Saw some helicopters this morning,(PIC HEAVY)

[southey]

Thought some of you might be interested in this, we wnt to watch the rotary packet leave for the Royal Diamond Jubilee fly past this morning


Lynx MK7


Apahe, Lynx, Navy lynx and a Sea king,



Chinooks, seakings, merlins,



Chinook, Puma,



The best bit, Apache, Bell 212, Lynx and Gazelle,



Apache



Bell 212,



The boy! Lynx Mk 7



A Gazelle

[southey]

Lancaster!!!!! COOL!!!

Spitfires

[Peteo]

Some money's worth by there.. the Apache looks a beast! Read allot about it during conflict, glad to be on the British side of that war..

[geordienemisis]

Thanks for the upload brings back some good memories of days back in the green. Never had a chance to see the Apache in action, but travelled in most of the others minus the Sea King. Had to land a couple of Chinooks at Deverral Barracks in Edinburgh they certainly throw a lot of Sh*t about when landing on hard or loose ground. Arh the happy memories.

[John Fenna]

I am not sure that I understand the camo and orange colourscheme of the Griffin....

[southey]

It was fantastic to watch, I have a couple of videos too if any ones interested, It was nice to sit back and watch instead of rushing about,

[southey]

I am not sure that I understand the camo and orange colourscheme of the Griffin....

Its used primarily for training in the jungles , so has high vis body parts to help visual id either against the canopy while flying or to help id if stooffed in

[launditch1]

Theres been a couple of Apaches hovering about near where i live.Great to watch.Slightly disconcerting when the gun swivels round and points at you!!
Me like whirlybirds.

[John Fenna]

Its used primarily for training in the jungles , so has high vis body parts to help visual id either against the canopy while flying or to help id if stooffed in

I can cope with hi Viz OR camo ... but the two together... one defeats the object of the other.....

[southey]

Hahahaha its just a set of vinyl stickers, peals off to look all camo an cool again,

[John Fenna]

About this time last year I was watching choppers armed with door mounted Jimpeys trashing "Afgan compounds" on Castlemartin ranges - impressive!
I once had a ride in the back of a Scout (AAC) up in the Cairngorms - from Glenmore Lodge to half way the other side of the mountains (walked back)it was interesting as the doors were off and we sat with our legs dangling over nothing with only a 1" web strap to stop us falling out.....

[John Fenna]

Hahahaha its just a set of vinyl stickers, peals off to look all camo an cool again,

Ah - the "sticky backed plastic" school of safety

[southey]

Why of course, you couldn't have a separate high vis cowling, think of the sticker cutters that would be out of a job!

[southey]

About this time last year I was watching choppers armed with door mounted Jimpeys trashing "Afgan compounds" on Castlemartin ranges - impressive!
I once had a ride in the back of a Scout (AAC) up in the Cairngorms - from Glenmore Lodge to half way the other side of the mountains (walked back)it was interesting as the doors were off and we sat with our legs dangling over nothing with only a 1" web strap to stop us falling out.....

Its great fun, I count my self very lucky that I work with these aircraft, you end up hanging of them in some magnificent places, though of course some times they deliver you into some crappy places too, but when life gives you lemons, break out the G and T!

[Andy BB]

Driving down to Portsmouth this morning, saw this flight of twelve helos in three wings pass across us. Really weird combination of aircraft - even had what looked like a SeaKing with the underslung radome in the group.

[southey]

Yup, they are they aircraft in my pics matey, they were in three diamonds, Navy, Army and Raf the Seaking with the thing below it is a navy one with a RADAR on a swivel mount , it rotates to hang below when in flight,

[southey]

The Raf diamond,



The Army diamond,




The navy diamond,

Sea king with raydome on the left,



All three departing,

[andyn]

These guys all flew over us earlier, still in formation. Wondered what it was all about. Great noise!

[widu13]

I didn't even know we were running any Iroquois! Is it significantly any different to give it the name Griffin, or didn't we like Huey?

Glad to see that after 25 yrs I was still able to ID all of the aircraft in the distant shots before I saw the close ups. (I'm running the forum in newest posts first).

Mind you any fly boys would be safe enough with our AD aircraft recce, not because of the recce ID but because the Rapier missiles hardly ever functioned correctly! (Well that was FS2 just before FS2B was introduced).

[southey]

Sorry my fault, its a Bell 212 not a griffin, the Griifins are used by the RAF and are Bell 414, we dont run Iroquois,

[Paul_B]

Seen a few chinooks before. Some piece of equipment that is. A year ago we kept seeing a chinook flying over and around the castle in Lancaster. Not sure what it was doing but it wasn't much higher than the houses. We cld see the houses up the hill over the too of it. If you know,Lancaster the hill with the castle on isn't that high so the chinook must have a gd reason to fly so low. Was noisy at times when hovering or moving slowly. Some helo I think.
Is there's any helicopter experts what types are out there without a tail rotor. Seriously, I saw one that had what looked like two tubes on a planes tail wings instead of the rotor. Wasn't too far away so wld see any rotor, plus the way the tail was any rotor wld not be possible because of the wing there.
Btw which is bigger, seaking, merlin (is that the eh 101?) Or that,other SAR helicopter I've forgotten the name of??

[widu13]

Bell 212

Iroquois is the official NATO name.

Wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bell_UH-1N_Twin_Huey

[southey]

Search for "notar helicopter" there are quite a few models, in size small to large Sea king, merlin, Sikorsky S92, Chinook I reckon,

[southey]

Iroquois is the official NATO name.

Wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bell_UH-1N_Twin_Huey

Maybe so, but we dont Have any UH-1N Iroquois, we have Bell 212 HP AH Mk1 Official AAC designation, the only UH-1 Iroquois we have is in the museum at Middle Wallop, captured and used during the Falklands war,

[Bighund]

Very cool. Would love to have a go in an Apache even though I wouldn't have a clue what to do!

[johnboy]

UH-1's are standard issue over here although they are due for replacement with NH90's next year.....

[southey]

Hmmmmmm NH90 very cool!

[Baggy]

Brings back memories, I have flown in a lot of them.

Can anyone guess what I am using in this Puma, in Belize.

[southey]

I dont know, but by the look on your face it should cost a pretty penny!

[ged]

...Is there's any helicopter experts what types are out there without a tail rotor. Seriously, I saw one that had what looked like two tubes on a planes tail wings instead of the rotor. Wasn't too far away so wld see any rotor, plus the way the tail was any rotor wld not be possible because of the wing there.

There are quite a few. Some are used as air ambulances, they have an aft door for a stretcher and it's safer to work around the door because there's no tail rotor. The MD520N for example uses an air blower in the tail boom to force air down over the boom on one side. That creates a sideways aerodynamic lift on the boom which does what a tail rotor would do when hovering. The tail rotor generally is less important in forward flight, the flow of air over the shape of the aircraft tends to point the nose into the wind. The vertical fins on the aircraft you saw just help that a bit.

Btw which is bigger, seaking, merlin (is that the eh 101?) Or that,other SAR helicopter I've forgotten the name of??

Merlin wa renamed a while back. Sea King has a similar rotor diameter, but the Merlin is heavier empty than the Sea King is when fully loaded:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westland_Sea_King
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AgustaWestland_AW101

I don't know which one you've forgotten the name of.