comment ref Tony Bullimore rescue is probably the most sensible rebuttal of press / bean counter compaints about this sort of activity that I have heard in a long while. I hope people take note!