After a brief but busy five months as OC 208 Squadron it is a privilege to write my first letter to the Association as the Squadron Boss. Obviously, much of my time on the Squadron has been dealing with the fallout of the Strategic Defence Service Review which has been a painful period of adjustment. The Navy responded swiftly to the loss of the Harrier by reducing the number of student pilots within weeks of the SDSR announcement. It wasn’t until the 1st March that the RAF student numbers were reduced with 10 itraining students being removed from RAF Valley, 3 of which were on course at RAF Valley. Despite the obvious sadness at the loss of RAF students, those tyhat remain are now contiuing their courses with renewed determination. It seems likely that the next students to arrive from RAF Linton-on-Ouse will progress to the impressive Hawk TMk2 and as such the recent T Mk1 students will be the last to train on the old aircraft.
Since the last letter to the Association the Squadron has continued to deliver enthusiastic young pilots to the front line OCUs via a stint on our sister Hawk squadron at Valley. The previous 12 months have seen the squadron graduate 4 courses totalling 22 pilots and in the process flying some 5500 hours over 5300 sorties. To achieve so much during 2010 was in itself quite an challenge with many flying days lost through the vagaries of the Welsh weather, not to mention the volcanoes in Iceland and cracks found on the ejection seats fitted to our Hawk T.Mk1s, Of course when the sky was full of ash or the jets were grounded for seat inspection the weather was glorious!
Obviously, with the reduction in the size of the RAF and the introduction of the Hawk TMk2 the future of the Hawk TMk1 at Valley is finite and you will probably notice that arrivals and and departures from the Squadron show that 208 is slowly starting to reduce in size. The gradual reduction will be stemmed a little in April when both the TMk1 Squadrons at Valley combine under the 208 Squadron banner and for a short while the Squadron will train ab initio pilots all the way to OCU entry standard. Two of the previous departed members of staff, Flight Lieutenants James Millmine and Pete Smith left the squadron last summer to move ovet to 19 Squadron and as such will soon be returning to 208 where they started, such is the merry-go-round of Service life.
Of course the Squadron also saw the departure of Wing Commander Jamie Hunter last summer and I am pleased to say that he has now safely returned from his time in Afghanistan to move onto pastures new. Foe a brief period the squadron was commanded by Squadron Leader Al Dow and he too has moved onto a post at Abbey Wood working on the Typhoon, although unfortunately, not yo fly it. Flight Lieutenant Tim Davis has also left the Squadron on promotion and after completing a 6 month out of area deployment in Afghanistan will be returning to be Flight Commander on 19 Squadron flying the Hawk Tmk2
As you can see the list of arrivals is a little shorter than usual with Flight Lieutenant Mark Thompson recently passing his B2 check to be the last QFI to join the squadron, although not the last QFI the Squadron will train. We currently have 10 Algerian pilots undergoing QFI training under an International Defence Training contract to the Algerian Air Force
So what of the future of 208 Squadron? Obviously, this is a worrying time for many military units and it looks like the last student to be trained by 208 Squadron in its current guise are already with us. Beyond the end of 2011 the future looks fairly uncertain. It is possible that at the end of the Hawk
