RAE Bedford 1987 to 1991 (PART 2- TR-1 OPS )
Jan 20, 2019 22:29:56 GMT
Jeff, billsamuels, and 1 more like this
Post by michael on Jan 20, 2019 22:29:56 GMT
When I arrived at RAE Bedford in August 1987 the base had started to get regular training flights from the Alconbury TR-1's (as the new U-2's were then).
We often had 2 or 3 in the circuit at a time and would involve about 5 or 6 approaches at a time.
They were often a real challenge to read them off before they went into the high climb before passing the tower,and we were often not successful.
During the training flights the ground party were never present ,and in fact the 5.0-litre Mustangs chase cars would sit in a layby on the road between RAF Alconbury and RAE Bedford listening to the aircraft on our ATC frequency,since they only did go arounds they never needed to be on site for the final 100ft talkdown.
To emphasize that point we had one that forgot to put its "geardown" not that bad since they did not land ,but we did not want to get him in trouble,so when I noticed the tower controller changed his transmition to
"Check your final approach configuration" at which point he climbed immediately and it was only at the end of his training detail he didn't want to draw too much attention to it but said " thanks for the earlier prompt" as he changed frequency.
Bedford was earmarked at one point as being a master diversion for Alconbury for crosswind diversion,and this was to entail the resurfacing of our cross runway 24/06 (although all training was carried out on 27/09) by the United States government as our runways were made up by concrete blocks.
As part of this task we had to provide the USAF our traffic movements at the base with a years worth of statistics for both runways,but nothing came of it and can be seen below the last training sortie occured ayear later on 18.8.88,but I made 11 out 13 in that time.
The TR-1 only once landed at Bedford (4.2.88) due to the runway being closed temporarily ,but allowing time for the Mustang 5 litre to get on site,but enjoyed entering the runway behind it in ATC2 our Ford Escort Estate 1.6 to do the airfield inspection and act as the "Follow Me" detail.
27.8.87 80-1077 TR-1A USAF HIFI33
TR-1A USAF HIFI35 (BEAT US)
80-1084 TR-1A USAF HIFI45
28.8.87 80-1084 TR-1A USAF HIFI25
4.9.87 80-1079 TR-1A USAF HIFI35
80-1084 TR-1A USAF HIFI27
10.9.87 80-1077 TR-1A USAF HIFI26
11.9.87 TR-1A USAF HIFI25 ( 
)
)21.9.97 TR-1A USAF HIFI20( )
) 80-1078 TR-1A USAF HIFI35
28.9.87 80-1079 TR-1A USAF HIFI22
6.10.87 80-1085 TR-1A USAF HIFI06
14.10.87 80-1079 TR-1A USAF HIFI07
19.10.87 80-1065 TR-1B USAF HIFI07 This was a surprise when it arrived, as we forgot they had 2 seaters and was in Training White c/s
TR-1A USAF HIFI05
20.10.87 80-1065 TR-1B USAF + 21.10 and 23.10
3.2.88 80-1078 TR-1A USAF HIFI
4-2.88 80-1083 TR-1A USAF BRAZEN80 Landed ONS
5.2.88 80-1083 TR-1A USAF BULKY72 Departed
80-1088 TR-1A USAF HIFI04
12.2.88 80-1085 TR-1A USAF HIFI22
2.3.88 80-1085 TR-1A USAF HIFI41
80-1081 TR-1A USAF HIFI44
30.3.88 80-1081 TR-1A USAF
25.4.88 80-1070 TR-1A USAF HIFI42
27.4.88 80-1064 TR-1B USAF HIFI04 ( Training White c/s)
14.6.88 80-1081 TR-1A USAF HIFI04
22.6.88 80-1092 TR-1A USAF HIFI43
15.8.88 80-1086 TR-1A USAF ROOK32
