LETTER FROM THE SQUADRON – 2016
Since the last letter to the Association, 208(R) Squadron has been, 
as always, extremely busy. I manhandled the reins of the RAFs finest Sqn from Wg Cdr Gatenby and took command on 1 May 2015 and was quickly into the thick of the action with the graduation of TW 81 occurring on the same day. Unfortunately, the spectre of closure once again became more real, as the same week as taking command, the Sqn’s flying task and consequently flying hours were cut back with an imposed training horizon of 31 Mar 16. The hours reduction from 3500 to 2200 came a few days later which had the consequent longer term knock-on effect of reducing the number of engineers from 78 to 43.
Not to be deterred, the Sqn set about the task and, over the course of the year, have graduated 13 pilots to Frontline OCUs, trained 6 international student pilots and graduated a total of 12 refresher pilots to 100 Squadron, 736 Naval Air Squadron and the Red Arrows. We flew over 2500 hours (despite the initial hours ‘cap’ of 2200) utilising only 10 aircraft to do so.
On the people front,
it has mainly been outflow rather than influx. Prior to the mass exodus in April 2016 due to disbandment, we lost two aircrew to the draw of IV(R) Sqn, our sister sqn across the pan flying the Hawk T2. Flt Lts Bruce Poole and Simon Greenhalgh left from A and B Flt respectively before Sqn Ldr Buckle, OC B Flt, left for a job in Air Manning at RAF High Wycombe. Finally, Flt Lt Tom Sawle left in early 2016 to join the RN. But it wasn’t all a downward vector, we trained a much needed additional QFI, Sqn Ldr James Taylor-Head, who arrived from 41(TES) Sqn to take command of B Flt. To make the most of this small team, we have reaped the rewards of a reinvigorated entertainments and Force Development programme. This resulted in 208(R) Sqn winning the RAF Valley CO’s Cup for 2015, undertaking Force Development at the RAF Museum and Duxford ahead of the Association Dinner and finally, participating in a 380 mile cycle ride around the WW1 airfields where 208 Sqn grew up, finishing at Le Vert Galant. The Squadron also hosted a Swiss Air Force Detachment of PC21s in August and dined together on several occasions.
Despite the reduction in manpower and flying hours, we still managed to undertake several detachments, airshows and Overseas Training Flights. July saw the whole Squadron detach to RAF Lossiemouth for 10 days to conduct AFT flying for V152 course and TW flying for TW83. The flying was excellent and of course, so was the social! The airshow season was ably supported by 208(R) Squadron with aircraft and pilots attending several UK and overseas airshows throughout July and August. November saw a detachment to FAF Solenzara to conduct Basic Fighter Manoeuvre and Air Combat Manoeuvring Training for TW84. This was a hugely successful detachment where the Sqn flew over 90 hours
