It’s logbook time again and you may recall that I was as freshly a minted A1 QFI as there could be and I had just left the training world to return to the front line on my old Squadron, the Fighting Cocks. I had been in Wales for
over 4 years and in that time the faces I knew on 43 Sqn had almost all gone… it was like I was joining a unit of strangers.

 

The Q Shed

 

Additional armed aircraft ready to go onto QRA

 

The F4 tank limiting speeds

 

A Soviet Badger trying to sneak past at low level

 

An F4 tanking from a converted Victor V Bomber

 

Decimomannu Air Base

 

How the ACMI Air Combat Manoeuvering Instrumentation worked

 

The Men of Harlech near Llanbedr

 

The Jindavik target drone

 

A frame from the Jindavik cameras showing a Sidewinder about to impact the towed flare target

 

My new navigator, Coolhand

 

A 43(F) Sqn Phantom

 

Images under Creative Commons licence with thanks to the RAF, the USAF, RuthAS and Mike Freer.