Chipmunk WK608 pictured over a wintery Somerset. [© Lee Howard]

I am writing this just before Christmas, so it is appropriate for me to wish all of you a very Happy Christmas indeed from all of us here at Historic Flight. Special Best Wishes go to Stanley Brand (Swordfish Pilot and author of 'Achtung - Swordfish') and Ben Pierce (TAG) who haven't been too well, but do sound as though they're on the mend. Also our own Andrew George Linsley had a successful cataract operation recently and is due to have a pacemaker fitted sometime in the New Year. We hope all goes well and his strength returns in 2007.

One of our Sea Fury Pilots, Adrian Orchard, has been carrying out his 'day job' as CO of 800 NAS (Harrier GR.7) in Afghanistan and doing a very good job too by the sound of it. Adrian was home for two weeks leave in mid November so we took the opportunity to have the Flight annual dinner - somewhat earlier than usual! We 'despatched' Paul Stone, having flown his last season for us in 2006. He had already taken up a new post as a Test Pilot at BAES Warton, flying the Eurofighter, Tornado and Harrier. He left with the now traditional model of the Sea Fury mounted on a redundant Centaurus piston and a Whiskey decanter. We wish Paul, Rosie and their children all the best in their new life. Paul will not leave the display scene though, as he remains one of Shuttleworth Collection pilots.

Chipmunk WK608 has been doing sterling work as usual, keeping pilot skill levels up and bringing on the new chaps. It really is a good trainer. We are able to test out new routines, hone individuals aerobatic skills and go through all the safety procedures that can't be practised in the single seaters, like spinning and forced landings.

We look forward eagerly to the challenges of the new year with fingers firmly crossed that we will be able to operate three or maybe more aeroplanes throughout the season. Happy New Year to you all.

Minus engine, wings and tail feathers, WV908 is loaded aboard the MASU trailer for her trip to Duxford. [© Lee Howard]

As reported last month, Sea Hawk WV908 finally departed RNAS Yeovilton bound for the Aircraft Restoration Company at Duxford on Tuesday 5th December where she will be fitted out with data gathering equipment by Pi Research of Cambridge.

With the engine, outer wings, tailplane and fin removed she was loaded aboard a trailer by the Mobile Aircraft Support Unit (MASU) and arrived safely five hours later. It is planned to have her returned to Yeovilton by March in order to have her rebuilt in time for the 2007 display season.

Meanwhile the BAES Brough team are moving along well with the wings for Swordfish LS326 and have recently visited Yeovilton to test fit engine mountings they have just re-manufactured. One of the problems they have encountered with the wings is that the spars were all hand made and therefore each 'nib' on the spar has to be made slightly different from its neighbour. All then have to go for heat treatment, checked that they haven't distorted and then plated. A slow process, but the end result will be a wing that will last another 60 years.

The Rolls-Royce Nene 103 engine being lifted out of WV908 on 9th November. [© Lee Howard]

The best Christmas present of all for RNHF was to learn that BAE have restarted work on LS326's wings with renewed vigour. The team reassembled at Brough on Monday 6 November and have a plan that effectively will get her back into the air in time for the start of the 2007 season. We are delighted with the flexibility they have shown at Brough and the willingness to push this project to fruition in such a tight timescale. Meanwhile back at Yeovilton, several 'new' checks have appeared for LS326 and we are progressing these with a programme that gets the airframe completely ready for the arrival of the lower wings.

VR930 with miscellaneous panels, fairings and cowlings removed for the winter inspection. [© Lee Howard]

Sea Hawk WV908 has had it's Nene engine removed to inspect exhaust, transition sections and jet pipes and do essential work. It is still hoped to fit a modern electronic monitoring system to the airframe to better record operating conditions and flag up any problem areas before they cause any damage. This started with a need to monitor temperatures in the engine and exhaust bays, but the "Pi" equipment has a huge capability so we are capitalising on some of that.

The Sea Fury is looking good and has already been through quite a bit of its winter inspection programme. It will go across to the dope shop after Christmas to be refinished in a more durable gloss finish. More details on that later - watch this space.

The Chipmunk, meanwhile, continues flying throughout the winter, keeping the Pilot's piston/taildragger hours up so that they are ready for the rush of March/April when we start getting going again. The Kennet Aviation Piston and Jet Provosts are also being utilised, again to keep up handling skills, but also to try out new routines or manoeuvres to fit into new displays so we don't look the same as last year.

