log Tues 11 Aug 09

Location : North Yorkshire Spotter Watch Member : No

Hi
Noted between 11.00 and 14.45 were
ZJ120/D
ZJ127/L
ZJ990/AA
ZJ994/AC
ZJ995/AD Merlins
XW214
XW235
XW236
XW237 Pumas (and 2 others too dirty to read off)

At 14.00 2 Merlins and 2 Pumas did an impressive fly through, break and land before assembled families. Several locals who had come to watch said that the occasion had been on local radio as the crews were returning from Iraq. The helicopters involved had taken off from Benson earlier that morning though (ZJ120/ZJ127/XW236/XW237) so maybe went to collect the crews from somewhere else.

Cheers
Dave Ferrari

Location : Manchester Spotter Watch Member : No

Just come back from a weeks camp there with the Air Cadets. The flypast was for a visit from the Defence Secretary Bob Ainsworth. They took off earlier to do a display practice. I saw the practice from the fire section and then we were able to watch the flypast from the bottom of the ATC tower. Just wish I had my camera with me. Also managed to get a flight in XW236 the next day from Bramley Training Area. Will post some photos soon.

Subject: Log 2009-08-17, 03:49

Nice log! dont think ainsworth deserved a flypast though!!!!!! Mad