A LOSSIEMOUTH TYPHOON Squadron is today beginning a five-week training period in the sunshine of Nevada as they take part in the annual top-gun exercise Red Flag.
6 Squadron is providing the spearhead at Las Vegas with others from the Moray base set to follow on for what is one of the most intense tests of pilot skills – and one that the RAF has a tradition of excelling in.
Flying from Neillis Air Force base the Typhoons will join around 100 aircraft facing realistic scenarios that would be impossible to replicate anywhere else in the world. Ground support personnel at Lossiemouth have been readying their aircraft for several months to ensure that they are in the best possible condition.
Flight Sergeant Richard Grimshaw-Else from 6 Squadron explained: “To prepare for an exercise like Red Flag we normally use about 60 to 70 engineers servicing the aircraft. Each aircraft that would go out there would have approximately 150 work hours carried out on them.”
Supporting the Typhoons will be the RAF latest Voyager air refuel aircraft, the RAF engineer adding: “Each Voyager used to refuel the aircraft will carry about 20 Typhoon engineers – they will be there to carry out any flight servicing, any minor maintenance, and give advice to the pilots en-route.”
SAC Danny Hall is an aircraft mechanic with the squadron. He said: “We were really busy before Christmas because a lot of pilots had to get their hours in – there have been a lot of late nights and early mornings.”