Originally Posted by
India Four Two
Come on Hot 'n' High, we're waiting!
Some people!!!!
For
I42!
Excuse the non-David Bailey standard and, for some reason, at some point, I cropped the side view. Anyway, now scanned in. I see from some notes I dug up it was XF289 who was 875 at the time (seems nose codes moved as airframes came and went by the look of things). The flight was on 4th July 1986 (blimey, even longer ago than I thought) and was against HMS Gloucester (a Batch 3 Type 42 if you want full geek mode!!).
Most pix self-explanatory. The return is back to Yeovilton where, on the turn in to final, the ski jump can be seen to the left of the main Runway 27. Positioning on the run-ins against the ship was dictated by the PWO(A) on the ship who wanted us to fly various headings inbound and to pass ahead or astern but, IIR, it was almost always to pass ahead, presumably so the Sea Dart could track us.
Six weeks later I was on the Illustrious in Singapore for the latter part of Global 86 returning to the UK in Dec 86! Yes, I did do some work ..... honest! As many of my Staff Reports observed, "If cornered like a rat,
H 'n' H will attempt to achieve something which at least appears on the surface to be something akin to "productive work". Sadly, though, such events are few and far between."
Happy daze eh!!!!
H 'n' H
XF289/875 on the FRADU Line, Yeovilton 4/7/86
Heading into the Portland Exercise areas
Low-level turn
On a run-in against HMS Gloucester
Bit high on that one .... but a good view from the bridge for the OOW
Downwind for a Roller
Continuous turn approach
Rolled out on "short final".
Safely back down ... or maybe just rolling again
1:45 after leaving the line it was, sadly, time to park up again.