VR930 joins in the unique flypast of Sea Fury, Seafire and Corsair on 23 September. [© Lee Howard]

September has proved to be yet another very busy month for RNHF. On Saturday 23rd, blessed with superb weather, both VR930 and WV908 took part in a unique line-up of naval aircraft at Yeovilton during the Charity Flying Day, organised to raise funds for RNHF. Our thanks go to all who attended and those who gave so generously of their time and aeroplanes to make it such an enjoyable day for all.

The FNHT Charity Day provided a rare opportunity for an impromtu team photograph! [© Lee Howard]

On Saturday 30th September the RNHF's display season commitments for 2006 came to an end when VR930 displayed for a private reunion at Yeovilton. Having clocked up some 52 flying hours over 38 displays and 8 flypasts, gained another new pilot and killed an unfortunate seagull (!!), she now enters a well-earned period of winter maintenance which will also see her emerge with a shiny new finish. Unfortunately Sea Hawk WV908 only managed to clock up some 13 hours over 9 displays this year before the cartridge problem brought her season to a premature end, but work is underway to bring her back online in time for the 2007 season.

Though our aircraft will be out of action now until early next year regular updates on the winter maintenance, including the rebuild of Swordfish LS326, will continue to appear on these pages so please do keep coming back to check on the latest news from Hangar 17!

A beaming Lt Chris Gotke is congratulated by Lt Cdr Dave McKay. [© Lee Howard]

Lt Chris Gotke taxies VR930 in after his first sortie. [© Lee Howard]

With the 2006 display season almost at an end preparations have already begun for next year. Having flown the Sea Hawk for two seasons Lt Chris Gotke will move up to the Sea Fury for the 2007 - every Naval pilot's ambition.

Today he started to realise that dream by carrying out his first sortie of the conversion process. There are of course no two seat trainers available in the UK to have a gentle lead in and so it is straight into the hot seat.

First sortie is first solo! In the past few months he has flown a good deal of hours in the Chipmunk, completed quite a few Harvard sorties and both Piston and Jet Provost in preparation.

In his day job Chris gets plenty of variety as well, flying the VAAC Harrier, Alphajet and Jaguar on various test and trials missions from Boscombe Down. Many hours have been spent learning the Sea Fury inside out on the ground with mentors and maintenance crew and talking through the various attributes and foibles of the aeroplane, so he was as mentally prepared as possible. His first familiarisation sortie was flawless, finishing with a textbook touchdown in what is a very demanding aeroplane on the runway.

We will have his grin surgically removed in a weeks time!

LS326 in the hangar during early September with upper centre mainplane temporarily fitted. [© Lee Howard]

Unfortunately we have been notified by BAeS Brough that there has been a need to re-deploy the four men who have been working on Swordfish LS326's wings to satisfy vital delivery dates for the Indian Hawk training aircraft order. Whilst this is believed to be only temporary there is no indication of when work will re-commence on our project.

As ever the quality of the work done by Brough is second to none, but it is done in 'spare capacity' by BAeS. So far both upper wings and the upper centre section are complete and have been delivered to Yeovilton (see News 4 May & 3 Aug 06), and three of the four spars required for the lower wings have been manufactured.

Meanwhile Howard Read is making good progress hunting down an electric start system for the Sea Hawk. It seems the system used on the Lockheed T-33 is available as an "off the shelf" piece of kit, and we just have to establish that it is compatible with the Nene as fitted to the Sea Hawk. Thanks must go to our good friend John Sparks of Exeter-based Hunter Flying Club who has been doing research whilst in the USA and has tracked down a circuit diagram and shopping list of parts required. We hope to be able to report good news soon. Fingers crossed!

Cdr Adrian Orchard brings VR930 in low over the beach at Eastbourne. [© Martin Eames]

Traditionally a quiet month for the Fleet Air Arm, August has proved to be anything but for RNHF. Beginning on the 10th with Families Day at RAF Cottesmore (now the home of the Harriers of 800 NAS) and followed two days later by the Devon Airshow at Dunkeswell, VR930 has been seen by thousands up and down the country.

Departing Yeovilton on Thursday 17th, Cdr Adrian Orchard flew the Sea Fury first to Dawlish to carry out a display, then direct to Eastbourne where he displayed again before landing at Biggin Hill for the night, whereupon he handed the aircraft over to Lt Cdr Dave McKay RNR.

Lt Cdr Dave McKay taxying VR930 at Elvington . [© Noel Ryan ]

The following afternoon Dave displayed over Eastbourne once more before returning to Biggin for fuel and heading North to display at the Yorkshire Airshow, Elvington. After an overnight stop and another display it was time to set course for home via a flypast at Sherburn-in-Elmet en-route - the round trip Yeovilton to Yeovilton covering some 850 miles.

