have become critical if the second pair had
been forced to land on Lossiemouth with
two F-100s at the end of the only active
runway. “While we there we practised
low-level navigation and visual tactical
reconnaissance in addition to undertaking
area familiarisation lights.”
NARROW ESCAPE
Longer range training sorties were lown
at low-level into West Germany and high/
low/high into Norway. The former missions
often took the Huns close to ‘enemy’ territory.
Zetterquist recalled that this was sometimes
hazardous. “Flying close to the Iron Curtain
and many times below the buffer zone [which
started at 2,000ft] of the ADIZ (Air Defence
Identiication Zone) did sharpen up your
‘navigational conscience’. I have recollections
of two F-100s from my squadron that not only
violated the ADIZ but also spent 13 minutes
in the GDR [German Democratic Republic]
because of a navigational error,” he said.
“This happened during a squadron
exchange with a German F-104 unit. Our
pilots made use of the German squadrons’
low-level navigation maps folded like an
A-5 size booklet as did our own, but one
big difference was that at the end of each
leg of the trip we used a so-called turn-
o-meter to visualise the next track. The
Germans, however, only showed a box
with the new track printed. The formation
lying northeast at 500ft did not observe
the track change to a westerly heading
and continued until they, after four to ive
minutes, saw some lakes ahead. These
were not on the map. They realised
something was very wrong and turned
around descending to tree-top height and
lew west in full afterburner. Then they
returned to base. One of the pilots told
me later, that he had never seen so many
generals assembled in one place. Lots of
times we lew below the buffer zone to the
ADIZ during close-air support exercises
with the Danish army division near the
GDR border.”
HEAV Y PUNCH
The F-100s could carry up to 7,040lb
(3,200kg) of ordnance on underwing hard-
points. The Bullpup missile arrived with the
Danish Super Sabre eskadrilles in 1967
and every pilot had to qualify in iring the
missile annually.
Zetterquist said this was done was on a
naval range at Gniben, the westernmost part
of Sjællands Odde. The target was a loat,
about three to four nautical miles from the
tip of the peninsula. Approaching the target
with a large Bullpup missile hanging underone wing, a pilot would trim the rudder a little
(half a ball on the turn and bank indicator)
making the aircraft ly slightly sideways, but
as soon as the missile was ired, it would
return to lying straight again. This made it
easier to guide the Bullpup directly to the
target for the about 20 to 25 seconds it lew.
“About ive seconds after iring,” he said,
“lares would ignite for the pilot to be ableto follow the missile, but this also caused a
large puff of smoke which the aircraft could
not avoid.
“Experience from the USAF told us that
this puff of smoke became the target for
enemy ground ire, well knowing that the
aircraft would have to ly through it. We got
around this problem by having one F-100 ire
the missile and then turn away, while another
F-100 with matching radio crystals steered
the missile from below.” Such was the
ingenuity of the weapons officer of Esk 730
that another highly efficient and innovative
method of guiding the Bullpup was developed
by the aircrews.
Hans Fenneberg said: “As the focus shifted
from attacking airields or SAM sites in the
east, to defence against invasion by sea, we
eventually recommended that FACs (forward
air controllers) be given the joystick to steer
the missile from a high dune, after being
ired by a low-lying F-100 just over the FAC’s
line of sight. “If you consider the Danish
coasts where dunes were plentiful in areas
where enemy forces could land, a FAC with a
battery-powered joystick controller, the size of
his radio, could well camoulage himself and
have a good line of sight to the landing craft.”
The controller had a much better chance of
hitting the target and surviving than iring from
the F-100 would have had. This set-up also
required less visibility and a much lower cloud
ceiling compared with a conventional Bullpup
attack. “The odds were good, provided
training was done,” he said.
In September 1970, Esk 725 at Karup
began to receive the Saab Draken to replace
its F-100s. The Huns were transferred to
Esks 727 and 730 and helped to bring
these two units up to strength after accident
attrition over the past decade.
Christian Hvidt was with Esk 725 at this
time. Although he regarded the Super Sabre
with much affection, he was pleased to move
to the Draken. “I converted in early 1970,
which was a great wish of mine, starting
with an exciting 2½ years in Sweden as
an acceptance test pilot with the Swedish
Air Force Test Centre at Malmslätt. “It was
a very exciting period of my career since
I was directly involved in not only testing
the aircraft before delivery but also the
development of the entire curriculum and
writing of the light manual.“It was very
unforgiving if you
did not pay attention
to its peculiarities”
http://www.aviation-news.co.uk 81
Super Sabre, G-768, served with all three eskadrilles lying the type
during service with the RDAF. This aircraft was passed onto the
Turkish Air Force in 1981. Flyvevåbnets Historiske SamlingChristian Hvidt who lew the F-100 with Esk
725 from 1963 to 1969. via Christian Hvidt