A Swiss Role RAF Leeming
The annual Swiss Air Force winter holiday has moved south from
its traditional Scottish base at Lossiemouth to RAF Leeming who
are hosting Exercise Yorknite from the 11 November to the 6
December and their 9 Hornet aircraft from Fliegerstaffels 17 and
18 from Payerne Air Base are based in the northern HAS area and
therefore , perhaps as planned , well out of public gaze , sadly
! The Hornets arrived at Leeming on Monday 11 November as did
the supporting groundcrew in Helvetic EMB190 HB-JVT , and flew
their first sorties in the afternoon of the following day and
have continued to fly at least 3 multiple aircraft sorties each
weekday , particularly in the early evening and night .
The reason the Swiss use the UK during the winter is due to the
limitations placed on them for night flying because of their
crowded airspace and being a small country their flying training
areas are very compact when compared to our D323 and D513
training areas off the north east coast . They are also not
allowed to undertake night flying nor fly supersonically because
of the risk of avalanches so both of these activities are given
a high priority and hence the later launch times and often 23:00
recoveries which surprisingly are going down well with the
locals , particularly the frequent run and breaks across the
airfield on arrival and streamed landing . All very impressive
from aircrew who are limited in their night flying opportunities
!
The Swiss have been very consistent in their mission slots , and
after all they do make good watches ! , and are out and off at
11:30 , 14:30 , 17:30 and 20:30 with variations in both numbers
of aircraft launched and time airborne but frustratingly for the
enthusiast the Hornets do not show on ADS-B so social media ,
scanners and the word on the street in the spotters enclosure
come into their own ! The morning slot is the least used and
normally on the shorter days of operations with no flying at all
taking place on weekends .
The detachment has also received visits by Cl-604 T-752 , Ce560
Citation Excel T-784 and PC-24 T-786 and on the 22 November
Helvetic EMB190 HB-JVU visited to bring in the change of crews .
Gate
ZH552 Tornado F3
11:30 sortie by TALON31
Flight
J-5006/006 F/A-18C from HAS15 , pilot was Beni
J-5009/009 F/A-18C from HAS16 , pilot was Shotty Chollett :
Google her !
J-5016/016 F/A-18C
J-5018/018 F/A-18C special panthers logo on fins and nose
J-5025/025 F/A-18C from HAS17
J-5233/233 F/A-18D
J-5238/238 F/A-18D
100 Squadron
Flightline
XX205/CK Hawk T1A
XX339/CL ditto
XX317/CU ditto wears ROYAL NAVY logo and
736 NAS lightning flash on tail
Hangar
XX318/CG Hawk T1A mtce
plus 5 more
Flying
XX337/CM Hawk T1A
Regulars attenders in the Leeming spotters enclosure or ADS-B
followers will have noticed a dearth of Hawk flying of late with
only two Hawks flying on a regular basis ? One of these is XX337
which flew today and was also flying on the 15th on an air test
and undergoing some checks on rudder vibrations . A possible
corrosion problem may be to blame for the restriction in flying
?
The out of service date for the Hawk T1 has now been pushed back
to 2030 !
NUAS/11 AEF
G-BXYA/YA Tutor T1
G-BYWK/WK
G-BYYA/YA
G-BYXJ/XJ
And finally just a heads up for Spring 2020 when 1 Squadron
should be at Leeming with 8 Typhoons for a joint NATO exercise ?
Hopefully
With thanks to Graeme Hewitt , Ian McMaster and Paul Nann . DET
23 November 2019