FOTIA visit to RAF Leeming 12 June 2024
Our second visit in only a week, the Friends group trip section had been busy, this time to the Royal Air Force at Leeming. The 11 Sqd Qatari / JHTS Hawks had recently been based at Teesside while work was carried out on the runway, so the base visit was an ideal time to find out how the squadron works. Fourteen of us met up and travelled to Leeming for a 10am start, the visit was also to see how some of the other sections within the base operate to support the flying units.
Our first port of call was the fire section to have a look at a very new “Oshkosh Striker” fire engine, built in Oshkosh, WI USA. A formidable bit of kit, carrying 11,000 itres of water and 1,600 litres of foam it is fitted with powerful high-capacity pumps and “Snozzle”, and is capable of delivering foam / water as demonstrated to us over long distances, the engine has an elevated extended extinguishing arm, giving the possibility to raise a water/foam cannon to the height of approximately 10 to 20 meters, which can puncture through superficial structures of an aircraft to fight a fire inside the fuselage. The station was next to the UAS apron and close to the runway which was handy for photo’s.
Following a visit to the supply squadrons, we had lunch in the mess, Kebab, chips and a drink £1.40, not bad.
At 1pm we headed out to visit the Hawks, three years into a 10 year contract with the Qatari Emiri Air Force the Joint Hawk Training Squadron (JHTS) was formed to train future fast jet pilots for Qatar. The BAe Hawk 167’s are owned by the Qatar Air Force and flown under their banner of 11 Squadron, not to be confused with our RAF 11 Squadron based at Coningsby. The first of 9 Hawks arrived in September 2021 and fly a variety of training missions before the pilots transition to Typhoon, Rafale or F15QA Eagle, two Qatari pilots have recently returned to Leeming in the role of instructor. Around 70% of the trainee pilots are Qatari with the remainder from the UK who will go on to fly our Typhoon or F35 Lightning. After a briefing in the very modern squadron headquarters we headed out to the apron to have a look around and inside the Hawk as well as chat to a few pilots. Three aircraft returned from a sortie, so ample opportunities were had for photo’s and a bit of jet noise.
Following the 11 Squadron visit we headed over to 609 RAuxAF Squadron, a unit formed in 1936 at Yeadon (now Leeds Bradford) which has a very distinguished background including on 21 October 1940 the squadron became the first to achieve 100 confirmed enemy aircraft kills, boasting 9 'aces'. We visited their history room and spent some time looking at the very impressive collection, well worth a look. Their current role is heavily involved in counter UAS (Unmanned Aerial Systems or drones to you and I) no more can be said on here!
The trip was a great day out with an invite to come back again, it was one of a number regularly organized by the group, including a recent visit to the Newcastle College Aviation Academy and a forth coming airside visit to Draken at Teesside, well worth the £12 annual subs click here to look at membership.
Aircraft seen on the day| ZB131 | BAE Systems Hawk 167 11 Squadron QEAF / JHTS |
| ZB132 | BAE Systems Hawk 167 11 Squadron QEAF / JHTS |
| ZB133 | BAE Systems Hawk 167 11 Squadron QEAF / JHTS |
| ZB134 | BAE Systems Hawk 167 11 Squadron QEAF / JHTS |
| ZB135 | BAE Systems Hawk 167 11 Squadron QEAF / JHTS |
| ZB136 | BAE Systems Hawk 167 11 Squadron QEAF / JHTS |
| ZB137 | BAE Systems Hawk 167 11 Squadron QEAF / JHTS |
| G-BYUD | Grob G115E Tutor T1 NUAS / YUAS |
| G-BYUM | Grob G115E Tutor T1 NUAS / YUAS |
| G-BYUY | Grob G115E Tutor T1 NUAS / YUAS |
| G-BYVL | Grob G115E Tutor T1 NUAS / YUAS |
| G-BYWA | Grob G115E Tutor T1 NUAS / YUAS |
| G-BYWZ | Grob G115E Tutor T1 NUAS / YUAS |
| XX317/CO | British Aerospace Hawk T1A displayed inside the base |
| ZH552 | Panavia Tornado F3 displayed at the gate |
| ZM309 | Grob G.120 TP-A Prefect T1 3 FTS / 57 Squadron visiting |
| ZM318 | Grob G.120 TP-A Prefect T1 3 FTS / 57 Squadron visiting |
