Air to Air Photography
Aerial Refuelling with 216 Squadron

A day with 216 Squadron
It's 6:00 am and today is my birthday, but more important than opening my presents is preparing for today's photographic assignment. A short time later I am on the road, there is no sign of the sun through the thick cloud cover. For once I am not disappointed with the dull weather, as I am off to fly with 216 Squadron from Brize Norton above the cloud for some air to air photography.

Earlier in the week I had a call, asking if I was interested in Thursday's flight 'Fagin 43'. (The 'Fagin' callsigns start with '11' on Monday, '21' on Tuesday. So 'Fagin 43' was the third flight on Thursday). The 'trade' (RAF term for the aircraft requiring fuel) was provisionally eight Tornado F.3's, four Jaguars and the only remaining Tornado GR.1 on trials with Bae Systems at Warton. By yesterday everything had changed, I was now booked on an earlier flight, 'Fagin 42'. The reason I was told was that if 'Fagin 42' had technical problems (which is not unusual), I could hop across to 'Fagin 43'. The 'trade' now was ten Tornado GR.4's, two F.3's and a Jaguar. The GR.1 had been withdrawn.
I checked in at the passenger terminal and await my flight to be called. Despite battery isolation problems with the Tristar and being returned to the terminal, we are recalled and board at 10:20, the engines start up at 10:30 and we are airborne at 10:45, enroute to Air to Air Refuelling Area 7 (AARA 7), over the North Sea, just north of the Wash. The safety briefing includes a reminder to not use the toilets when the seat belt light is on. The reason for this is that the seat belt light indicates refuelling in progress and as the wash basins drain out of the back of the Tristar, they spray over the receiving aircraft!
Once airborne I am shown the 'trade' for the day in the form of the UK Daily Tasking Sheet. It shows that we should expect a Jaguar GR.3A from the SAOEU (later became FJ&W OEU), four Tornado GR.4's from 617 Squadron, a GR.4 from 9 Squadron, two F.3's from 25 Squadron and six GR.4's from 2 Squadron. It also states that the GR.3A is conducting fuel consumption trials, and takes precedence over all other aircraft requesting fuel. Over 5 hours later when we only see four GR.4's I realise that the Jaguar which was with us the whole time, perhaps caused the missing 'trade' to go elsewhere, probably to 'Fagin 43'.

We on task at 18,000 feet conducting a figure of eight, rather then a race-track flight pattern, and find that the Jaguar has been delayed. By 12:15 however, the Jaguar is with us and the fun begins.

Left: 'Fagin 46' being readied for a flight later in the morning.

Jaguar GR.3A (XZ113) from the SAOEU (later to become FJ&W OEU) using callsign 'Gauntlet 86' flew with Tristar KC.1 'Fagin 43' for almost five hours whilst conducting fuel consumption trials on an improved engine. Photography was relatively easy with the sun behind you. A 28-135mm lens is more than adequate. Various cloud patterns and changes in the Jaguar's relative height to the Tristar, gives some variation to the shots. A wide aperture is important as the windows are often very scratched and stained, but this appears to make little difference to the shots at up to f5.6. The right hand shot above, shows the Jaguar's airbrakes in action. When a receiver first arrives these are used to slow it down to the speed of the tanker. The receivers join up in formation on the tanker's starboard side, where they are expected to make visual contact with the tanker's captain. They move to the port wing when refuelled before departing. 
(Note: On April 1, 2007 the tanker's 'trade' has swapped sides (under NATO procedures rule ATP56B). They now join on the port side and depart from the starboard side. The change was made to standardise procedures with other countries including the United States Navy with whom they now more frequently perform joint sorties in the Middle East region).

At 16:15 we are stood down, having used up the 114,000 lbs fuel we started with. Captain C J Starr offered me some insight into the mission, which today lasted six hours and eight minutes. Pilots with 216 squadron should expect to fly between 500 and 700 hours each year. 
Right: The Flight Engineer monitors the progress of the current receiver, as displayed on the green screen.

Refuelling 'trade' and missions vary considerably. Tristar (ZD951 'Fagin 43') on 11th November, produced a Typhoon in AARA 13 over Irish Sea, before we routed across to AARA 5/6 over the North Sea. Here the receivers were a Nimrod R.1 (XW664, c/s Vulcan 51), a Boeing E-3D Sentry (ZH104, c/s NATO 33) and through dusk and into complete darkness was a C-130K Hercules C.3 (XV301, c/s Ascot 690). All three heavies were for around an hour or more each, and in succession, practising taking on fuel, with numerous hook-ups and even more attempted hook-ups.