Army Says Goodbye to the Lynx Helicopter - Flypast Today

[Geneve]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-42663383

http://www.hollo.org/flying/maps/

Shame they couldn't have chosen a nicer day.

[AnotherClarkey]

I wonder how many other aircraft have been retired after almost 40 years of service yet still hold the speed record for their type?

[Eric Mc]

Saw them disappearing into the murk over Farnborough yesterday.

[dvs_dave]

AnotherClarkey said:

I wonder how many other aircraft have been retired after almost 40 years of service yet still hold the speed record for their type?

SR-71, Concorde, VC10 all spring to mind. I’m sure there’s quite a few others too.

[TCEvo]

Saw them over North Weald in Tuesday, unusual sight in Essex & wondered why they were coming across - looked cool though.

More common's Apache's - duly saw a pair near Marks Tey yesterday.

[yellowjack]

Eric Mc said:

Saw them disappearing into the murk over Farnborough yesterday.

I caught a glimpse of them too. Aided by the audible warning of the Chinook that came across ahead of them, I tried to grab some pictures, but they just came out too blurred to be of any use. The camera was set up for 'fireworks' for some bizarre reason and I didn't notice until it was too late to change the setting in the menu. The light wasn't great either, being as how it was 1620hrs on a grey January afternoon.

Impressive, nonetheless seeing four Lynx in formation over my house.

Nothing in comparison to the Middle Wallop Air Show I went to in the 1990s though. They put up every available helicopter they could, flying them off the field in batches, and they went off and disappeared. Then they appeared from behind the Danebury Hillfort in a long line and switched their lights on 'on cue'.

I'm pretty sure they then flew toward the crowd line (possibly with Ride of the Valkyries playing on the PA, although I might be making that bit up) and then they all turned right, and flew one-behind the other around the field and past the crowd, like a big "march past". Possibly the most impressive airshow sight I've ever seen. I think that included the Gazelle fleet, and the Historic Helicopter Flight too.

Youtube footage of the 1996 show here... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0mi3awMLJTw ...although I think my memory is of an earlier show?

[ecsrobin]

yellowjack said:

I caught a glimpse of them too. Aided by the audible warning of the Chinook that came across ahead of them, I tried to grab some pictures, but they just came out too blurred to be of any use. The camera was set up for 'fireworks' for some bizarre reason and I didn't notice until it was too late to change the setting in the menu. The light wasn't great either, being as how it was 1620hrs on a grey January afternoon.

Impressive, nonetheless seeing four Lynx in formation over my house.

Nothing in comparison to the Middle Wallop Air Show I went to in the 1990s though. They put up every available helicopter they could, flying them off the field in batches, and they went off and disappeared. Then they appeared from behind the Danebury Hillfort in a long line and switched their lights on 'on cue'.

I'm pretty sure they then flew toward the crowd line (possibly with Ride of the Valkyries playing on the PA, although I might be making that bit up) and then they all turned right, and flew one-behind the other around the field and past the crowd, like a big "march past". Possibly the most impressive airshow sight I've ever seen. I think that included the Gazelle fleet, and the Historic Helicopter Flight too.

Youtube footage of the 1996 show here... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0mi3awMLJTw ...although I think my memory is of an earlier show?

That is superb!!

[Tony1963]

They did a quick display at Wattisham airfield, where I work, and refuelled there too.

As an aside, no Apache display team this year. They're hoping to be back in 2019.

[Eric Mc]

yellowjack said:

I caught a glimpse of them too. Aided by the audible warning of the Chinook that came across ahead of them, I tried to grab some pictures, but they just came out too blurred to be of any use. The camera was set up for 'fireworks' for some bizarre reason and I didn't notice until it was too late to change the setting in the menu. The light wasn't great either, being as how it was 1620hrs on a grey January afternoon.

II'm pretty sure they then flew toward the crowd line (possibly with Ride of the Valkyries playing on the PA, although I might be making that bit up) and then they all turned right, and flew one-behind the other around the field and past the crowd, like a big "march past". Possibly the most impressive airshow sight I've ever seen. I think that included the Gazelle fleet, and the Historic Helicopter Flight too.

Youtube footage of the 1996 show here... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0mi3awMLJTw ...although I think my memory is of an earlier show?

I was at the Middle Wallop show in 1986 and they certainly did the Ride of the Valkyries bit then.

[yellowjack]

I've watched that Youtube video again, and I'm now certain that it wasn't the year I went. My memory is of a far more overcast day with poorer visibility. This meant that when the helicopters "broke cover" from behind the hillfort, we weren't initially able to hear them, nor see them. Which was why it was all the more impressive when all the 'headlights' came on at once, revealing this huge fleet of helicopters in the distance ahead of us.

Sadly not a sight we're likely to see again, what with budget cuts and reductions in aircraft and personnel numbers.

The other thing I remember about that show was the way it was made to feel like this was the first time the "massed approach" had been done. You remember 1986, other sources show photos and video of it happening in other displays before and after, but it genuinely came as a surprise to me when it happened, and was all the more impressive for it.

I loved the Lynx, but despite a full career in the army I never got to fly in one. Gazelle, Puma, Chinook and Merlin (mostly Merlin) yes, but never a Lynx. I remember building a navy blue Airfix(?) model of the navy Lynx as a young teen, and being obsessed with the whole speed record and development side of it. Sad to see that iconic shape gone now. Wildcat just doesn't look as 'right' as the Lynx did...

[yellowjack]

More gratuitous Lynx helicopter footage here...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VNCSu2kqXE8

And a (much drier) bit of blurb about the AH.7's retirement here...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ryX7Qg3ouPE

[Eric Mc]

The model you built was most likely the Matchbox kit which was one of the prototypes.

[yellowjack]

Eric Mc said:

The model you built was most likely the Matchbox kit which was one of the prototypes.

Out of interest,I Googled for some images of the kits. It was definitely this Airfix one...



...because I distinctly remember the colour of the torpedoes and the fact that mine had accurate squadron markings, whereas the Matchbox kit didn't even have an aircraft serial number. I think the Matchbox kit would have been too early for me too - I was still gluing my fingers to Mk1 Spitfires about then.

I still had it, built, but slightly damaged, until a year or so ago - but it disappeared when we had our kitchen ceiling flooded and repaired. I never glued the rotorhead into the fuselage, so it was fairly easy to put into a box to move around.

[Viperzs]

What are we replacing them with?

[Eric Mc]

The Matchbox one came out first and featured one of the prototypes - with the three windows in the cabin door.



I'd forgotten that the Airfix 1/72 Lynx had appeared in Royal Navy markings. This is the box art of the version of the Airfix kit that I remembered -

[Fluid]

Viperzs said:

What are we replacing them with?

Wildcat.

[Steve vRS]

Is the Wildcat a new model or a Lynx with a lot of modifications?

[phil-sti]

Had the pleasure of a ride or 2 in a lynx when I was in the army. Flying tree height and then going almost vertical before levelling is a memory I won’t forget and neither will my stomach.

[IanH755]

Steve vRS said:

Is the Wildcat a new model or a Lynx with a lot of modifications?

They are 95% new build apparently but based on a heavily modded Lynx design. Wiki says the only things kept between the two is the Main Rotor Gearbox and the Fuel System, everything else is newly designed.

[Steve vRS]

They are an ugly brute when compared to the original Lynx!