Yeovilton Air Day

[Eric Mc]

From last weekend - some photos of what was there.

[Shar2]

The Sea Vixen is looking good. I remember her being left out in the open for a long time when I was based at VL and she was looking decidedly derelict.

[Eric Mc]

Inspred me to pull the Revell (ex-FROG) Sea Vixen kit out of my unbuilt model pile. I started bashing it together on the weekend. It's a bit crude and will need some updating.

There was also a Sea Vixen cockpit section on display and that was great to have a look in. The cockpit really had a bit of a "Black Hole of Calcutta" look about it - especially the navigator's position. Anyone who suffered claustrophobia would not have been an ideal candidate.

[andy97]

Eric Mc said:

There was also a Sea Vixen cockpit section on display and that was great to have a look in. The cockpit really had a bit of a "Black Hole of Calcutta" look about it - especially the navigator's position. Anyone who suffered claustrophobia would not have been an ideal candidate.

IIRC it used to be known as the "Coal Hole" for that reason. FAW Mk 1 had a very small exit apperture compared to the Mk2 & I think several Observers died as a result of not being able to eject easily.

[dr_gn]

Eric Mc said:

From last weekend - some photos of what was there.

Some nice aircraft there - and not too many people by the look of it. How many aircraft flew?

[Eric Mc]

I deliberately went to Yevvilton because I had a feeling it wouldn't be massively packed. I didn't actually spend a huge amount of time watching the flying, being more interested in the static and the people who were manning the static display aircraft - such as the RN Sea King Crew or the RN Historic Flight team.

I reckon there were about 20 individual display items. The flying commenced at 11.00 am and ceased at around 5.00 pm.

[dr_gn]

Eric Mc said:

I deliberately went to Yevvilton because I had a feeling it wouldn't be massively packed. I didn't actually spend a huge amount of time watching the flying, being more interested in the static and the people who were manning the static display aircraft - such as the RN Sea King Crew or the RN Historic Flight team.

I reckon there were about 20 individual display items. The flying commenced at 11.00 am and ceased at around 5.00 pm.

Sounds pretty good. Way too far for me though for a day. I went to the Fleet Air Arm museum once in about 1983, I thought it was great.

[Mr Dave]

That really is a pretty little Chipmunk. Is it a G reg? If so where does it operate from?

[motomk]

Mr Dave said:

That really is a pretty little Chipmunk. Is it a G reg? If so where does it operate from?

Doesn't tow gliders does it?

[Mr Dave]

motomk said:

Mr Dave said:

That really is a pretty little Chipmunk. Is it a G reg? If so where does it operate from?

Doesn't tow gliders does it?

Dont think so? And to answer my own question it is apparently G-BARS out of Hawarden.

[Eric Mc]

The Chippie cvertainly looks different in Portugeuse colours.

I also had a good nose around the Royal Navy Historic Flight's Chippie. I was invited behind the rope by the chap who was looking after it and we had a great old natter about the Historic Flight, the Chippie and his career.

It really was a friendly show with not too much of the chaviness that tends to turn up at the bigger events.
There was the plethora of non-aviation related traders ("perfume man" was there as were the usual fudge makers and other tat shops). The only model shop present was Antics and Airfix had their travelling road show.

[shouldbworking]

There were actually a load of people there, boosted by the sunny weather. Most of them were along the crowd line - the aircraft in those photos were actually parked a way back and had a large roped off perimeter so it doesn't look too busy.

Trying to remember what aircraft flew... off the top of my head -

Short Tucano
Red Arrows
Lynx Mk3 & 5? I forget the numbers
Black Cats display team
Breitling wing walkers
Vulcan
Harrier GR9
Merlin
2 x f16s
king air
A stunt plane I dont recall the name of

[Eric Mc]

Also get there quite early so the crowd hadn't built up when I was taking the pictures. I really enjoyed the day.

Here's some more -