North West Frontier Revisited

After three or four manoeuvres, with the Red Arrows visible only as they passed in front of the crowd, it was obvious that it would have been dangerous to continue

I next visited the North West Frontier 27 years later as part of the Red Arrows Far East tour. Following a highly successful second appearance at the Dubai Air Show, the Red Arrows moved on to Islamabad, capital of Pakistan on Sunday 23 November but I was able to fly out to Islamabad in advance to help the Defence Adviser at the British High Commission organise the displays at Risalpur and in the capital itself.

The Hawks and support Hercules were parked on the VIP apron on the Pakistan Air Force Chaklala area of Islamabad International Airport. I could not recognise Chaklala from the days of my exchange tour in the late 1960s. At that time Islamabad was a very new capital and the international airport did not exist. The most significant feature of the new airport is that there is no parallel taxi track; all aircraft have to back track after landing until they reach an access taxiway about halfway along the 9,000 ft length of runway. It is quite interesting watching the big jets, such as the Boeing 747, carrying out a 180 degree turn in the width of the runway prior to back-tracking - it cannot be good for the undercarriage when the aircraft is fully laden!

On the morning of 24 November the Team was to fly a display at the Pakistan Air Force Academy at Risalpur in the North West Frontier Province, about 100 miles west of Islamabad. This was a very nostalgic trip for me because I had not visited the place since I had been stationed there 28 years earlier. I met some old friends - and I do mean old!

We travelled from Islamabad to Risalpur in a Pakistan Air Force Y12, a Chinese-built, twin-engined passenger aircraft. Unfortunately the visibility at Risalpur was very poor, as low as 3 or 4 kilometres looking into sun. This was a great shame because the entire population of the Academy, cadets, staff and families, had turned out to watch and they were all dressed in their best uniforms and finery. It was obvious that a great deal of hard work had been put in to make the public viewing area look attractive.

Simon Meade led the Red Arrows over the crowd for a crowd rear arrival arriving exactly on time, naturally, and pulled up into the traditional Diamond Nine looping arrival. The Hawks almost disappeared from sight at the top of the loop - not because of cloud but simply because of the poor visibility. After three or four manoeuvres, with the Hawks visible only as they passed in front of the crowd, it was obvious that it would have been dangerous to continue and so, regrettably, the rest of the show had to be cancelled and the Hawks returned to Islamabad.

The Commandant of Risalpur very kindly gave me a tour of my old haunts around the airfield but so much had changed in the intervening 28 years that I hardly recognised anything. I had hoped to meet up with a fellow instructor of mine who had just retired as Chief of the Pakistan Air Force but unfortunately he could not be present.

The afternoon display at a park in central Islamabad was, not to put too fine a point on it, spectacular. The President of Pakistan, all the Chiefs of Staff and their subordinates, the Diplomatic Corps and a public crowd of some 35,000, turned out to watch a display celebrating the 50th Anniversary of both the country and the Air Force.

The display line of about 3000 metres had been laboriously marked out in two unique ways. Every 75 metres along its entire length three-foot high poles topped by red markers had been hammered into the ground and, to give even more visibility, a metre-wide ditch had been excavated by hand along the whole length. There was no shortage of manual labourers.

The show opened with 2 F6 jets, Chinese-built MiG19s, trailing the Pakistan National Flag at the end of long lines and closely followed by 21 Swedish/Pakistani Mushak piston training aircraft flying an immaculate figure 50 formation. It could not have been easy keeping 21 elementary training piston-engined aircraft in perfect position for such a complicated formation. One of the pilots was Flight Lieutenant John Dearden, the present RAF exchange officer with the Pakistan AF.

Then followed displays by a part-time team of 4 T37s and 4 Mirages, and a solo display by an F-16 pilot who ended his performance with a vertical climb and 11 vertical rolls before gently and gracefully falling off the top. It was then time for the Red Arrows and I know the Pakistan Air Force will not mind me saying that this was what everyone was waiting for.

The display went perfectly until part way into the second half when Gary Waterfall, Red 3, suffered a fairly dramatic bird strike which badly damaged the nose of his aircraft. At that time the formation was just outside gliding range of the international airport but, fortunately, Gary’s engine kept going and he landed quite safely. The airport had been closed to all non-display traffic for the duration of the display for just such an eventuality. Gary, of course, had not seen the birds approaching but Red 1 had.

'I had no time to avoid them or warn the other pilots,' said Simon.

The display, which was received ecstatically by the huge crowd, continued to its conclusion with the remaining 8 aircraft.

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