RAF Marham - 5th April 2024

As Lakenheath had ceased flying by 10:00, and with Marham having launched 4 jets, I headed across to Marham for the first time in almost 3 years in the hopes of catching some of their F-35s arriving back from their morning sorties.

We arrived at an unsurprisingly quiet Marham, though we at least knew we had 4 jets to return! It wasn't too long after arriving that we heard that DOOM22, had encountered an issue and was burning fuel before returning to base. This was good news, as the sooner they all landed, the sooner I could make the four-hour drive back home, following an incredibly successful four days chasing aircraft around East Anglia. 

DOOM had met with one of RAF Brize Norton's Airbus Voyagers over the North Sea. While they were refuelling we heard that another batch of aircraft was due to meet the tanker that afternoon, but we couldn't stick around and wait for them. It was later revealed that the early return for DOOM22 was due to a problem while air-to-air refuelling, with the aircraft reportedly destroying one of the tankers' drogues.

The broken DOOM22 arrived first at 11:11 and the wingman arrived less than 10 minutes later in the hover, something I was glad to catch. This flight consisted of aircraft ZM168 and ZM169, the 2 most recent arrivals into RAF Marham from the USA. 

This just left BOLT flight to return, and thankfully there wasn't much more waiting to be done. BOLT11/12 ran in overhead runway 23 as a 2 ship, with aircraft ZM159 breaking into the circuit first. By 11:25, all 4 of the morning launches had returned. 

It would be nice to one day see Marham launch with the same consistency that Lakenheath or even Coningsby, it would make the trip there all the more worth it.