Letter from the Squadron - 2014
LETTER FROM THE SQUADRON – 2014
Last time I was asked to write a letter to the Association, 208 Sqn was fresh from its reprieve. During the last twelve months we have been busy justifying that reprieve by rebuilding the Sqn’s supply of aircraft and instructors, while continuing to turn out newly trained fast jet pilots. The Sqn has successfully delivered one UK and two RSAF students to the Typhoon OCU at Coningsby. We are currently training a course of four Kuwaiti Air Force students who, on completion of their time on 208, are due to return home for conversion to the F-18. 208 Sqn has also been able to support IV Sqn and the Hawk TMk2 by continuing to train UK students to OCU entry standard. In fact, in the last twelve months 208 Sqn has graduated four Ab Initio OCU students, two Joint Strike Fighter pilots, six QFIs, two foreign exchange familiarisation students and fifteen Hawk Refreshers. Incredibly, all of this training has been possible with a fleet of just twelve aircraft and fifteen instructors. In the same period, IV Sqn have graduated fourteen students from a unit with a fleet of twenty eight brand new aircraft and forty instructors. Although we have the advantage of operating a tried and tested aircraft we are justifiably proud of our achievement.
During the 
rebuilding process 208 Sqn was allocated a yearly flying limit of 2500 hours and although we were granted a 70 hour extension there was still a need to introduce some impromptu adventure training to ensure we didn’t overfly the limit (actually, we did, but no-one seems to mind….). All in all, over the last year we have completed 2583 hours over a roughly equal number of sorties. Fortunately our yearly hours allocation is due to increase to 3500 hours during this financial year and beyond. As part of the rebuilding process we have also welcomed four new members of staff consisting of three previous 208 Sqn instructors and one retired Air Cdre or Flt Lt ‘Big Wham’ as he is now known. Sqn Ldr Dan Arlett arrived from a ground tour at Boscombe Down, although he seemed to spend much of his time flying Hunters and grass landing Jet Provosts. Flt Lt Rich Frick has also joined us from a PC-7 tour in Brunei and Flt Lt Mostyn Payne has returned to the light after flying the C-17 for 2 Gp. All being well the Sqn should reach a full complement of nineteen QFIs over the next six months.
In parallel with the gradual increase in staff levels, the Babcock engineering team at Valley have been working hard to ensure excellent serviceability from our limited fleet. It isn’t uncommon to find ten aircraft on the line at the start of the flying day. In addition to maintaining an excellent level of serviceability the engineers have also been hard at work starting the Major Servicing programme, with the first aircraft recently delivered to the Sqn with the potential for another twelve years of service life. Over the next twelve months, this aircraft will be joined by another fourteen ‘new’ aircraft as the 208 fleet grows to twenty.
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