Thought I post this incase anyone else is interested....
As a belated birthday present I was invited by my Uncle, who is a member of the Worshipful Company of Carmen (a guild of the City of London related to the transport industry), to RAF Brize Norton for the day. RAF Brize Norton is the largest station in the RAF and is home to the RAF’s strategic air transport (AT) and air-to-air refuelling (AAR) forces.
I arrived at early at 8am, and whilst waiting I saw a hearse drive in through the main entrance. I instantly thought about the servicemen killed in Iraq last week, and a short while later I saw an RAF GlobeMaster coming into land, and also several TV news crews waiting around. We were told that the GlobeMaster was indeed bringing the servicemen home.
Anyway, at 9am we (a group of 25) were met by an RAF Officer, and taken straight through security to the Officer’s Mess, which turned out to be a fantastic country manor style building. Once there we had coffee and were briefed on the day’s activities. The plan was to take off at 12pm in one of 216 Squadrons Tri-Stars loaded with 110 tonnes of fuel, travel across the north of England to an area of the North Sea just off Newcastle and refuel a selection of aircraft. Once there, we would also meet up with an RAF VC10 that was also refuelling. Just for us, our pilot for the day was Air Vice-Marshal Ian McNicoll. We boarded the stripped out Tri-Star at 11:15 and waited…and waited...at 12:10pm, we were told that there was a problem with number 1 engine, and that we would have to transfer to the spare Tri-Star.
http://server3.uploadit.org/files/molinari-TriStar.JPG
Apparently a hot air leak on the engine was causing problems and although it wasn’t serious, they didn’t want to take off with it. It would take a short while to transfer so we’d loose about an hours flying time. At last, at 1pm we were off. It was surprising how loud it was with all the seats carpet stripped out; you really had to talk quite loudly to hear each other. We reached the North Sea shortly before 2pm and settled into the rectangular flight pattern and waited for our appointed fast jets to arrive. Whilst waiting, we met up with the VC10 that was in the process of refuelling a single Tornado. Moving along the left hand side of it, we got a nice view for some photos.
http://server2.uploadit.org/files/molinari-VC10.JPG
We broke away from the VC10 because our first customer was on his way. Looking out to the right, I spotted it: AWACS (Airborne Warning and Control System).
http://server2.uploadit.org/files/molinari-AWACS.JPG
The process of refuelling involves the requesting aircraft to position themselves off to the right hand side and request permission to refuel. Once permission has been given, they move to the rear, connect to the fuel hose and refuel. Upon completion of refuelling, the move to the left hand side of the Tri-Star, confirm the amount of fuel that they’ve received, and then depart. The AWACS refuelled for about 10 minutes before confirming their load and then departing, they were off to Germany for more refuelling training. During the refuelling process, I went into the cockpit to watch the aircraft connect to the refuelling hose on the engineers monitor and watch as he did his work directing the fuel to them. It felt quite surreal watching the monitor; it looked just like (and I couldn’t help thinking it was) a scene from a Hollywood movie.
http://server2.uploadit.org/files/molinari-AWACS_connected.JPG
About 20 minutes later we had the first of the fast jets; 2 F3 Tornados. They flew incredibly close to us, I guess they could see us through the windows as there was the occasional wave. You could see the pilot watching us and edging ever closer, at one point I’m sure they were only a few metres away.
http://server2.uploadit.org/files/molinari-Tornado.JPG
This continued for a couple of hours as other Tornado’s took fuel and then departed. Some were off to Europe, and the others had been training low level flying in Scotland. When they departed, you could hear the roar of their engines over the noise of the Tri-Star, they really were loud. Sadly, because we’d lost an hours flying time, I missed out on seeing 2 Jaguars and 2 Harriers refuel.
Shortly before 5pm, we headed back over Leeds then down the Welsh border to Brize Norton. On arrival at Brize, 2 things happened; firstly we were held for a short while as there was an aircraft that possibly needed fuel from us, and secondly we were slightly overweight on fuel because we’d missed an hour due to swapping aircraft. We were cleared for landing after being told the other aircraft didn’t need us and after flying around for 20 minutes burning off the excess fuel.
After landing, we headed back to the officer’s mess for a quick (free) drink, a presentation from the Air Vice-Marshal, a chance to meet the flight crew of the VC10, and also Group Captain Elliot who’d just flown back from a training operation in Las Vegas.
One of the best parts of the whole day was being allowed into the cockpit anytime we wanted to have a look about, and chat to the pilots and engineer. It was quite cramped up front although we did squeeze a total of 8 people (including 4 crew) in.
It was a fantastic day, better than I could have imagined as I was only expecting a short flight over land, and one that I probably won’t get to do again. I’ve been to several air shows, but I never thought that the closest I’d get to a flying jet was at 20,000ft above the North Sea. In total I took about 130 photos and 10 short video clips.
Thanks for reading about my day, I hope you enjoyed it along with the pictures (more on their way).
