JET LAG! (7 page)

              Stunned silence was followed by a polite but enthusiastic shouts of, ‘well done boss,’ and ‘congratulations – it's your round!’

              ‘Thank you all very much – the beers will be on me when we eventually reach a bar! However, the first thing we must do is to set a timetable running down to the flypast on Saturday. All those involved with the flypast move to the right hand side of the room, so that I can see who’s available for other tasks. Correct me if I’m wrong but none of the flypast crews are on leave – is that right?’

              An almost pathetic voice spoke up from the back of the crowd.

              ‘That’s right sir’, said Mike Wiggins, a Flying Officer on his first tour. ‘But I’m getting married on Sunday and going on two weeks leave. You’ll recall you authorised my absence when the crews were selected.’

              ‘Sounds like a lucky escape to me,’ shot back one of Wiggins pals from the back of the room.

              The crewroom filled with mock sympathy and guffaws. The only two men not smiling were Wiggins and the newly promoted Wing Commander.

              ‘Looks like you’re off the team Mike. Unless of course you want to save yourself at the last minute? No? Right then, volunteers to take Mike’s place.’

              Quick as a flash the arm of Bill Earle shot straight up. It was the only one.

              ‘Thanks for your support lads – and thank you Bill, you’re on the team – and the rest of you - I don’t forget these things!’ 

              Bill Earle was a hairy old specialist aircrew navigator on his last flying tour and was generally game for anything. If the truth were known he was not happy at being left out from the original flypast team. This opportunity was God sent – he had no family to worry about – so he could do as he pleased.

              Todd resumed his brief.

              ‘Firstly, no-one leaves the squadron till I say so.
And
, no-one phones home. This plan is confidential until it is released to the Press at lunchtime. Do I make myself clear? Secondly, I want the three navigators, Jesse, Hoppy & Bill to ensure that the plan and brief for the flypast is ready for a rehearsal tomorrow – Sunday – take off at 1100.’

              Silence.

              ‘Right, what are you waiting for – get on with it.’ At which the three navs filed out of the door ahead of Todd.

              ‘Next, I want all four pilots and Frank Field in my office in one hour – that’s at 0700 – for a brainstorming session. We need to knock any bugs out of this plan. You’ll all be glad to know that all other participating stations are being similarly briefed as I speak. They will all launch this afternoon and land here before 1700 hours. And this is where they’ll stay till we depart on Saturday next. So just think yourselves lucky –
you
get to see
your
families until Saturday morning!’

              The adjutant, Patsy Jackson, chose that moment to walk into the crewroom. She soon wished she hadn’t.

              ‘Good afternoon Patsy, nice of you to join us.’ The sarcasm wasn’t lost on her and if looks could kill, Todd would have been stone dead.

              She attempted to start an explanation but Todd cut her off.

              ‘No-time for lame excuses now, we’ve got work to do – and you can start by arranging accommodation for the visiting crews arriving today. All of their personal details are in the Operation Order. Also, I’ll want you to take minutes at the 0700 meeting in my office. Right, off you go.’

              Todd then turned to the three other flight commanders, all squadron leaders, and gave them tasks to be getting on with. The Operations Desk needed manning, engineers needed briefing and a thousand other things needed doing. They were all experienced men and didn’t really need to be told twice.

              ‘Finally,’ Todd reinforced, ‘we’ve got a million things to do and only seven days in which to do them – so it's time for
all
of you to earn your pay. So no back-sliding or skiving off, I’m relying on you all.’

              And with that, he wheeled around and marched out of the door. The crewroom burst into a cacophony of moans, groans and laughter. Most of the aircrew had been through short notice deployments before, so they know roughly what to expect. However, it didn’t make it any easier to know that they were off on an open-ended visit to Italy – although it could have been a much less exotic location! The only person actually looking pleased was Mike Wiggins.

For him the war was over!

***

              Todd returned to his office and sat behind his oversized desk. He rubbed his eyes, stretched and started on the mammoth task. First of all he needed to clarify in his mind who was in the flypast and who, if anyone, required to be added to the list for the deployment. He stood up and walked over to the whiteboard on the far wall, picked up a marker pen and began writing:
             

IDS - 619 Squadron
             

Flt Lt Stumpy Stokes / Wing Commander Todd Morrissey –
Purple Lead                                                                              Red 1
             

Major Klaus Jung / Flt Lt Jesse Green                            Red 2

              Fg Off Moose Davis / Fg Off Hoppy Harris              Red 3

              K Kapitan Anton Fischer / Flt Lt Bill Earle              Red 4

              Even though Klaus was Dutch and Anton a German, they were permitted to go to Brindisi under NATO rules.

