Throwback

I don't think that I've blipped this before.  

It's a very old photo, from my grandfather's album, but this week is the 48th anniversary of that event.  It was historic for the RAF and for Advanced Flying Training at RAF Valley – transitioning to a new training aircraft – but for me it was just another hurdle in the process of getting to the front line.  In fact we first students on the Hawk (three of us) got some stick from our fellow students who were on the Gnat or the Hunter (the taller chaps who couldn't fit in the Gnat); but the Hawk was a cracking machine to fly and it was shiny and new.

Of the three, only two have survived.  The third one of us became a test pilot (no mean feat) and was the first foreigner to fly the Stealth Fighter (F117, also no mean feat), but he left the RAF to fly for BAe Systems.  He because closely involved with selling the new Hawk 200, but died in the display at Bratislava.  I think about him quite often.