Hawk Farewell Flight 736NAS

[Cold]

The farewell flight of four Hawk jets from 736NAS will take place tomorrow afternoon, Thurs 17th. They will leave Culdrose and fly over Plymouth, Portsmouth and up to Prestwick before their return trip the next day.

Look up and wave.

Thursday schedule is: Depart Culdrose 3.30pm, flypasts Plymouth 3.40; RNAS Yeovilton 3.55; Bournemouth 4.05, Portsmouth 4.15 and Prestwick shortly after 5pm.

Friday: Depart Prestwick 11am; flypasts RAF Valley 11.25; Pembrey 11.50; Newquay 12; and arrive home 12.15.

[yellowjack]

Quelle surprise!

An early knock-off on a Friday afternoon. Who'd have forecast such a thing in military aviation...?

[eccles]

We never had early knock offs when I was in. The hangars/bays might have, but in my time on Hawks and Tornados we worked a normal day on Fridays.

[magpie215]

Might see them over Blackpool then if that's their track.

[Mark V GTD]

Sorry - what’s the background to this story? Farewell - the type going out of service?

[magpie215]

Mark V GTD said:

Sorry - what’s the background to this story? Farewell - the type going out of service?

Yes Hawk T1 out of service soon.....except for the Red ones.

[Cold]

Three of them swooshed over my head a few minutes earlier than I was expecting this afternoon which meant I didn't manage to get a picture.

However, Dave Hartley (@dhartley_NMRN on Twitter) stuck his head out of the window of the National Museum of the Royal Navy at the right time and captured this fantastic image:

[Mark V GTD]

magpie215 said:

Yes Hawk T1 out of service soon.....except for the Red ones.

Wow - they got their moneys worth with the Hawk - I think I saw some early ones at the RAF Valley Airshow in 1976!

[eccles]

Mark V GTD said:

magpie215 said:

Yes Hawk T1 out of service soon.....except for the Red ones.

Wow - they got their moneys worth with the Hawk - I think I saw some early ones at the RAF Valley Airshow in 1976!

They entered service in '76.
We had a big bash in '86 celebrating 10 years of service.

[Mark V GTD]

They would have been brand new ones then! So that is a long service, 46 years - equivalent to the Spitfire being retired from active service in 1984!

[MB140]

eccles said:

We never had early knock offs when I was in. The hangars/bays might have, but in my time on Hawks and Tornados we worked a normal day on Fridays.

Same for me too, your surname doesn’t happen to be ecclestone does it. I worked with a rigger on 2AC between 98-00. Pretty much the rest of the base knobbed of at 1130-1200 on a Friday. As a Sqn guy you were there until you had generated the aircraft for Mondays sorties plus a couple of spare.

[eccles]

MB140 said:

eccles said:

We never had early knock offs when I was in. The hangars/bays might have, but in my time on Hawks and Tornados we worked a normal day on Fridays.

Same for me too, your surname doesn’t happen to be ecclestone does it. I worked with a rigger on 2AC between 98-00. Pretty much the rest of the base knobbed of at 1130-1200 on a Friday. As a Sqn guy you were there until you had generated the aircraft for Mondays sorties plus a couple of spare.

No, my username is a Goon show character. We always seemed to have people in for jolly's last flight on a Friday as well!