By Paul Waugh
20 March 2018
I was invited by an Apache driver off my Instagram page to go up to RAF Spadedam and watch an exercise where the Apache crew were practicing with flares and chaff before their deployment to the USA and live firing on the ranges. After watching the Apaches popping flares they had to avoid a simulated lock on by a shoulder mounted javelin bobbing and weaving behind the hills and a mock village. After watching my friend do his stuff with another Apache I was invited up to where the Apaches were landing and refuelling but also changing pilots either in the front or back as they were flying with an instructor to go through the same scenario. What a beastly looking battle wagon which has helped many soldiers in contact with the enemy in Afghanistan and gone in with its big gun blazing or firing it's stub wing mounted rocket pods but saved many of our soldiers lives. It was awesome to get up close and touch an Apache helicopter and I cannot thank my friend...who I cannot name...enough for his hospitality. They were up there for a month, I also got pics of them coming into RAF Leeming for fuel yesterday 6th April before continuing on their long journey home...6 apaches came into Leeming in pairs 20 mins apart.