              Air Defence Tornados (ADV) – XXX Squadron

              Wing Commander Barclay Hunt / Flt Lt Ed Brown              Blue 1

              Squadron Leader John Hortin / Flt Lt Jon Holliday              Blue 2

              Capt Pat Proby USAF / Squadron Leader Rick Hill              Blue 3

              Flt Lt Dave Stewart / Fg Off Rocky Darren                                          Blue 4

              Reconnaissance Tornados (Recce) – XIII (PR) Squadron

              Squadron Leader Al McDonald / Flt Lt Anwar Salim               Green 1

              Flt Lt Harry South / Fg Off Bob Walters                                          Green 2

Canberra PR9 – Reconnaissance  39 (PR) Squadron

             
Squadron Leader Al Norman / Flt Lt Steve Hicks                            Yellow 1

              Squadron Leader Phil Merry / Squadron Ldr Al Gibson               Yellow 2

              Canberra ECM (Electronic Counter Measures)360 Squadron

              Fg Off Glen Friedman / Lt Mike Scarffe RN / Flt Lt Andy Gabriel    

                                                                                                                                                          Yellow 3

Squadron Leader Andy Faithfull / Fg Off Bob Garrett / Squadron Leader Nigel Howard / Squadron Leader Norman King / Flt Lt Ranjit Singh                                                                                                                Yellow
4
             

Flt Lt Phil Woods / Squadron Leader Julie Grant / Fg Off Dave Sussex / Flt Sergeant Don St John / Sgt Sol Cole                            Yellow 5

These were the basic crews that had been practising the flypast for the past few weeks. They were the certainties. But who else would need to be aboard for the flight to Brindisi. Todd had been requested to make sure that he got all of the support team on board the Hercules, as other transport could not be guaranteed. Therefore, he made a provisional list of extra personnel to be airborne on the flypast:

Engineers:                            1 x  IDS officer

                                                        1 x ADV officer

                                                        1 x Canberra officer

                                                        1 x ATC officer

                                                        1 x Fighter Controller

20
 
x Tornado groundcrew minimum.

10 x Canberra groundcrew

              Admin:                            1 x Officer – Adjutant – Patsy?

                                                        1 x Junior NCO admin.

                                                        1 x Met Man

That should do it. Reinforcements could follow later, as and when Strike Command decided. Also, the C-130 Hercules would need to carry all of the equipment required for the first few days. Engineers for the other aircraft types could make their own arrangements for the time being. Todd would have to inform these people ASAP, and this he would do after the meeting with his four pilots at 0700. As this thought crossed his mind there came a knock on the door. Time was certainly flying by – it was his 0700 meeting waiting to come in.

8

              ‘Tower, Purple Formation – Line Up?’

              Todd and Stumpy’s Tornado sat at the entrance to the runway at Marham. The weather was perfect – light winds and blue sky – just right for this final practice for the Royal Flypast on Saturday. All of the other aircraft in the formation – three other Tornado bombers, four Air Defence Tornados, two Recce Tornados, the Canberras, VC-10 and Hercules – were lined up behind the lead Tornado. There seemed to be no technical problems except for one of the Recce jets. The crew had had to change aircraft into the spare due to a failed engine start. However, they had caught up, and had assumed their proper place in the formation. The callsign, ‘Purple,’ had been assigned by the brass as all Royal Flights flew in ‘Purple Airspace.’ Even though the Flypast aircraft had no royalty on board it had seemed appropriate to allocate this ‘royal’ colour. The sub formations were also given colours to identify themselves.

The four bombers were RED, the four fighters were BLUE, the two Recce jets GREEN, and the Canberras, VC-10 and Hercules were YELLOW. This system enabled each formation leader to check in his own team without jamming out the frequency that Todd would be using to co-ordinate the formation.

              ‘Marham Tower, Purple Formation –
line up
?’ Stumpy repeated with some irritation.

              ‘Roger, Purple, Clear line up, Surface wind two five zero / five knots,’ came back Roger’s voice from the Air Traffic tower.

