From : Group Captain D.L.Prowse,
Station Commander - Royal Air Force Shawbury
To : Hinstock Parish Council.

Hinstock Parish Council

I attended your Parish Council meeting on 1 July and you requested the numbers of sorties flown at night by our aircraft.  Please accept my apologies for the length of time it has taken me to send you this information.

The table below shows the number of sorties flown at night by both Squirrel and Griffin helicopters over a 12-month period from August 2007 up to and including July 2008.  In terms of the time airborne, it is reasonable to assume, as an average, that each Squirrel sortie is 1 hour and 15 minutes long and each Griffin sortie is 1 hour 45 minutes long.  You will notice the high number of sorties in some months.  This is because the 2 squadrons that night fly will occasionally, due to the overlap on their flying programmes, find themselves conducting all their night flying in the same month.  I expect our August 2008 figures to show next to no night flying.

Please do not hesitate to contact if you require further explanation or information.