OPERATION BLAGGARD - THE 2ND SORTIE!

[Black-Witch]

Hi Lee,

Is Maykop active for red FW?

I'm guessing the red air threat will be from the east, looking at the intel map, can you confirm?

"The Carrier Air Wing have closed, for at least 24 Hours, both Sochi Adler and Maykop Airfields, this means RedAir will have to travel much further to engage us."

[Danny]

"The Carrier Air Wing have closed, for at least 24 Hours, both Sochi Adler and Maykop Airfields, this means RedAir will have to travel much further to engage us."

Yeah I read that thanks.

In the miz you sent out there are Red Air helicopters operating from Maykop, so you can see the confusion, hence my question.

[Black-Witch]

"The Carrier Air Wing have closed, for at least 24 Hours, both Sochi Adler and Maykop Airfields, this means RedAir will have to travel much further to engage us."

Yeah I read that thanks.

In the miz you sent out there are Red Air helicopters operating from Maykop, so you can see the confusion, hence my question.

Well spotted, but both things can be "mostly" true.

[0405 Andrew]

Thanks Black Witch Lee, great mission.
All appeared to run smoothly (Usual DCS hiccups), 892 all got back in one piece. The recovery is always quite exciting, I think 892 all boltered apart from Boos and 11F. Did I mention Boos didn't bolter and landed first time? I touched down with 840 lbs, so it was very tense. Here's a terrible screenie.

all down.jpg (82.08 KiB) Viewed 1289 times

[john (scooby)]

Thanks Black Witch Lee, great mission.
All appeared to run smoothly (Usual DCS hiccups), 892 all got back in one piece. The recovery is always quite exciting, I think 892 all boltered apart from Boos and 11F. Did I mention Boos didn't bolter and landed first time? I touched down with 840 lbs, so it was very tense. Here's a terrible screenie.
all down.jpg

boos is quality around the boat!
i hit an atc tower while strafing backfires at an airfield! bloody target fixation, although you can see on my video it kinda pops up late due to the angles lol

[Hendo]

Thanks for the mission! Enjoyed it very much.

Colt 1 attacked and destroyed multiple ground vehicles in the northern Killbox. Sadly one aircraft was lost due to MANPADS fire.

Colt 2 went to the southern Killbox and destroyed 27 ground vehicles: 2x Shilka’s, 4x GAZ supply trucks and 21x BM-21 GRAD launchers.

[Duke]

892 after action report.

Myself and Evensis went up first as Enfield 2 flight, with Andrew, Ditch Boos and Rossi going up as Enfield 1 flight of two pairs.

We had some odd moments with carrier just before taking off going on a hard left turn but was quite entertaining watching the ship pull such a hard turn to say least.

Myself took Harms while Evensis was on gbu duty on containers/supplies at Sochi port.

Evensis took out the 4 containers with no drama, then we proceeded to our cap/hold/see what's going on waypoint. I had briefed 11sqn I intended to take out the SA2 at Guadauta to aid there cap and duly took out the search, then track radar at Guadauta, and got a thankyou from Uzi (appreciated thanks fellas ).

We didn't have much of any threat left at our cap point so did some formation flying with Funky snd Scooby before running out of fuel and heading back to the boat.

Enfield 1 had afew teething problems which were to be expected as we have two very new pilots being brought threw but all in all successful from there point, 2ships sunk and all container targets hit.

100% successful landings on carrier even if I boltered god knows how many times sorry guys.

Thanks Lee for putting mission on!

[309 Geoff]

OP BLAGGARDS 2 – 97Sqn De-Brief.

Paul made us aware days before we flew, that BT were causing him problems with his internet. Band width meant he would be unable to use SRS, or Voice Attack. Been here before with no SRS, so thought that just using TS for Paul would be fine. “Best laid plans of mice and men” springs to mind. More later.

An inordinate amount of time was spent creating this miz file for RAFAIR. I also spent several hours designing the mission for 97Sqn.

