On the 8th August 2009 i was lucky enough to spend some time with the Swedish Airforce on the Salisbury Plain training with the Royal Airforce.

After seeing on the internet that the day before they were doing un-prepared strip landings i decided to chance it and the next day i found myself waiting. Towards the end of the day the glossy C-130H showed up over the horizon, marking its entrance with an overshoot.

Every year the RAF host the Swedish airforce to teach their groundcrew how to prepare an area for C-130 operations. The Swedish airforce don't get oppotunities to practice rough strip work so coming away from home presents a superb chance for intensive work.

The differences between RAF and Swede operations are very small but the Swede's older C-130H is alot slower and requires more runway than either of the RAF's. Also the swedes check the landing gear before taking off again.

Thes exercise which has previously been conducted at Upavon is set to become an anual event which sees the Swedish airforce and the RAF keeping up their relations. Mattias, the captain of the aircraft for this exercise has alot of praise for the RAF and thoroughly enjoyed landing on the grass. Unbelievably even though their aircraft is built for this sort of work, Swede crews spend their time going to and from busy airports.