April 5, 2011 at 5:34 pm
I went for the hat-trick ball of visits to RNAS Yeovilton on Monday 4th April, hoping for better weather than my visits on Tuesday 29th and Thursday 31st March.
The cloud cover was still thick, but it had a few breaks in it, which allowed for some spells, albeit frustratingly short due to the strong wind, of sunshine!
Due to the wind direction, the ‘cross’ runway (22/04) was in use. This effectively ruled out any photos of the Grobs out unless you had a 1000mm lens.
The FRADU Hawks however, continue to use Runway 27/09!
At just before 1300hrs, I had word that three cabs would be departing for Kinloss, and the JMC exercise.
XX337, XX205 and XX301 were the chosen Hawks…

Taxiing out immediately behind them were two further aircraft; XX169 and XX281 prior to a FRADU tasking…

The Lynx fleet seemed quite active…
This Lynx was photographed 15 minutes later… cloud/conditions completely different!
Sea Kings activity was also frequent, as ZD627 lands and taxies back to 848NAS’ dispersal…
ZG822 recovering to the field, as Lynx Mk.8 ZD258 takes off!



ZA295 departs for Merryfield…
The FRADU’s 2-ship sortie returned just before I left…


I endeavour to be back again later this week for a final time before I return to work next week!
That will possibly be my last opportunity to visit RNAS Yeovilton whilst the FRADU is in residence – it certainly looks like any requests for leave in May will be rejected! 🙁
I hope I haven’t bored you all to death yet – comments/criticism on the images are very much appreciated, either on board or via PM.
Many thanks for looking…
Mark
By: SEMAE - 9th April 2011 at 20:36
A very nice selection of images. The 2nd formation take off shot is my favourite.
Cheers
Martin
By: inkworm - 7th April 2011 at 10:21
Agreed, the formation take off is a stunner of a shot, thanks for those.
By: Agent K - 7th April 2011 at 07:20
Amazing photos, thanks for sharing, the multi-ship Hawk photos are awesome!, but then they’re all good:)
By: Flygirl - 6th April 2011 at 20:01
Nice pictures.
By: wiseman - 6th April 2011 at 03:51
Very nice. Some great shots of the Sea Kings in this set.
Thanks.