The task was flying close air support,
sometimes interdiction, but primarily providing
top cover for helicopter missions.
He said: “Almost every sortie we dropped
bombs, fired rockets or guns. We also
kept two aircraft on standby to respond to
any emergency. Typically, if ground forces
came into contact with the Adoo rebels, we
were scrambled. Enemy positions could
be estimated by forward air controllers, on
other occasions we identified and attacked
their positions ourselves. Frequently, just
our presence was sufficient to deter further
attacks.”
He said the Strikemaster was ideal for the
job, albeit quite slow – “a more powerful Jet
Provost with weapons”.
“My most exciting and, looking back on it,
quite frightening moment, was when leading
a pair with a colleague, Flt Lt Roger Furlong,
and attacking a known rebel position on
August 19, 1975. To my surprise, I saw this
spiral of white smoke rising and thought I had
identified the location of a ‘Katyusha’ rocket
baseplate. I told Roger to climb to bombing
height, but the smoke was actually from a
SAM-7 missile that hit his Strikemaster.
“Roger ejected and, as I realised what had
happened, I put out a Mayday call. Luckily,
two helicopters were in the area and one
picked him up under a hail of rebel fire. Before
that day, we operated between 2,000 and
3,000ft. After Roger was shot down, we went
considerably higher, but as the Strikemaster
lacked sophisticated targeting equipment, our
aiming calculations were quite rudimentary
and weapon aiming suffered as a result.
Towards the end of the tour, Tim was
air-testing a Strikemaster (s/n 416) by
deliberately entering a spin and recovering.
He did that on about four occasions and
returned home feeling something was not
quite right.
“The ground crew looked it over and I
repeated the exercise again the following day,
March 20, 1976,” he said. “This time, the spin
quickly became more violent and oscillatory
and didn’t want to recover. Having started at
20,000ft I put out a Mayday and somewhere
between 8,000ft and 5,000ft I ejected.
“I came down near the town of Bidbid and
was picked up by helicopter about 30 minutes
later. I bought the armourers a crate of beer
to thank them for keeping the ejector seat
correctly serviced.”
Tim ended his Oman tour on June 5, 1976
having accumulated around 500 Strikemaster
hours, by which time the insurgency had
been defeated.
“When I left Oman, I wanted a posting
that involved air defence and ground attack
flying. Such an opportunity became available
flying Royal Navy Phantoms aboard HMS
Ark Royal,” he said. “It would be a unique
opportunity to go to sea, and combine
the two roles with the added challenge of
flying off a carrier. I was lucky enough to
be accepted and, in autumn 1976, did a
preparatory 30-hour Hunter refresher course
at RAF Brawdy [Pembrokeshire].”30 Aviation News incorporating Jets February 2018Tim Hewlett touches down in a Phantom on
HMS Ark Royal, a task he initially
found quite difficult.Blue skies and smooth sailing on this
occasion for HMS Ark Royal and the
embarked Phantoms.A Strikemaster on patrol in southern Oman where Tim flew many counter-insurgency missions.28-34_jaguarDC.mfDC.mfDC.indd 30 05/01/2018 15:27