Ensuring the Sea Fury remained fully serviceable throughout the long weekend were Don Robertson and Tony Smith who followed at a more sedate pace......by road in the RNHF's excellent Mitsubishi L200 truck; a round trip for them of just over 950 miles.

With his display committments fulfilled, Adrian left on Saturday afternoon for a brief holiday with his wife, whilst Dave returned to his "day job" on Monday afternoon, flying out of Heathrow in his capacity as an A320 Captain for British Mediterranean Airways.

LS326 is lowered to the ground to aid the fitting of the upper centre wing section. [© Lee Howard]

Nestled alongside W5856, LS326's upper mainplanes show off their newly-applied Temperate Sea Scheme camouflage. [© Lee Howard]

Progress on LS326 has been gathering pace with the recent delivery from the Yeovilton Dope Shop of all three upper mainplane sections in their temperate Sea scheme and white camouflage. To allow easier fitting of the upper centre mainplane the undercarriage has been removed and the fuselage carefully lowered to ground level. Once the lower set of mainplanes have been delivered from BAES Brough, where work on the spars is progressing well, the assembly and rigging work of the outer sections can begin.

Unfortunately we also have to report that the Sea Hawk has been grounded temporarily! A requisition for a supply of starter cartridges from deep storage started a chain of events that led to the armaments authority realising that 40 year old Mercury Fulminate was the initiating agent in the percussion caps. This substance has not been used since the 1970s as it deteriorates with age and becomes very sensitive. All our stock of cartridges have therefore been impounded and, though the aircraft itself is perfectly airworthy, we have no way of starting the Nene engine in its current configuration. As a result feverish work is underway looking into potential alternative forms of starting, including electric, air and the manufacture of replacement cartridges. We will, of course, bring you more news as we have it but regretfully, as things stand, it looks unlikely that she will be able to appear again this display season.

Cdr Adrian Orchard points out the Seagull "kill" marking adorning the side of the cockpit. [© Lee Howard]

VR930 and WV908 begin their display at RNAS Culdrose. [© Lee Howard]

Those who attended the Flying Legends show at IWM Duxford at the start of July would have seen that VR930 had already received a new nose cowling to replace the one damaged during the seagull incident of 17 June. Indeed the engineering team had the assembly replaced and painted (not a simple job as it entails the removal and refitting of the large, weighty propeller assembly) within a week. To Cdr Orchard's amusement the team have placed a small temporary seagull "kill" marking beneath the windscreen - watch out for it next time you see VR930!

The first two weeks of July have been a busy period for us. Both the Sea Fury and Sea Hawk flew at the RNAS Yeovilton Air Day on Saturday 8 July with VR930 then performing a flypast at the Pirton Fete en-route to Duxford where it displayed for the next two days. RNAS Culdrose in Cornwall also had their Air Day on Wednesday 12 July with Cdr Orchard and Lt Barnes displaying VR930 and WV908 respectively.

Amazing photograph showing the moment the Seagull decided to take on the might of a Bristol Centaurus....and lost! [© Martin Stott/GMS Photography]

On Saturday 17 June Cdr Adrian Orchard was three minutes into his display in the Sea Fury at Margate when, just pulling out from the second Half Cuban manoeuvre at around 280 kts and pulling 2g, a very large Seagull passed through the propeller, thankfully without hitting it, but impacting the upper portion of the engine shroud. A football-sized dent was left in the shroud and blood and bird remains spread all over the windscreen, obscuring Adrian's view. In classic 'birdstrike' mode, Adrian left the power setting where it was, declared a precautionary landing and returned to Manston. Low speed handling checks were carried out down wind before making a very nice touchdown using the quarter lights of the windscreen to see ahead.

The resultant damage to the front cowling. Miraculously the propeller immediately in front suffered no damage! [© John Beattie]

The damage turned out to be purely superficial with none of the engine controls affected. Chief Engineer Howard Read inspected the aircraft on site the following morning, dressed out some of the dent and certified the aircraft fit to fly home. Now safely back at Yeovilton, the propeller has to come off to access the engine shroud, which will be replaced with a spare item. The repair work will be completed in time for the next show, Flying Legends at Duxford.

