Hot, dry and dusty!

The experience our team members gain during a 3-year tour of duty on the display team allows them to qualify as military free fall instructors and carry out the other part of our role; training British Soldiers, Sailors and Airmen in military free fall parachuting.

That's what we're doing right now: the team are currently working hard on the ground and in the air, putting our expertise to good use. Given the slight cold snap the UK is experiencing at the moment, we're in the desert in the South West USA making the most of their good weather. Hopefully Oxfordshire will have warmed up by the time we get back!

RAF Falcons 2012

2012, the year of Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth's Diamond Jubilee and the London Olympics. At this point, our display programme is only a rough draft. We have no Olympic or Jubilee news, but we do have some fantastic venues; Airshows (Waddington, Leuchars, Sunderland, Cosford and Southend, all to be confirmed), Sporting Events and Military Celebrations.

We also have a new team: Liam Lyons, Rob Priestley and Dave Worboys have joined the stack, alongside James Bruce, Mark Clayton, Niel Flanagan, Gary Nicholson, John Parkhurst and Carl Harris. Drop Zone and Specialist support is ably provided by Homer Dempsey and Jamie Crew; Graham Liggins returns in his 17th season as our able commentator. Wayne Clayton and Andy Dearlove contribute their years (decades, even) of experience as the Team Coach and Team Manager respectively. Ben Lonsdale has taken over as Officer Commanding, joined by Jon Conner (returning to the team) as Second in Command and Safety Officer.

Although we're soon to head away for our pre-season training, we're looking forward to a fantastic 2012, and meeting as many people as possible.

Happy New Year from the RAF Falcons

Landing on the cross

Pre-season training is now complete, and with storms battering the area, that's probably a good thing! Our ratification display (where the Air Officer Commanding No 2 Group watches a display to make sure we're ready to jump in front of the public) is coming up in a couple of weeks, so there's a lot of kit preparation, planning and fine tuning to be done. If all goes well, we'll then start the season in early May, carrying out displays across the UK until the end of September. We look forward to seeing you soon!

Oscar Night...

...watching the Oscars while updating the Falcons blog...best supporting actresses are on - come on the Brits!

RAF Falcons Pre-Season Training

The Falcons are currently working hard carrying out pre-season parachute training. The new first year team members are learning how to safely form part of the Falcons' trademark canopy 'loose stack', with a lot of help from the Team Coach and 2nd and 3rd years. Meanwhile, the 3rd years are nearing the end of their Military Freefall Instructor Training before moving on in the Autumn.

Unfortunately the bad weather has had an impact on the training programme but we're working hard to catch up.