To celebrate the creation of this section of the Haggis Highway events will take place on 5th, 6th and 7th October 2012.
The events are as follows:
Wick ~ Bar Blether GC3PQ71 - Friday 5th October from 19:00
Wick ~ Dinner GC3PQ89 - Saturday 6th October from 17:00
Dunbeath ~ Lunch GC3PQ8R - Sunday 7th October 10:00~12:00
This memorial was erected to the memory of those who died when a Fortress aircraft (Z9-A) of 519 squadron crashed on return from a 10-hour RECIPE sortie. The date was 1st February 1945, whilst circling Wick Airfield in a snowstorm, the crew lost radio contact and the aircraft crashed on the moors to the west of Wick at Halsary.
519 squadron flew two met flights, one code named Recipe, from Wick, more or less due north over Arctic waters, at 1200 to 1500 feet at a sea position some 500 miles away, taking readings from special instruments of barometric pressure, temperatures, humidity, cloud formations, sea state, etc, every 50 nautical miles, and descending to sea level every 150 nautical miles for further readings. The information was recorded on special forms and then converted into a five figure code with a Syko machine. The Recipe sortie averaged some 7 to 8 hours flying time in the Ventura and Hudson, and from 10 to 14 hours in the Fortress.
"Who flew beyond storms into the sunset "