pagen01
July 11, 2011 at 11:51 pm

RNAS Yeovilton Air Day 9 July 11

Had a great day out at Yeovilton on Saturday, I always enjoy this show as it is a good mix of aircraft, more relaxed feel, and great organisation.
Highlight of the event had to be the Sea Vixen & Vulcan pairing which apparently was devised during that morning, well done to the organisers and aircraft operators for coming up with this unique sight.
The main theme of the event was the 40th anniversary of the Lynx, a huge amount of the type were on show, including some very rare and seldom seen outdoors examples, the International Helicopter Museum brought along the Lynx 3 demonstrator, G-LYNX, the current holder of the helicopter world speed record (set in 1986!), and the second naval prototype.
Of course the RNHF are the stars at their home airfield and it was great to be able to be so close to Swordfish LS326 and Sea Fury T.20 VX281 as they started and taxied. Great to meet Lee Howard at last aswel.
Other historics were the Team Viper Hunters, Hangar 11s’ P-51D, the BBMF Lancaster and Spitfire (which strangely didn’t do a solo display), aswel as Chipmunks, Austers etc in the static.
The weather was very on and off light wise, it seemed that when the interesting stuff was flying the weather clamped in, that combined with not the best lens and not great personal ability meant that I mainly took ground shots anyway.

Also well worth looking over at the show was the current FAAM restoration of Grumman Martlet I AL246, talking with David Morris it was clear that it is going to receive an even more fastidious restoration than the Corsair did. The incorrect blue grey is being very carefully removed which is revealing its original factory applied scheme, the colours are very interesting and if you painted a model in them there probably would be all sorts of debate about them!
Like the Corsair resto a book on this restoration will follow, something to look forward to.