12 NAVY NEWS, NOVEMBER 2010 No.10 Put your trust in Grob


NOW in the past we’ve proclaimed that the ship’s company of a P2000 – fi ve sailors – is the smallest unit in


Motto: Regite mare, regere caelum – to rule the sea, rule the sky Aircraft: Grob G 115 Engine: 1 × Lycoming O-360-A1B6 4-cylinder air-cooled piston engine generating 180hp Wing Span: 32ft 8in (10m) Length: 24ft 9in (7.54m) Cruising speed: 143mph (230kmh) Ceiling: 10,000ft (3,050m) Rate of climb: 1,050ft per minute (5.3 m/s) Crew: one student, one instructor Radius: 710 miles


the Royal Navy. Well, not so. Nope, 727 Naval


comprises one commanding officer, Lt Cdr Glenn Allison, and one training officer, Lt Jerry Tribe. And that’s it. For serving personnel at any rate. Even with civilian


maintainers and administrators, Air Squadron


Yeovilton-based training squadron only totals 13 men and women. Each year 60 potential Fleet Air Arm pilots – six courses of ten students each – arrive in Somerset for ‘flying grading’. They have already been immersed in


the world of the RN Offi cer Corps at Dartmouth alongside their skimmer and deep brethren. At 727, instructors determine whether the potential pilots – the course is not aimed at hopeful observers – can not


instructors, the


merely handle an aircraft when it comes to the nuts and bolts of flight, but whether the students can assimilate all they are taught quickly enough. That’s important because, as Lt Tribe points out, “it’s not like learning to drive – we cannot allow you to take ten years if you need it.” The pilots’ steed is the Grob trainer –


a Naval pilot (they could become an observer, or alternatively rejoin the general service).


information – and how quickly it comes at you,” says S/Lt Mac Nicoll, undergoing flying grading last month. “It can be daunting, but this is what we


there are five of them with 727, all owned and looked after by defence firm Babcock. Over the three weeks of grading, the potential pilots are airborne on 17 occasions – 13 hours of flying time in all, concluding with a 45-minute final test, judged by Lt Cdr Allison, which features basic handling, a spin, a stall, simple aerobatics and situational awareness. Just


signal, manoeuvre’, successful students should leave 727 with three words ‘aviate, navigate, communicate’ ears.


ringing in their


Unlike driving tests, there are no second chances here; if a student fails the three- week course, he or she will not become


as motorists remember ‘mirror, “The difficulty is the volume of


want to do – and I love it.” Aside from the flying grading courses,


727 runs courses for trainee air engineer officers, gives potential Naval personnel an insight into life in the Fleet Air Arm, takes members of University Royal Naval Units aloft, and runs refresher courses for FAA pilots who’ve been out of the skies for some time.


The squadron traces its history back to mid-1943 and a Gibraltar-based unit charged with patrolling the Mediterranean between Bizerta and Algiers. Post-war, 727 moved to Gosport where


Training Squadron, flying from Brawdy, Pembrokeshire.


1940s, BRNC had two Tiger Moths, based at Roborough, near Plymouth, for use by cadets and Dartmouth. Naval air stations around the UK also acquired the famous training biplane and each summer these would converge on Arbroath or Lossiemouth. By the late 1950s, the Fleet Air Arm


Running parallel to this, from the late


decided flying grading was needed for aviators. The Tiger Moths were moved to Roborough and so was born the Royal Naval Flying Training Flight. The Tiger Moths were replaced by Chipmunks in the mid-1960s, but otherwise the unit remained largely unchanged until the turn of the 21st Century. On December 6 2001, the training flight


it provided air courses for non-flying RN and RM officers. After a six-year absence, it reappeared in 1956 as the Dartmouth Cadet Air


was formally commissioned as 727 NAS at Roborough. It remained there until early 2007 when it left Devon and relocated to RNAS Yeovilton, taking over facilities once used by Sea Harriers.


Picture: Nigel Pitcher HEROES OF THE ROYAL NAVY No.79 – PO(MA) Freddy MacLaughlin, GM


A BOY injured in street fi ghting in Belfast receives fi rst aid from LMA Stuart Robinson of 45 Commando as civil unrest fl ares up in July 1970.


Our rummage through the vast archives of the Imperial War Museum this month takes us to Northern Ireland and the early days of ‘The Troubles’, which would blight the province for a generation – and require soldiers and commandos to serve in an unfamiliar peacekeeping role. Clashes between civil rights protestors and Protestants in the late summer of 1969 saw 41 Commando hurriedly deployed for a six-week stint.


By the following summer, with no sign of the situation in the province improving, Royal Marines were back on the streets of Belfast, this time in the shape of 45 Commando to begin their first four-month tour of duty.


Ireland in June 1970, scattered across Belfast and environs at police stations and Army bases.


The green berets arrived in Northern


Crumlin Road and the catalyst for the latest riot a march by eight Orangemen’s Lodges. On the evening of Friday June 26, a crowd of some 2,000 Protestants moved down the road. They quickly came under attack from a hail of rocks.


returned to provide aid to his comrades. As he drove his ambulance back to the Crumlin Road, his clearly-marked vehicle came under fire. He was shot in the cheek; the bullet smashed his lower jaw and lodged in his throat.


Undeterred, he patched himself up, then drove through the line of fire to rescue another wounded civilian. He safely delivered him to hospital, insisting that surgeons treat the civvy before he was operated on for his bullet. His actions that Saturday earned him the George Medal. He showed “outstanding courage”, “selfless conduct”, “bravery and complete disregard for his own safety”. ■ THIS image (A 35279) – and 9,999,999 others from a century of war and peace – can be viewed or purchased at www. iwmcollections.org.uk, by emailing photos@IWM.org. uk, or by phoning 0207 416 5333.


In the middle of the mêlée, PO(MA) Frederick ‘Freddy’ MacLaughlin ferried a wounded civilian to hospital, then


resumed – and so did the clashes. This time the rioters wielded guns.


bricks, broken glass, pipes, stones – anything which could be thrown. Along Crumlin Road, the marines, soldiers and police struggled to keep the baying mobs apart. The stand-off lasted all night, finally ending around dawn on Saturday 27. The lull was short-lived. That afternoon the marches


The flashpoint that summer was the


All hell broke loose. Rival factions lobbed


Facts and figures


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