Shawbury Seahawk

[61_OTU]

The unexpected highlight of the day was when the guy next to me picked up on his scanner the fact that the Seahawk was diverting in to Shawbury. Apparently it had some sort of an issue which was resolved after not too long.





Backtracking on 36 prior to takeoff


Typhoon made an incredible noise, but didn't use burners for takeoff, spoilsport

[C]

Typhoon made an incredible noise, but didn't use burners for takeoff, spoilsport  ;)

Watching his carbon footprint. Well done.

New display Hawk looed very shiny. Came back after a short display according to Craig and didn't leave again as planned

May explain the no show at OW.

One of the RNHF's Sea Hawk pilots has been named today as the Sea Vixen's new pilot as Brian Grant's retiring. Lucky chap. He's far too young too, but a nice bloke I have to say.

[Hagar]

The Sea Hawk is one of my favourite aircraft. Also one of those I've never managed to get a good shot of.

[61_OTU]

The Sea Hawk is one of my favourite aircraft. Also one of those I've never managed to get a good shot of.

It's the first time I've seen it, it looks great coming in to land but always seems to be going crock, were they always so troublesome?

[Hagar]

The Sea Hawk is one of my favourite aircraft. Also one of those I've never managed to get a good shot of.

It's the first time I've seen it, it looks great coming in to land but always seems to be going crock, were they always so troublesome?

You have to remember that the Sea Hawk was a first generation jet fighter & nothing like as reliable as modern jets. It would have been bad enough when it was in service but spare parts are very difficult if not impossible to obtain now.

The RNHF doesn't seem to have much luck with its aircraft but this is mainly because they are so rare. It surprised me to find out just how many RAF & RN aircraft were lost through accidents back in the 1950s.*

*PS. Check this out. http://www.ejection-history.org.uk/Aircraft_by_Type/SeaHawk.htm

[61_OTU]

Thanks for that Doug, interesting stuff. It was great to see it, particularly as I had not expected to.

The other nice thing was seeing the engine startup when he was ready to depart and there was the plume of smoke from the starter cartridge. It wasn't close enough for a photo but made me think of Winkle Brown's book and the photo of a line up of Seahawks all starting together, it must have been an impressive sight

Typhoon made an incredible noise, but didn't use burners for takeoff, spoilsport  ;)

Watching his carbon footprint. Well done.

Only thing was, they were more than happy to use them when the two departed on Monday morning......but they went from the wrong end!!! great noise but it meant that we didn't get to see them as they went vertical from 1/3 of the way down the runway  

Oh well, as you can see from Craig's shots we had time to move around for the F3's  ;)