That was on the OCU.
Graduated in 2007, 4 Squadron was my main squadron.
And then, so we had 4 Squadron for a few years
and then it disbanded I think in 2009,
and then I jumped across to 800 Squadron,
and then that whole force disbanded in 2010.
15th of December 2010 we flew a 16 ship out of Cottesmore
to commemorate the Harrier.
It was the last flight of the Harrier.
It was an emotional day for everyone.
And it was a really, really bad weather day.
The cloud was low,
the visibility was poor, and it was windy.
And it was windy, blowing right across the runway.
And we all came in, each squadron,
so we had 16 aircraft, four squadrons,
four aircraft in each squadron in the display.
So we did sort of the diamond 16
and then we broke down into squadron elements.
And then we came into the pattern separately.
So we broke into the circuit.
And the plan was for each aircraft.
So the first three aircraft to go
to a different hover pad on the airfield,
and then the squadron boss would come in last,
and then he would do a rolling vertical landing,
a sort of a 50 knot, 50 mile an hour,
slow landing onto the main runway.
And we'd choreograph it so that the three jets
would stay in the hover over the pad,
and then as the boss started to come down onto the runway
all three jets would conduct their vertical landing
at the same time.
So the whole squadron would land together.
And to go back to your question of how long did it take me
to master the Harrier, it was that last flight.
So started in 2006 and it took me until 2010 to think,
aha, I can do it now.
And then we disbanded the force
and I haven't flown the Harrier since.
So that demonstrates how much of a challenge she was to fly.
