The last Air Engineer Course, No 218, commenced in Apr 2004 and graduated in Apr 2005.
Sgts Newsome, Gilbertson, Street & Bowler
Last Training Flight
Following in the footsteps of thousands before him, Sgt Al Gilberston was about to enter the Air Engineer history books as he prepared for his final training sortie. That in itself would raise no eyebrows but today would mark the occasion of the last ever 3 FTS Air Engineer flying training sortie in the history of the Royal Air Force.
Cranwell 89 took off on the morning of 14th November 2004 marking this momentous occasion by conducting a round robin training exercise calling in at each of the RAF airfields still in use with Air Engineers operating on the flight decks of the Nimrod MR2, Nimrod R1, Hercules, Tristar, VC-10,
Last AEPT Sortie
MEng Hall, FS Tindall, Flt Lt?, Mr Davey, Mr Humphries, MEng Pogue
Sgt GIlbertson (co-pilot), Sgt Bowler (Eng), Sgt Street, Sgt Newsome
End of Training Formal Dinner
A formal dinner was held at RAF Cranwell on 8 April 2005 to mark the end of Air Engineer training. The guest of honour was Commander in Chief Strike Command Air Chief Marshal Sir Brian Burridge.
A copy of his speech can be found here.
Air Cdre Flying Training, Stn Cdr Cranwell, CinC STC ACM Burridge, CMC MEng Pogue