Meanwhile the Sea Hawk has been giving our engineering team a challenging time of late, with a starter unit chewing up the output gearwheel on 14 June, leading to an overspeed and the wrecking of yet another starter overspeed brake drum. Starter spares are becoming increasingly more difficult to source, and we would be very keen to hear from anyone who knows of the location of any such items. The team quickly got onto the problem and by this Sunday's Kemble Air Show all was well again. With WV908 having unfortunately missed last year's event through the same problem, Lt Pat Barnes, who just a week beforehand had achieved his Qualification to Display from Commodore Simon Charlier, took the jet to Kemble for his first public display in the aircraft.

Unique Naval quartet formation of Sea Hurricane, Sea Fury, Sea Hawk and Seafire at Old Warden. [© Nick Blacow/www.shuttleworth.org]

Well, June has got off to a busy start with both the Sea Fury and Sea Hawk displaying together for the first time this year at the Volvo Yacht Race re-start off Portsmouth on Friday 2nd.

Today, however, the RNHF had the honour of participating in a unique formation of no less than four historic Naval aircraft during the Shuttleworth Military Air Pageant at Old Warden, Beds.

Operating out of Yeovilton for the event, Lt Cdr Paul Stone RNR in the Sea Fury and Lt Chris Gotke in the Sea Hawk were joined by the Shuttleworth Collection's Sea Hurricane IB Z7015, flown by Keith Dennison, and none other than John Beattie, in his spare-time role, flying Kennet Aviation's newly restored Seafire F.17 SX336.

Who's a happy chap then? Lt Pat Barnes on return from his first Sea Hawk flight. [© Lee Howard]

Hot on the heels of the Sea Hawk carrying out her first flight of the year our latest recruit, Lt Pat Barnes, took to the skies in WV908 today for his first Sea Hawk familiarisation sortie. On returning from the one hour flight, the broad grin said it all!

But WV908 wasn't finished with there. Late in the afternoon Lt Chris Gotke flew his solo display in front of ACOS(AV) Commodore Simon Charlier - the head of the Fleet Air Arm. All went well and as a result Chris is now fully authorised for display flying the Sea Hawk for the 2006 season. Pat Barnes will continue to build up the neccessary flying hours on type before he too displays in front of Cdre Charlier to gain his own display authorisation.

WV908 at the end of her first CTF of 2006. [© Lee Howard]

Smokin! WV908 starts up. [© Lee Howard]

After a hydraulic leak curtailed the first attempt at a post-winter maintenance Check Test Flight on 12 May, Lt Chris Gotke succeeded in completing the hour-long task during the morning of Tuesday 30 May.

With the post-flight ground inspections also completed the aircraft has a clean bill of health and is due to make its first public outing this Friday (2nd June) along with VR930 at the Volvo Yacht Race Re-start off Portsmouth. Sunday will see both aircraft appearing at the Shuttleworth Military Air Pageant, Old Warden.

The immaculate port upper mainplane for LS326 arrives after a 7 hour journey from BAES Brough. [© Lee Howard]

It was all hands on deck on 4 May when the fully-refurbished port upper mainplane for Swordfish LS326 arrived at Yeovilton from BAES Brough - even the pilots and Flight Commander got their hands dirty!

The weighty item, resplendant in silver dope finish, is the first of the four main wing sections being re-worked at Brough to the usual superb standard and joins the rebuilt upper centre-section which arrived before Christmas.

Once all of the items have been received they will be sent for refinishing at Yeovilton before the complex business of re-attaching them to the fuselage and rigging begins.

New-look website

Just in time for the last day of the London Airshow, the Royal Navy Historic Flight's fully re-designed website went 'Live' on 23 April.

Created for RNHF by P&H Media, the new-look site for 2006 contains full details of the RNHF including an up-to-date News section, team biographies, historical details on all of our aircraft, information on the various fundraising events, links to our very generous sponsors and an online shopping area, together with the all-important list of display dates for the coming season.

The website will be kept fully updated throughout the season so keep coming back to catch up on the latest news and find out which shows to see us at!

She flies!! [© Lee Howard]

On the morning of Thursday 13 April W5856 briefly had air under her tyres. Sadly not the long-hoped for conventional return to the skies but instead courtesy of the Yeovilton crane! The aircraft was being loaded aboard a truck of the Mobile Aircraft Support Unit (MASU) in preparation for the journey to Earl's Court, London, for static display at the London Airshow. Weighing in at 2.5 tonnes this was a delicate operation, made all the more tricky by the stiff breeze blowing across the airfield.

Having been secured on the trailer and parked back in Hangar 17 for the Easter weekend, W5856 left Yeovilton by road on Tuesday 18 April to take up position in the exhibition hall at Earls Court.