              ‘Roger tower, Purple Line up – Purple Check.’

              ‘Red; Blue; Green; Yellow;’ responded the four sub-formation leaders, letting Stumpy know that they were all listening in.

              The first four aircraft slowly edged onto the main runway and when in position Stumpy made his take off call.

              ‘Red Take-off’

              ‘Red, Clear take off, turn right and switch to Radar frequency on 366.9.’

              Stumpy repeated the clearance and immediately started to run up his engines – as did the three other aircraft surrounding him on the runway. After completing checks on the engine and checking verbally with Todd, Stumpy called,

              ‘Red, rolling,’ and released the brakes.

              Todd’s main job for the next thirty seconds was to monitor the aircraft take-off sequence. All thoughts of the formation practice went temporarily from his mind.

              ‘Sixty knots, ’ reported Todd . ‘One hundred knots’,  then ‘EMBS!’

              EMBS or Emergency Maximum Braking Speed was a speed beyond which the crew would not be able to safely stop the aircraft before crashing into the barrier at the end of the runway.

              ‘One-forty, one-sixty, one-seven-three knots!’

              At which Stumpy gently eased the nosewheel of the ground and the Tornado began its climb into the blue. At this point Todd called,

              ‘Safely airborne, my radio,’ and called ATC. ‘Red One airborne, to approach.’

              Todd swiftly prepared to change the radio frequency whilst monitoring the rest of the take-off sequence.

              ‘Gear, flaps, wings’, were all standard reminders to the pilot to raise the undercarriage and flaps, followed by sweeping the wings before exceeding the stress limiting speeds.

              Todd then looked over his right shoulder as Stumpy started to turn right at one thousand feet. He could see the other three aircraft rolling down the runway and the next four Tornados lining up as briefed. As the fourth bomber lifted off the pilot called,

              ‘Red Four up,’ and Todd immediately responded with:

              ‘Roger; Tower, Red airborne - to Radar, good-day; Red 366.9 – go.’

              This was the signal for Red formation to switch their individual radios to 366.9MHz. Todd gave them five seconds and then checked them in.

              ‘Red check,’

              ‘Two, three, four,’ came the reply almost instantly. Stumpy would now remain at two hundred and fifty knots downwind in order to let the other aircraft catch up. It wasn’t comfortable at that speed but they had no alternative.

              About three minutes later Todd got the confirmation he was waiting for.

              ‘Yellow’s up.’

              This meant that the Hercules was airborne and Yellow formation were on frequency. Todd immediately responded with:

              ‘Purple Check?’ The formation responded as planned.

              ‘BLUE – GREEN – YELLOW.’

              ‘All loud and clear – Marham Radar, Purple Formation airborne and proceeding to the holding area.’

              Marham Radar answered:

              ‘Roger, Purple, clear to holding area as briefed, no other aircraft within two-zero miles, call us when ready for recovery. We’ll monitor you on this discreet frequency.’

              Todd gave a cursory acknowledgement and turned his attention to the flypast.

***

              The fleet of fifteen aircraft cruised out to the holding point about ten miles north of Cromer, and took up their holding patterns separated by one thousand feet vertically. The lead Tornados were at one thousand ascending to the slowest aircraft at five thousand feet. The flypast had to occur at a specified time to coincide with other events during the Royal Visit, so sorting out the arrival time abeam the royal dais was critical. The IP (Initial Point)  was the church tower at North Elmham with a navigation check at ten miles from the dais. Todd had worked out the timings exactly and had managed to keep within five seconds of TOT (Time on Target) on all of the previous practices. At the appropriate time, but giving himself two minutes for errors on the part of the other formations, he called them all down to one thousand feet above sea level – starting from front to back.

              When ‘Yellow’ checked in, Todd breathed a sigh of relief and made a call to the Flight Commander on the ground who had a radio and was listening to the entire proceedings. It was his job to give Todd the ten-minute call to confirm that Her Majesty was going to be seated and ready for the flypast. It certainly wouldn’t do if she was held up by traffic and missed the display. The radio man acknowledged Todd’s call and looked over towards the dais and spied the simulated royal car coming down the taxiway, with the ‘practice’ Queen waving to the crowds.

              ‘Purple – ten minutes’ came the call. Todd acknowledged and set the time onto his TV-TAB in the Time Early/Late function. This enabled Todd to see at a glance how many seconds early or late he would be at the flypast point. If it showed late, he could speed up or cut a corner – if too early, he could slow down or throw in a turn to lose time.

