RICHARD BATSON Civvies are being given the rare chance to sample the Top Gun thrills of “flying” a jet warplane.Two sessions in the Jaguar fast jet simulator at RAF Coltishall are the top prizes in a raffle raising money to revamp a school canteen.

RICHARD BATSON

Civvies are being given the rare chance to sample the Top Gun thrills of “flying” a jet warplane.

Two sessions in the Jaguar fast jet simulator at RAF Coltishall are the top prizes in a raffle raising money to revamp a school canteen.

But time is running out - both to buy the tickets, and to claim the prize.

For the winners will be drawn on September 17, and the flights will have to be taken by the end of October, as the simulator becomes the last part of the now-closed RAF base to lock its doors.

A £2 ticket could potentially win a go in a multi-million pound piece of kit which costs real pilots £1,500 an hour.

Fliers sit in a real cockpit, surrounded by sky and landscape, and the sounds of engines and firing weaponry. They can swoop low over the countryside seeking out the enemy, and even fly under bridges if they have the nerve.

Although the base officially shut last year, the privately-run simulator has carried on, training members of the Royal Oman Air Force.

The prize has been organised by former RAF Wing Commander John Bryant, who is a governor at Anthingham and Southrepps primary school, near Cromer which needs £75,000 to upgrade is problem dogged canteen - to rid it of damp and sound problems as well as creating a new teaching space.

Other prizes include a limited edition print by Gulf war pilot and painter Mike Rondot, and a family ticket to the Imperial War Museum at Duxford

Tickets, £2 each or £10 for a book of five, can be bought by sending a stamped addressed envelope and cheque (with the sender's phone number on the back) payable to Antingham and Southrepps PTA, to Raffle, Antingham and Southrepps School, Lower Street, Southrepps, Norfolk, NR11 8UG.