As a belated birthday present I was invited by my Uncle, who is a member of the Worshipful Company of Carmen (a guild of the City of London related to the transport industry), to RAF Brize Norton for the day. RAF Brize Norton is the largest station in the RAF and is home to the RAF’s strategic air transport (AT) and air-to-air refuelling (AAR) forces.
I arrived at early at 8am, and whilst waiting I saw a hearse drive in through the main entrance. I instantly thought about the servicemen killed in Iraq last week, and a short while later I saw an RAF GlobeMaster coming into land, and also several TV news crews waiting around. We were told that the GlobeMaster was indeed bringing the servicemen home.
Anyway, at 9am we (a group of 25) were met by an RAF Officer, and taken straight through security to the Officer’s Mess, which turned out to be a fantastic country manor style building. Once there we had coffee and were briefed on the day’s activities. The plan was to take off at 12pm in one of 216 Squadrons Tri-Stars loaded with 110 tonnes of fuel, travel across the north of England to an area of the North Sea just off Newcastle and refuel a selection of aircraft. Once there, we would also meet up with an RAF VC10 that was also refuelling. Just for us, our pilot for the day was Air Vice-Marshal Ian McNicoll. We boarded the stripped out Tri-Star at 11:15 and waited…and waited...at 12:10pm, we were told that there was a problem with number 1 engine, and that we would have to transfer to the spare Tri-Star.
http://server3.uploadit.org/files/molinari-TriStar.JPG
Apparently a hot air leak on the engine was causing problems and although it wasn’t serious, they didn’t want to take off with it. It would take a short while to transfer so we’d loose about an hours flying time. At last, at 1pm we were off. It was surprising how loud it was with all the seats carpet stripped out; you really had to talk quite loudly to hear each other. We reached the North Sea shortly before 2pm and settled into the rectangular flight pattern and waited for our appointed fast jets to arrive. Whilst waiting, we met up with the VC10 that was in the process of refuelling a single Tornado. Moving along the left hand side of it, we got a nice view for some photos.
http://server2.uploadit.org/files/molinari-VC10.JPG
We broke away from the VC10 because our first customer was on his way. Looking out to the right, I spotted it: AWACS (Airborne Warning and Control System).
http://server2.uploadit.org/files/molinari-AWACS.JPG
The process of refuelling involves the requesting aircraft to position themselves off to the right hand side and request permission to refuel. Once permission has been given, they move to the rear, connect to the fuel hose and refuel. Upon completion of refuelling, the move to the left hand side of the Tri-Star, confirm the amount of fuel that they’ve received, and then depart. The AWACS refuelled for about 10 minutes before confirming their load and then departing, they were off to Germany for more refuelling training. During the refuelling process, I went into the cockpit to watch the aircraft connect to the refuelling hose on the engineers monitor and watch as he did his work directing the fuel to them. It felt quite surreal watching the monitor; it looked just like (and I couldn’t help thinking it was) a scene from a Hollywood movie.
http://server2.uploadit.org/files/molinari-AWACS_connected.JPG
About 20 minutes later we had the first of the fast jets; 2 F3 Tornados. They flew incredibly close to us, I guess they could see us through the windows as there was the occasional wave. You could see the pilot watching us and edging ever closer, at one point I’m sure they were only a few metres away.
http://server2.uploadit.org/files/molinari-Tornado.JPG
This continued for a couple of hours as other Tornado’s took fuel and then departed. Some were off to Europe, and the others had been training low level flying in Scotland. When they departed, you could hear the roar of their engines over the noise of the Tri-Star, they really were loud. Sadly, because we’d lost an hours flying time, I missed out on seeing 2 Jaguars and 2 Harriers refuel.
Shortly before 5pm, we headed back over Leeds then down the Welsh border to Brize Norton. On arrival at Brize, 2 things happened; firstly we were held for a short while as there was an aircraft that possibly needed fuel from us, and secondly we were slightly overweight on fuel because we’d missed an hour due to swapping aircraft. We were cleared for landing after being told the other aircraft didn’t need us and after flying around for 20 minutes burning off the excess fuel.
After landing, we headed back to the officer’s mess for a quick (free) drink, a presentation from the Air Vice-Marshal, a chance to meet the flight crew of the VC10, and also Group Captain Elliot who’d just flown back from a training operation in Las Vegas.
One of the best parts of the whole day was being allowed into the cockpit anytime we wanted to have a look about, and chat to the pilots and engineer. It was quite cramped up front although we did squeeze a total of 8 people (including 4 crew) in.
It was a fantastic day, better than I could have imagined as I was only expecting a short flight over land, and one that I probably won’t get to do again. I’ve been to several air shows, but I never thought that the closest I’d get to a flying jet was at 20,000ft above the North Sea. In total I took about 130 photos and 10 short video clips.
Thanks for reading about my day, I hope you enjoyed it along with the pictures (more on their way).
Last edited by a moderator:
Not at all. They allowed us to take photos in the same way you can take photos at airshows or air museums. I couldn't think of anything in the photos which could be classified as "secret", and I would post a photo of me in the cockpit but I'm not a very photographic person 