ETPS Chief Gripen Instructor Pilot Reaches his Century

Today at Saab Linköping, home of the Gripen, saw the achievement of a significant milestone when ETPS Chief Instructor Pilot Rhys Williams reached his 100th flying hour on the Gripen fighter.

Rhys Williams’ milestone was achieved during one of his planned sorties during the ETPS’ current Spring 2007 Gripen training campaign being undertaken at Saab. Following his sortie, Williams said “I can honestly say that my 100th hour in Gripen felt every bit as good as my first” he said”. “Today represents a very significant milestone not just for me but also the Empire Test Pilots’ School, representing as it does the culmination of a long and successful partnership with Saab stretching back to 1999”.

To mark this very special occasion, Williams was presented with a specially engraved Gripen model which was presented by Anders Håkansson, Saab Chief test Pilot. Also congratulating Williams, were Saab Aerosystems’ Head of Flight Test Ola Rignell, Gripen test pilot Richard Ljungberg and legendary Gripen test pilot Stig Holmström.


ETPS’ Spring training campaign has now been successfully completed. The second training campaign of 2007 is scheduled for 28 August-06 September when there will be ten (10) students in attendance, including four (4) flight test engineers, together with the three (3) ETPS Gripen Instructor Pilots Rhys Williams, Sqn. Ldr. Jim Schofield, UK RAF and Cdr. Eric Mitchell U.S. Navy.


Source : GRIPEN -- The Associated Press -TEHRAN, Iran —
(www.gripen.com)
Posted : May 10, 2007

Photo : Gripen with IRIS-T
First flight tests with the air-to-air missile IRIS-T, November 2006.
[GRIPEN photo]


(5.11.2007)