RNAS Culdrose 60th Anniversary Air Day : DIAL-UP CAUTION

[DaveB]

Hi Guy's,

Managed to catch the RNAS Culdrose 60th Anniversary Air Day while on holiday and have thrown together an assortment of shots for your enjoyment (well.. that's the intention anyway) Rotarywing aircraft don't usually get much of a showing so to redress that and keep my old mate Trev and young Tom happy.. a third of the shots are dedicated to them ;-) OK.. here goes..

The beautiful FRA Falcon from Hurn..


One of the Falcon's ever present FRADU Hawks..


The always impressive Wokka..


A 'Real' Merlin!!


Sopwith Triplane..


Sopwith Pup..


Fokker DR1 Triplane..


Neat odd's.. 2 to 1!!


The beautiful Seafire and 'butch' Corsair..





Air Atlantique's ubiquitous Annie..


The 2007 display livery RAF Tincan (my daughter took this one!!)


The RN Lynx display team.. The Black Cats (any takers on that paint job??)





The very impressive Army Blue Eagles..



No trick shot.. the Lynx really did loop and roll :o


Chipmouse!!


This lovely helicopter was doing pleasure flights from Culdrose for £25 a shot. Wish I'd had a go now :-(


A detailed view of the 2007 display Tincan's livery!!


This is the second time I've seen the Dutch F16 display this year and I could stand and watch it all day ;-)






and a farewell wave..


The Yakolevs!! Note.. No.61 (rear Yak) pilot has a nice day job. He's one of the Brit JSF pilots and was over on leave :o

BREAK!!


Ahhh..

This is one of the inmates of the Seal Sanctuary at Gweek, a couple of miles down the road

There you go. Hope you've enjoyed this little selection. I've just realised I've missed a complete aircraft off so I'll go back and choose a couple of shots for ya ;-)

ATB

DaveB :tab:

[Garry Russell]

I've bee to Bournemouth I think three times but I have never seen one of those Falcons. :-(

They must hide when they know I'm coming

Garry

[DaveB]

There are at least 2 of them based there mate.. FRAU and FRBA. They're kept pretty busy by the RN so I guess that's why you've not seen them ;-) A bit of background to the Falcon and Hawk setup. The lot are used to simulate air attack on the fleet (among other things) and the way they do this is the Falcons line up in an attack profile (close formation) with 2 Hawks on each side (also in tight formation). When the Falcon simulates a missile release, one of the Hawks will accelerate to 400kts, simulating the missile and with each release.. a further Hawk will bang the throttle open and hurtle toward the target!! Very impressive :o A bit labour intensive but this is really only one aspect of the work they do. All are ex-military pilots.. what a lovely job before retirement ;-)

ATB

DaveB :tab:

[Garry Russell]

My visits were a few years ago when there were supposed to be quite a few there....this would be in thier early days.

But probably busy as you say..they're are no good sitting arround.

Thanks for the run down Dave....as you say a nice little wind down job there


Garry

[Bridon Bear]

Cracking shots Dave ....as always..

Those Falcons are often seen over Bridport....we are only about 15 miles from Portland Bill a direction they often take from our vantage point......recently I saw 3 of them in loose formation...too far away to see if they were all FRADU.

Love the AA Anson......Such a Classic aircraft and I bet it sounded great too.... wonder if DG would get 're-inspired' if he was there....you never know that would be wonderful wouldn't it.............ok, ok,...I know.... OFFTOPIC


Thought the last shot was the Supermarine Walrus.....

Regards.

Bridon Bear

[DaveB]

Hi Brian,

Funny you mention Walrus.. the last shots I took were at Yeovilton and at least 4 are of their Walrus I might post them another day ;-) Anyway.. here's the aircraft I missed first time round, a gorgeous Raspberry Ripple Hunter F6. No more needs to be said really! :kissu:






I suppose the most unusual thing about this particular aircraft, other than the fact it's Raspberry Ripple, is that it's an F6.. quite a rarity as the majority of airworthy Hunters tend to be twin-holers. She still has her gunpods in situ which give her a lovely distinctive 'howl' as the air rushes down/past them :dance: Simply stunning ;-)

ATB

DaveB :tab:

[DispatchDragon]

I see you saved the best for last Dave


Thanks for the memories again

Leif

[DaveG]

Cracking pics Dave Love the Hunter.
We wasn't too far away (nr St Austell) and nearly went but the Mrs wasn't keen. Wish we had now. :-(

Did see the bi / triplanes as they passed over our campsite later that evening.

[Scorpius]

What's the green plastic covering on the Lynx?

I think we should be told.

[DaveB]

Blimey Dave.. we were'nt that far away from you then.. a couple of miles out of St Agnes (Blackwater) :o We didn't all go so you should have left Mrs G at home We couldn't take the dog so Alison stayed with her at the caravan while Helen and I got stuck in traffic. Took me 3hrs30m to get there (3hrs being the last 3 miles!!) and 1hr45m just to get out again :roll: Glad I went all the same ;-)

Looks like we chose the right weeks to go away too!!

ATB

DaveB :tab: