RNAS Yeovilton - Wed 21.1.09

A brief stop at RNAS Yeovilton produced these two images




Royal Navy Sea King HC4 ZF124 "L" of 845 Sqd - the low winter sun really shows off the details in the colour scheme. This Sea King c/n WA974 was delivered new to the Royal Navy in 1987 and initially served with 772 Sqd based at RNAS Portland coded "24.

When RNAS Portland was closed and 772 Sqd disbanded it joined the Commando helicopter fleet at Yeovilton. In recent years 845 Sqd have operated on deployment to both Iraq and Afghanistan.

The Sea King in the background is the very old XV676, coded "ZE" - this MK6CR aircraft is an old HAS 6 version and still has its float sponsons but has lost all its ASW kit and is now used as a flight trainer for the busy HC4 fleet, taking some of the hours off the frontline HC4 helicopters. XV676 delivered to the RN way back in 1970.



Hawk T1A XX198 is now almost 31 years old having been delivered to the RAF back in April 1978. I first saw it at RAF Valley in August 1981 when it was serving with 63 Sqd of 2 TWU coded "198" painted in green/grey camoflague.

Today it flies with the Royal Navy FRADU based at RNAS Culdrose in Cornwall - some Royal Navy Hawks used to carry "Royal Navy" titles but these have now gone. It was busy flying circuits this morning using the local call sign "YEOVIL 61". FRADU usually have a couple of RN Hawks detached to Yeovilton and they operate from the old Sea Harrier apron on the south side of the airfield.

Yeovilton - Wed 14.3.07

Yeovilton is my local base - 22 miles from home. Usually plenty of activity although many of the based helicopters have been resident here for over 20 years so many of these airframes are very old friends indeed !

All the photos below were taken near Yeovilton viallge church which is approx midway along the runway on the south side.

Visitors - 6 RAF Tucano T1 trainers visited from their home base at Linton On Ouse in Yorkshire. All were in the black colour scheme with one example wearing squadron marks from 207 sqd.

Above - ZF137 Tucano T1 departs as c/s CORDITE wearing 207 sqd markings of 1FTS

Above - ZF491 Tucano T1 departs as c/s LOP 63 wearing generic 1FTS marks

Among the resident Lynx helicopters were active examples of both the HAS3 and the HMA8 - compare the major differences to the nose and extra lumps and bumps

Above - XZ732 Lynx HMA8DSP "673" of 702 sqd departs from RWY 22 heading South

Above - ZD264 Lynx HAS3GM "306" of 815 sqd departs as SKUA 27

Recent new residents at Yeovilton are 727 sqd with their fleet of Grob G115E Tutors - these were previously based down at Plymouth and transferred to Yeovilton in December 2006.

The Royal Navy website describes 727 sqds role as...

""727 Squadron's primary role is to grade young Naval and Royal Marine officers to assess their suitability for further training with the Fleet Air Arm. This takes place throughout the year and each student is with the Squadron for three weeks. During those weeks, he or she will fly twelve hours with an instructor before flying a Final Handling Test with the Commanding Officer""


Seen here today were G-BYVF, G-BYWM, G-BYXK and G-BYXS

727 sqd Grob Tutor G-BYVF at Yeovilton using c/s TAMAR 11 with Sea King "ZA" behind

727 sqd Grob Tutor G-BYXK at Yeovilton with just "X" on tail rather than "XK" used c/s TAMAR 15

The Royal Navy use a small number of Jetstream T3 aircraft as HMS Heron hacks based at Yeovilton.

Above - Jetstream T3 c/n 647 ZE438 "76" takes off as c/s NAVY 751

Yeovilton also plays host to a small detachment of Royal Navy FRADU Hawk up from their own home base at RNAS Culdrose. The only one seen today was XX160 devoid of any Royal Navy titles - it arrived and departed as BLUE 1.

Royal Navy Hawk XX160 was delivered to the RAF back in May 1982

For me this Hawk photo was my picture of the day - low and fast.