Visit to San Javier Spanish Air Force Base, 16 January 2012

The first event on the Travel and Social Diary for 2012 was a visit to The San Javier Spanish Air Force Base We were greeted at the gate by PR personnel and escorted to a lecture room where we were shown a very interesting film about the work and training which takes place during the five years an Officer attends the base. A question and answer session followed where some of the points made in the film were discussed. One of the points which surprised most people is that a trainee has to be able to fly solo after only 25 hours of training. After this we were taken to a hangar on the edge of the apron where we were allowed to look inside the cockpits of two of the aircraft used on the base either for training or for the prestigious Eagle Patrol Aerobatics Team. Here we were supplied with an Engineer who answered the many questions put to him. Training flights took off and landed whilst we were there. Each flight came over the base and individual aircraft peeled off and landed separately. Thanks must go to one of our members, Alison Contreras, who helped immensely with this visit by putting her fluent Spanish to good use and negotiating with the Air Force Officer in charge to arrange the date and time for the visit.