BBMF Experience Day
Header image: Club members Adrian and Helen Johnson had a day behind the scenes at the BBMF as the winners of the BBMF Experience Day prize. (All photos: Clive Rowley).
On 28th June, Club member Adrian Johnson and his wife Helen, also a Club member, were able to take up their Club ballot prize of an Experience Day behind the scenes at the BBMF. Adrian had won the prize in 2024, but the day had to be cancelled after the tragic accident to BBMF Spitfire MK356 in May that year, so it was carried over to 2025. Saturday 28th June was Armed Forces Day nationwide, and the BBMF was busy with flights around the country from Coningsby.
Adrian and Helen were booked onto the base at RAF Coningsby via the main guardroom and issued with temporary ‘Escorted’ base passes. They were escorted throughout the day by retired RAF and BBMF fighter pilot and former OC BBMF, Squadron Leader Clive Rowley MBE.
Arriving at the BBMF Headquarters they were in time to watch the BBMF Lancaster taxy in and park up from an early morning training sortie. The pilots, Squadron Leader Paul ‘Ernie’ Wise and Flight Lieutenant Seb Davey came over and chatted to the pair immediately after leaving the Lancaster to be refuelled and ‘turned round’ by the BBMF engineers for its next sortie. Adrian and Helen also chatted with the BBMF Engineering Warrant Officer, Carol Russell. They then watched as Spitfire PR Mk XIX PM631, with Flight Lieutenant Andy Preece at the controls, taxied past and subsequently took off, with its distinctive ‘Griffon snarl’, for a sortie which would eventually have it landing at Southend Airport for a night stop. Squadron Leader Al Luckins then strapped into Hurricane LF363, started up, taxied out and took off for a similar individual sortie; he too was landing at Southend for the night.
A guided tour of the BBMF HQ followed, providing a rare glimpse of how the BBMF actually works behind the scenes and the visitors were then invited to sit in on the briefing for the Lancaster crew’s sortie. This Lancaster sortie included 12 flypast events and two separate displays (at Old Warden and at Headcorn), ultimately landing at Southend to join up with Hurricane LF363 and Spitfire PM631. This long and complicated sortie had taken the navigator, Flight Lieutenant Chris ‘Stradders’ Stradling, two and a half days to plan! Adrian and Helen noted the calm, relaxed but professional way in which the crew interacted as they ensured that all aspects of the sortie were covered in the 25-minute briefing.
They were then able to watch the Lancaster start up, taxy away and take-off. This was followed a while later by Hurricane Mk IIC PZ865, flown by Squadron Leader Giles Croft, on its first display sortie of the year, and Spitfire IIa P7350, flown by OC BBMF Squadron Leader Mark ‘Suggs Sugden. (They would be returning to Coningsby later that afternoon.)
Adrian and Helen thoroughly enjoyed their special day behind the scenes with the BBMF at RAF Coningsby and gained an insight into the BBMF operations that even years of following the Flight had not previously allowed. We hope that we will be able to offer another ‘money cannot buy it’ BBMF Experience Day to another lucky Club member next year.