We had a published take off time of 0748Z. No TOT. From the circulated planning miz, I could see that both ours and 1(F)Sqn convoys started moving at 0700Z. I decided to extend our take off leg, and cruise at 220ind, delaying our time to target. That meant that only 2 convoys would be on the move when we arrived. I created two TOTs of 0812Z for myself and Paul against the moving convoys.

I tested my miz against all 5 convoys, and the TOTs worked perfectly.

I climbed into the cockpit. Put on my “Bone Dome”, and gave my ejector seat pins to the ground crew for stowing.

Start-up, taxi, and take off went as planned. It looked impressive using F2, when stationary behind the F16s waiting for access to R/W 22. I was happy with the inter-squadron comms at Krymsk.

Cruise to the target area continued as briefed. The five of us split into 2 flights, then separated to attack our 5 convoys. Richard’s PC crashed as we closed in on the convoys. Now we had 49 targets between the four of us. No problem. We had enough weapons to cope.

At 30nm, I switched my TGP to the expected moving convoy location. You guessed it. No show, and I knew exactly where to look. I looked ahead, still no contact. I reported “No show” to the flight. They all reported back with empty TGPs. Flight was instructed to return to their IPs, and try another run in. We found the four convoys. Strange, they were all on the move, and way behind schedule.

After flight TacView analysis shows that 1(F)Sqn convoys started moving at 0700Z. The 97Sqn convoys were missing, and didn’t appear on TacView until we were halfway down the runway. Now our convoys were 48mins late. I decided to delve deeper. I removed the track data from last nights TRK file, and changed it to a MIZ. For some reason our convoy times had changed from Start 11:0:0/0 to Start 0:0:0/0. The 1(F)Sqn targets both remained at 11000.

The four of us set to work on the 49 targets. Paul, as expected, destroyed his convoy first. He was then tasked with hitting Richard’s convoy. I set course for our Re-join WP, leaving Paul, Flyco, and Falcon with 3 targets left. They were quickly dispatched.

Now was our time to make 97Sqn groundcrew proud. I started setting up for our 4 ship run and brake to land at Krymsk, after a successful mission. I should have known better. Paul declared a fuel emergency. His aircraft had been damaged by ground fire. He set course direct for Krymsk, with Flyco offering support. Not content with just fuel loss, Paul lost an engine. Danny was now duty aircrew in Krymsk tower. I called Danny, and declared an emergency for Paul. He only had TS. I think 3(F) were closer than Paul, so Danny gave them permission to land. He then held other aircraft, giving Paul priority. Myself and Falcon threw an orbit to increase separation from Paul.

With Paul on finals, Myself and Falcon set course for Krymsk, and Flyco joined behind us as No3. Paul landed safely, and the remainder of 97Sqn hit the glide slope for a straight in approach to land.

Just before I shut down, I invited Danny to have a beer with us in the Mess.

I didn't have to ask Overlord for any CAP support. Well done for keeping any Red Air well clear of us. I had enough on my plate.

Thank you Danny for your support, and Black-Witch for putting a mission together that tested 97Sqn, and me in particular.

Watching my recording, I realise I need to improve my brevity on the radio.

If anyone has any answers why our convoys didn’t perform as expected, I would like to know. Maybe it’s just DCS.

[Wee Neal 0414]

Nice report Geoff, sounds like a great mission.

[Sapper]

3(F) Sqn's mission was a success thanks to some great planning by Alistair. We lined up in front of 97 Sqn (see pic) and departed Krymsk on time. We climbed to 30k ft and split into 2 pairs - one pair North, the other South. We had the BARCAP established in good time to intercept all the Red Air that tried to interfere with the mud movers. Quickly despatched the bandits fell to a fiery grave we re-established the CAP and refuelled and rearmed in turn. We then exercised hard in high altitude orbiting before one of us got bored and decided to take on a flight of Hind helicopters. Having not learned the lesson painfully inflicted on Grillman a few weeks ago, he who shall not be named, also succumbed to a sniper in a Hind! How embarrassing!! Still he turned his hand instead to some fine ATC work to save the day as a punishment for his foolishness. We remaining three musketeers recovered safely to Krymsk amid some excellent radio communications with the A10 boys of 97 Sqn.