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Post by Dave Homewood on Jan 16, 2016 7:47:59 GMT 12
How did No. 14 Squadron RNZAF become associated with the Falcon bird (i.e. Exercise Falcon's Roost; The Black Falcons display team, etc) when their actual bird in their badge is a Kea?
And when did the Falcon name become attached? Was that in the Strikemaster era,or was it earlier?
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Post by davidd on Jan 16, 2016 23:16:35 GMT 12
Pretty certain it was very early in the Strikemaster era, although have absolutely no clue as to why this bird was chosen, unless it was simply that 75 Squadron had the "Hawk" moniker all sewn up! Dave D
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thax
Warrant Officer
Posts: 31
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Post by thax on Jan 17, 2016 9:27:07 GMT 12
The use of 'Falcon' began with the introduction of the Macchi 339. Standard RNZAF practice is for radio callsigns to be the aircraft type (e.g. 'Skyhawk', 'Trainer', etc) followed by the tail number. Because 'Macchi' sounds very similar to 'Massey' (the callsign of Massey Aviation aircraft, who had been operating in the Manawatu for some time), this wasn't acceptable for ATC use. Why 'Falcon' was chosen over 'Kea' I can't explain - it may be something as simple as being a cooler sounding pro-word.
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Post by 11SQNLDR on Jan 17, 2016 11:30:06 GMT 12
The Falcon's Roost exercises were certainly going on in the Strikemaster era, other than that I cannot contribute any more and look forward to finding out the answer. Interesting to read about the Falcon callsign thanks Thax (interestingly the first time I met you was at A Falcon's Roost Ex...)
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Post by Dave Homewood on Jan 17, 2016 14:54:45 GMT 12
Thanks Thax, that makes a lot of sense regarding the call sign.
Regarding the actual original of the Falcons Roost exercise name, it seems most exercises and operations have names that are a bit random and often the meaning is only known to the people who came up with the name. perhaps the Falcon call sign was derived from the Falcons Roost name, but who knows. Maybe someone was just a Ford fan?
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Post by Barnsey on Jan 17, 2016 15:08:43 GMT 12
The Strikemaster replacement program was called "Project Falcon", obviously a long association with the name for 14 Sqn.
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Post by baronbeeza on Jan 17, 2016 15:20:23 GMT 12
Isn't there a bar term 'Falcon', along the lines of 'Badger' ?
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zolteg
Flight Lieutenant
Posts: 82
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Post by zolteg on Jan 17, 2016 15:44:02 GMT 12
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Post by baronbeeza on Jan 17, 2016 19:14:48 GMT 12
Thanks for the code. I am sure I have heard guys use Falcon over a few beers and I can just picture GW, Gordon Alexander, coming out with a Falcon One Two Zero, perhaps even something a little more profound. Another possibility would have been the Capel/Craven team effort. Although not with military backgrounds they did have a variety of codes they would trot out.
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Post by tbf25o4 on Jan 18, 2016 13:14:23 GMT 12
There is possibly another connection to the origin of "Falcon" as the callsign for 14 squadron, based on the creating of the Falcon's Roost exercises, which were a lead on from the Wise Owl FTW exercises, the Falcons Roost exercises being a more "operationally oriented" exercise in the lead-up to operational flying. Most of the codenames came from the big NATO book on allocation of exercise/operational names. The classic example is having to change Red Owl (FTW) camps to Wise Owl as the NATO book stated that any "Colour" in an exercise represented a state of operational readiness training i.e. the "Red Flag" series conducted in the US
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Post by Dave Homewood on Jan 18, 2016 14:17:20 GMT 12
Thanks Paul, I had wondered why there was a change from Red Owl to Wise Owl. That seems to have coincided with the change from Harvards to Airtrainers around 1978 or so.
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Post by davidd on Jan 19, 2016 8:34:19 GMT 12
Dave H, this re-naming took place during 1975.
12 – 21/11/75; Exercise WISE OWL 14, held at Kaikohe by PTS staff and pupils of 1/75 Course. This was in fact the RED OWL series of exercises re-named but continuing in the same numbered series.
David D
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Post by Dave Homewood on Jan 19, 2016 8:59:32 GMT 12
Thanks
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