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RAF Abingdon 14 June 1968
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As part of the RAF's 50th anniversary celebrations, 31 Jet Provosts flew the Queens Cipher in formation. The Jet Provosts were all flown by QFI's ( Qualified Flying Instructors ) from 4 UK airbases.
The "official" show/formation was flown twice on 14 June 1968. Firstly for H.M. Queen & then again for the public.
The "E" consisted of pilots/planes from 1 FTS based in Linton-On-Ouse.
The "II" 's consisted of pilots/planes from 2 FTS based in Syerston & 3 FTS based in Leeming ( I don't know which "I" was flown by which group )
The "R" consisted of pilots/planes from 6 FTS based in Acklington.
The first training flight for the "E" was on 6 May 1968. The first full "cipher" was flown on 11 May 1968. A number of "E" & full training flights took place in May, total flying time about 5 hrs 45 mins. I assume that the I's & R's were also practiced by each RAF base, but I don't have any Info on this ( yet )
The Linton-On-Ouse pilots were a mixture of RAF & Naval Instructors, these were nicknamed "Sids Mob", after Squadron Leader Sid Edwards who lead them.
Here are "Sids Mob" ( Al Colesky is not pictured ) :-
Click on the picture for new window containing a larger version.
A local Yorkshire newspaper printed the following article mentioning 4 of the Linton based pilots that took part.
On the 4 June 1968, "Sids Mob" flew to RAF Gaydon for a 10 day detachment. The "E" was practiced on 5 June & the full cipher was practiced 8 times in the remaining days, each of these flights lasting about 1 hr. The total flying time for these practices was about 7 hrs 15 mins.
As stated above, the "official" show/formation was flown twice on 14 June 1968. Firstly for H.M. Queen & then again for the public.
If you count the pilots in "Sids Mob" & then the planes in the "E", you'll notice there is a difference. There was obviously some backup planning done just in case a plane had a technical problem or a pilot became ill. According to Dave Waddington's logbooks he practiced solo ( ie without passenger ) everytime, but for the public show he has Flt.Lt. Mackenzie as a passenger.
"Mac" MacKenzie-Crooks was reserve. He wrote:-
"I was one of the reserves for the E11R as it was thought that being a GIN member I could slot in if someone was ill . ...... I didn't complain because it was much more fun zooming around about."
For safety reasons, some planes always flew with 2 crew. Whilst the pilot formated on a plane, the "passenger" ( also a QFI ) was checking in other directions.
As well as trying to identify the pilots & the position they flew in, I'd like to identify the planes. Some Info has come directly from pilots log books, some from other websites on the internet & some from period magazines.
| "E" flown by 1FTS | "I" flown by 2FTS | "I" flown by 3FTS | "R" flown by 6FTS | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| XR657/37 | Ken | XP641/34 | Ken | XS220/47 | Ken | XP634/40 | Ken | ||||||
| XR665/38 | Ken | XP664/42 | Ken | XR654/51 | Ken | XP585/45 | Ken | ||||||
| XP626/39 | Logbook | XP620/43 | Ken | XP663/59 | Ken | XR674/46 | Ken | ||||||
| XP627/40 | Logbook & Ken | XP628/47 | Ken | XP687/60 | Ken | XR644/51 | Ken & Scramble | ||||||
| XP633/41 | Ken | ??? | ??? | XR656/54 | Scramble | ||||||||
| XP637/42 | Ken | XS180/61 | Ken | ||||||||||
| XR700/46 | Logbook | XR706/62 | Ken | ||||||||||
| XP681/53 | Logbook | ??? | |||||||||||
| XP581/?? | Logbook | ??? | |||||||||||
| ??? | ??? | ||||||||||||
| ??? | |||||||||||||
Ken posts on the The Aviation Forum forum under the name Alertken. He sent me most of the above with the explanation "I was then a member both of Air Britain and of Blackbushe BARG, whose Military Aviation News and SE Air Review carried display lists. I have kept only those that were new to me."
Scramble is the internet website => www.scramble.nl
I have seen various photos of the formation, some showing a couple of planes not quite in position, but this picture, which hung on a wall in our house for over 35 years, shows them in full glory.
If you then move the cursor over each plane, a small popup will appear, showing the information known to me.
Much of the information on this page has come from Sid Edwards, Al Colesky, Melvyn Jenkins & "Alertken". I would like to thank them for that !
There must have been loads of pictures taken of the formation. Does anyone out there have any more ?
If you have anything you can add ( I'd particularly like to name all the cipher pilots in their positions ), please feel free to E-mail me Information.
For more information on the Open day ( 15 June 1968 ) including plenty of photos, you should visit :- Peter Goodearl's Website
This page was last updated on 21 March 2010
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