A109 near Hereford...?

[Wee Weasley Welshman]

Does anyone know if a certain military unit based in the Hereford area operates some funny looking 109's? I fly around the area a lot and hae seen things that look like 109's with bits stuck on flying at low level and great speed. Which strikes me as odd. But fun!

Just wondering really.

WWW

[cyclic]

Hi WWW

A man of your calibre - it doesn't take too much working out who flies from Hereford!!

[Cyclic Hotline]

Falkland's repo's!

[MightyGem]

We could tell you, but then we'd have to kill you!!

[Wee Weasley Welshman]

Yeah - I have my suspicions who they are but wondered if anyone could confirm it. I hadn't thought about nicking them off the Argies - did they have any though?

Suppose its a fast old tool for getting around in. Cool.

WWW

[MBJ]

I believe we "won" two from the Falklands and the boys liked them so much they bought a couple more. Pity we didn't pick up a couple of hundred Hueys too!

[Wee Weasley Welshman]

Ohh? That explains it then. Bet they have a laugh with those.

WWW

[Marco]

The police at Carmarthen have a new dark blue & yellow A109E with bits stuck
on it??????!!!!!!!

[Flap 5]

No straight answers as usual!

Indeed they were obtained after the Falklands conflict having previously been owned by Argentina. They are used by the SAS as they are well suited to their task (fast and punchy).

It is not unusual to see them around the UK as the SAS are constantly training with them.

[Flap 5]

As a follow on to the above there was a Bristow pilot who was bringing back a Huey and a Pucara from the Falklands in 1985. I wonder what happened to them?

[Wee Weasley Welshman]

It happened again on Thursday. Aircraft approaching Malvern hill from the West at around 100ft. Skirts North of the town then heads up the East side of Clee Hill and accelerates away from me out of sight. Definitely a helicopter and at or around 100ft. I was chasing it at 95kts. Time was dusk.

How fast would one of those go?

WWW

ps waiting for a knock on the door from SB now. I've been browsing for info on Menwith Hill lately as well... oops.

[Skycop]

140 - 150 kts for a clean airframe. A bit less if external draggy bits fitted.

[Pinger]

Dear me, this is ancient history, isnt it!

Yellow and white A109s have been regular visitors all over UK since 86 or so. They tend to attract attention on their visits to Battersea on account of their lack of any form of registration or markings despite being in a very similar livery to a well known local charter operator.

They are as far as I know 109A s and therefore severely payload/performance/range limited and would be regarded by civil operators as a waste of space.

I hope Im wrong on the last para but I fear not.

[Wee Weasley Welshman]

Not ancient history to me. I didn't realise they were quite that quick.

WWW

[Wee Weasley Welshman]

And today I got to poke around the new 109 belonging to Dyfed/Powys Police force. What a cool piece of kit - massive MFD's everywhere and glass cockpit. I want that job!

WWW

[MBJ]

Flap 5, I heard the Huey was rotting away at Cranfield - sad - I reckon it was one of the most effective and well designed military helis for its size, ever.

[JWP]

I can add a number of notes to this thread..

- the Huey moved very recently by air to Hurn where it is op by Bournemouth Aviation Museum (ex Jet Heritage)
- per the new edition of International Air Ambulance mag, the 109 Power VNe is 168 Kts.. and the Dyfed-Powys one is certified to 168 even with the draggy bits...
- the yellow/white scheme went out _years_ ago (and Manns gave up the Agusta dealership in favour of Bell 10+ years ago) and the SAS 109s are regularly repainted in civvie schemes to confuse the natives. Current schemes include mid blue with navy undersides and white with red/blue stripes
- _all_ the SAS 109s carry military serials, although they tend to be painted in the next colour number up from the background and are thus not very visible even close up! Look on the pilots doors immediately below the windows and on the sides of the nose. On one (now superceded) scheme they painted the serials in black on a dark navy blue stripe. The serials are ZE410 to ZE413 and these 109s (all A models as Pinger rightly said) are unusual, but not unique, in the UK having sliding doors and hardpoints above the doors for fitting winches. Go looking....

JWP

[Wee Weasley Welshman]

JWP - cor, that gives me something to look for next time.

WWW

[Skycop]

Hey boys, we are in danger of causing an Anorak Warning Red!