Hawk 2003 - 2008 (2)

Additionally they finished the 2004 Hawk Aerobatics Display season (2) and started the 2005 Season, travelled widely across Europe (East, West, North and South), hosted a multitude of visits from Royalty downwards and enjoyed a wide variety of formal and informal social functions.

Within the wider Service there were further reductions in Squadrons and manpower with the with the bringing forward of the Out of Service Date for the Jaguar, a reduction in Tornado F3 Squadrons and a draw-down of RAF manpower to around 42,000. All these issues were to have an impact on the “market” for new pilots.

In June 2004, the Chief of the Air Staff, IAF visited 208 Squadron as he was keen to understand the training system his junior pilots were about to enter. In July the first IAF students appeared and began a couple of months of ground-school. The Indian students (3) arrived on the Friday before the Station Summer Ball on the Saturday, but were somewhat disappointed to discover that not all the weekends at RAF Valley had quite such big parties. That same month the Squadron performed a flypast in memory of Fg Off Henryk of the Polish Air Force who was killed 50 years earlier in a crash at RAF Mona. In September the first IAF course started flying and the second course arrived to begin ground-school. With good language skills and an outstanding work-ethic the IAF students did very well in their studies but did find the UK environment and weather very different from what they were used to.

Over the winter the station was badly affected by some very poor weather with gales, fog and low cloud making flying training very difficult. By January it was decided that a deployment chasing the sun was the only answer, so 6 aircraft were despatched to Solenzara in Corsica for a week of formation flying. This was very much enjoyed by the lucky few who travelled but they did find that most of Sardinia was closed for the winter, so off-duty entertainment was in short supply!

Flight Lieutenant ‘Joey’ Diacon flew 50 displays during the 2005 display season (4), at various locations around Europe. Approximately 3 million people watched the display and the Squadron received countless letters, telephone calls and emails congratulating him. It was, without doubt, the most successful season for 208 Squadron