              He checked Purple formation in, and as the clock ticked down to zero seconds early/late he set off for the first checkpoint. As the formation crossed the coast he was smack on time and to his relief Yellow leader called ‘all aboard.’ This was the code which told everyone that all fourteen aircraft were in formation on Todd.

              As Todd started the long ninety degree turn onto the IP, the five minute call came from the ground. Todd acknowledged, checked his watch, cross-checked with the Time Early/Late and told Stumpy  to slow down by five knots. This he did after warning the rest of the formation.

              As they flew over the IP everything looked perfect. The run in was clear of cloud and Stumpy called that he had the airfield in site. The rest of the run was straightforward. Stumpy settled down at one thousand feet and the rest of the formation slowly followed. At one minute to go, Todd let the man on the ground know. He replied that the formation was in sight from the ground and that everything looked good. Todd could now see the airfield and the dais. Ninety seconds later the formation had flown past the simulated royal party, and in a further thirty seconds had disappeared away to the west of the airfield.

***

              ‘Spot on,’ complimented the Station Commander, ‘Well done, Todd.’

              ‘Thanks very much sir, but save the congratulations for Saturday, that’s when it really matters.’

              ‘Absolutely, Todd,’ he answered, ‘but do you really need another dress rehearsal on Friday?’

              ‘I think so sir, ’smiled Todd. ‘Practice makes perfect and I want to try it with all personnel on board plus as much of the gear for Italy loaded as well. One final full dress rehearsal with all four formations cannot hurt.’

              ‘Yes, you’re probably right,’ admitted the Station Commander, ‘Let’s have one final practice on Friday morning,’ and with that turned round, strode to his car and drove off back to his office.

*

Constance Morrissey turned to her husband and silenced him with a withering stare. She re-stressed her point of view:

‘No, no, no! We cannot afford to change things now. Todd must not know – everything depends on it. We must stick to the plan. If we start changing things now the paradox might destroy all that we have worked for so long to achieve. Todd mustn’t know!’

The AVM grudgingly agreed with his wife, but remained unwavering in his determination to see this through. So much depended on it.

Constance also had her own agenda – which she had revealed to nobody – including her husband.

9

              The rest of the week was taken up with preparations for the flypast and the deployment to Italy. Todd allowed all non-Marham crews to return to their bases - by car, bus or train - on the Wednesday afternoon, so that they could spend one night with their families before they disappeared for three months. They were due back by 2200 hours on the Thursday night in good time for the final practice on Friday morning.

              Todd was entertaining his parents on Thursday night for a farewell dinner. The Station Commander and the boss of 619 Squadron were invited, with their wives, and the evening proved to be enjoyable if not over friendly. Todd and OC 619 still didn’t really get on and their conversation was polite but cursory. Todd’s parents were quieter than usual and Todd put this down to the fact that they were guests in his home – they were considerate like that – not wanting to take over the party on someone else’s patch. The evening came to a close at about midnight and as the Air Vice Marshal was leaving he dropped a bit of a bombshell.

              ‘I hope you don’t mind too much, Todd, but I’ll be coming on the dress rehearsal tomorrow. I want to make sure that everything is OK from the flying side. I know that you have practised enough and everything went smoothly last time, but I need to satisfy myself that nothing can go wrong. After all it will be my neck if there’s an unexpected glitch. I’ll be in the C-130 cockpit – purely as an observer. You will still have complete control.’

              ‘Fine,’ stuttered Todd, ‘you’re the boss – I’ll see you at briefing tomorrow – 0900 sharp.’

              ‘Thanks , Todd – see you in the morning.’ And with a brief shake of hands and a peck on the cheek, Todd’s parents slipped away in their chauffeur-driven service vehicle.

              What Todd didn’t know was that his mother, Constance would accompany her husband on the C-130. It was a stipulation upon which she would not compromise – and indeed, an essential ingredient of the plan.

***

              ‘Right, settle down everybody. Time check in three-zero seconds, when it will be 0900.’ Todd was fully prepared for the coming brief, having been at work since 0700.

              At that point the AVM walked through the Operations Wing briefing room door. All personnel present stood, Todd greeted his father, offered him a seat in the middle of the front row, and continued with the time check.