Farewell flight

[alfie2244]

Saw this about an hour ago circling very low and slow around Bath........amazing sight to behold.

http://www.itv.com/news/westcountry/2016-03-21/sea...

[ecsrobin]

Got a message from my father this morning, fortunately I had my camera with me in the car so a quick stop at old Portsmouth to catch them going past. Sadly not the greatest of images it's been a while since I've photographed an aircraft.

Junglies by -robinecs-

Junglies by -robinecs-

Junglies by -robinecs-

[mikal83]

Bye....The Mighty Seaking has gone.

[anonymous-user]

ecsrobin said:

Got a message from my father this morning, fortunately I had my camera with me in the car so a quick stop at old Portsmouth to catch them going past. Sadly not the greatest of images it's been a while since I've photographed an aircraft.

Junglies by -robinecs-

Junglies by -robinecs-

Junglies by -robinecs-

Has a Chinook gone u/s somewhere then?

[ecsrobin]

Crossflow Kid said:

Has a Chinook gone u/s somewhere then?

[mikal83]

the whoosh parrot flew over my head as well.

[alfie2244]

mikal83 said:

the whoosh parrot flew over my head as well.

Mine too.

[SeeFive]

I was filling up in Tesco North Harbour (Pompey area) when 5 of these guys came over in "goose" formation.

Hadn't realised the significance and wondered what it was all about - as you can guess we get quite a bit of military tin down here, sometimes in multiples like this.

[yellowjack]

ecsrobin said:

Crossflow Kid said:

Has a Chinook gone u/s somewhere then?

Inter-service rivalry comment, harking back to the Falklands War. Refers to the number of Sea Kings required to match the carrying capacity of a single Chinook.

Chinook 'BN' is the one, there's lots on the internet about it, four DFCs awarded to her crews, damaged several times, rebuilt twice, from HC.1 to HC.2, and then to HC.4 standard, brand new in 1982 it's still in service now. Unlike the Sea Kings....

[alfie2244]

yellowjack said:

ecsrobin said:

Crossflow Kid said:

Has a Chinook gone u/s somewhere then?

Inter-service rivalry comment, harking back to the Falklands War. Refers to the number of Sea Kings required to match the carrying capacity of a single Chinook.

Chinook 'BN' is the one, there's lots on the internet about it, four DFCs awarded to her crews, damaged several times, rebuilt twice, from HC.1 to HC.2, and then to HC.4 standard, brand new in 1982 it's still in service now. Unlike the Sea Kings....

Thanks for explaining.

We must live on a flightpath to and from somewhere and often have low flying aircraft directly overhead. As well as their huge loadspace Chinooks also have the ability rattle everything in the house and make the dogs go berserk for a fair while.

[yellowjack]

alfie2244 said:

Thanks for explaining.

We must live on a flightpath to and from somewhere and often have low flying aircraft directly overhead. As well as their huge loadspace Chinooks also have the ability rattle everything in the house and make the dogs go berserk for a fair while.

I have the same. Lots of local (low noise) GA traffic in/out of Blackbushe. In summer we seem to be on an 'air show transit' route often seeing Spitfires heading North/South and White Waltham resident classic/vintage aircraft out and about. Plus some Farnborough traffic but we're not under the approaches so not too much.

Recently we've seen lots of Apaches (singles and pairs), Merlins and even a Puma. But because of proximity to Odiham, by far the loudest and most regular overflights are by Chinooks. And by 'overflight' I mean DIRECTLY above the house quite a lot of the time. Plus being near to Odiham, and cycling around there means I regularly get to see them training with underslung loads, from cargo pallets and field guns, up to shipping container size loads.

[mikal83]

yellowjack said:

ecsrobin said:

Crossflow Kid said:

Has a Chinook gone u/s somewhere then?

Inter-service rivalry comment, harking back to the Falklands War. Refers to the number of Sea Kings required to match the carrying capacity of a single Chinook.

Chinook 'BN' is the one, there's lots on the internet about it, four DFCs awarded to her crews, damaged several times, rebuilt twice, from HC.1 to HC.2, and then to HC.4 standard, brand new in 1982 it's still in service now. Unlike the Sea Kings....

BUT the mighty S/K has been superceded by the Merlin, whereas the Chinook hasn't?

[anonymous-user]

ecsrobin said:

Crossflow Kid said:

Has a Chinook gone u/s somewhere then?

Oh come on......five Sea Kings.......that's about one Chinook's worth :-)

[anonymous-user]

mikal83 said:

yellowjack said:

ecsrobin said:

Crossflow Kid said:

Has a Chinook gone u/s somewhere then?

Inter-service rivalry comment, harking back to the Falklands War. Refers to the number of Sea Kings required to match the carrying capacity of a single Chinook.

Chinook 'BN' is the one, there's lots on the internet about it, four DFCs awarded to her crews, damaged several times, rebuilt twice, from HC.1 to HC.2, and then to HC.4 standard, brand new in 1982 it's still in service now. Unlike the Sea Kings....

BUT the mighty S/K has been superceded by the Merlin, whereas the Chinook hasn't?

And?
It ain't broke. Why fix it?

[ecsrobin]

Crossflow Kid said:

ecsrobin said:

Crossflow Kid said:

Has a Chinook gone u/s somewhere then?

Oh come on......five Sea Kings.......that's about one Chinook's worth :-)

It's just clicked!

But where can you put a Range Rover sport in a seaking???

[bloomen]

These flew over me on Exmoor. Ta for clearing up the mystery.

[Steve vRS]

yellowjack said:

ecsrobin said:

Crossflow Kid said:

Has a Chinook gone u/s somewhere then?

Inter-service rivalry comment, harking back to the Falklands War. Refers to the number of Sea Kings required to match the carrying capacity of a single Chinook.

Chinook 'BN' is the one, there's lots on the internet about it, four DFCs awarded to her crews, damaged several times, rebuilt twice, from HC.1 to HC.2, and then to HC.4 standard, brand new in 1982 it's still in service now. Unlike the Sea Kings....

I remember reading about BN in Warplane magazine in the 80's. One of my biggest mistakes was getting rid of the full set of Warplane. But I digress.

I saw BN in action a couple of years ago. I was on a gas platform when BN, another Chinook, a few Lynxs and Sea Kings appeared and carried out a storming exercise on the rig. It was very impressive watching a big Chinook flying under the platform at sea level and flaring up to the heli-deck level before the Marines abseiled off to run around the platform with no eye protection or hard hats

Steve

[wildcat45]

The Sea King has not quite gone.

The ASaC7 remains in service until 2018 I believe.