RNAS Yeovilton International Air Day 2004 - 18th September 2004

Yeovilton may well have hosted an event quite badly overlooked this year as it could be the last time Sea Harriers, the last all british fighter aircraft in service with UK forces, are gathered en masse for an airshow. The weather was suitably miserable too. Paul Johnson/Flightline UK sets sail for Yeovilton. All Photographs copyright Author.

The bad weather continued into late september with low cloud and rain doing it's best to disrupt the event. You can tell it's going to be wet when AirSound start playing songs like "Mr Blue Sky" and "Always Look On the Bright Side..." Thanks Sean and Jonathon! The Great Vintage Flying Weekend's planned fly-in was servely hampered as was the case last year, but thankfully a few more brave pilots made it to Yeovilton. The weather also hit the flying display. The French Navy seem to be allergic to British weather while the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight and Yakovlevs stayed in the relative warm of their bases. Indeed, the weather on Friday was so bad the Belgian Armed Force's F-16 only made his rehersal a matter minutes before the gates opened to the public on Saturday. The morning display had to be curtailed, and unfortunatly led to another cancellation - Jonathon Whalley's FIST emblazoned Hunter F58a.

Static wise, it was another lean year for Yeovilton. The US Navy badly let Yeovilton down for operational reasons and it was therefore no surprise there were large expanses of concrete - Yeovilton is a big place to fill! The lack of RAF support remains puzzling to your scribe, we know he show shared a weekend with Biggin, but with no static Tornados, Harriers, Hawks etc, it does look strange. Still, a big thumbs to the Royal Navy for bringing out such a large collection of Sea Harriers and Sea Kings for an impressive show of strength even if the Merlin HM1 remained contraversial by absence! The German, Danish, Dutch and Polish Navies were the only foreign navies to participate with a Lynx from the Dutch, Germans and the Danes, and the Polish with the obligitory M28MR Bryza! At least they came though. The Italian Air Force brought two AMX Centaurs while the US Army once again brought their UH-60A Blackhawk from SHAPE.

The Flying display saw even more limited international participation with just the Belgian Armed Force's F-16AM opening the show. In fact both the opening fast jets appeared to suffer malfuncations during their display with the F-16 developing a minor glitch which forced the display to be paused for a bit while the pilot sorted the problem. The problem for the RAF's Tornado F3 was rather more visible when half way through the display, the starboard afterburner started to fail. By now, the weather had started to really close in, and the De Havilland Foth Moth just got it's display done in time before it really started to rain. Braving the downpour were Kennet Aviation's Westland Wasp and the RAF's Chinook HC2 which were the only aircraft able to display in such conditions. Thankfully, a lunch break had been preplanned into the programme allowing much of the bad weather to pass before the

main afternoon display. The Lunch break did see some aviation action however in the form of Radio Controlled Jets. First to fly was a rather brilliant display by a model F-15 which really did look real! However, the A-10 model had rather an adventurous takeoff and a very undiginfied crash landing on the far side of the airfield!

The afternoon shows thankfully had much improved weather, it was even sunny by the end! Opening the afternoon show were the Royal Air Force Aerobatic Team, The Red Arrows. This was a significant event for Yeovilton as the Reds have been missing for many years. They also put on a fine show despite the worst weather with a shower of drizzle punctuating the middle of their display. By far the most important event of the afternoon however was the first display by two of the Royal Navy's Historic Flight. The Hawker Sea Fury and Sea Hawk FB6 flew a restricted display following extensive restoration work. Of course, naval historic types feature strongly at Yeovilton, and it was no surprise to see a number participating at the event. One very late arrival for Static display was the french based Grumman TBM-3 Avenger which flew in during the displays. He was also the first to depart trying to avoid the inclement weather which was heading toward France! Kennet Aviation are becoming something of a naval historic flight in their own righthaving aquired the former TFC Douglas AD4N Skyraider flown impecably by John Beattie in a powerful display of piston power.

Two further piston engined fighter took part. Full marks to Andy Sephton for eventually making it through the weather to display Rolls Royce's Spitfire PR19. He had been due to display the Spit in the morning show but weather prevented departure from Filton. Alister Kay gave an exciting account of OFMC's P-51D Mustang making the most of the whistling noise from the gun ports and merlin. An aircraft with Naval connections was the De Havilland Vampire T11. A Vampire was the first jet to land at sea in the hands of test pilot "Winkle" Brown and the type was used for advanced training as well as an admiral's barge.

Of course, it was just warbirds and fast jets in Yeovilton's programme. Cpt Alan Wade displayed the Joint Elementary Flying Training School's Slingsby T67M-200 Firefly in typically precise style. JEFTS are now onlt responsible for the training of Army and Navy pilots with the RAF now using the Grob Tutor T1 fleet, an example of which was on display in the static park.

An unusal sight at a big military airshow were the Tiger Club's Turbulent Team. I was far from convinced that such as act would suit such a venue. I was wrong. The crowd got a superb view of the limbo as well as the flour bombing and all the other antics the team gets up. Well done to the Tiger Club.

The navy manged to provide two formations of it's aircraft during the afternoon. The Serco operated Black Hawks gave a polished routine while the impeding dispandment of 899NAS was marked with a fourship of two Sea Harrier FA2 and two Harrier T8 aircraft. This was down on numbers hoped for, but nevertheless, highly significant. It was left to Lt Cdr Jason Flintham to give a solo display in the Admiral's Barge coloured Sea Harrier.

The traditional finale to a Yeovilton Air Day is the commando assault. Rather than remain the same each year, the Royal Navy tweak each years performance to highlight certain aspects of their work. This year saw a maritime patrol and attack scenario acted out to highlight the current operations the Navy performs along the coast of Iraq. Now, quite a bit of imagination had to be used, that lorry in the photo is carrying a fast patrol boat whicb is at sea! As usual there were plenty of pyrotechnics and Harrier GR7A's joined the Sea Harrier's highlighting the new direction of Royal Navy fast jet operations.

So, overall a fine show. As ever, the flying display was very good and of a high quality, perhaps lacking a few more international participants. Certainly, Yeovilton's variety is unmatched by other shows of it's types. However the static was once again sparse to say the least. We hope that the Navy can attract more from the RAF and US Forces in particular at future shows. Another minor quibble is the rediculous emptying of the airfield just after the end of the flying display. Everyone is ushered out rapidly! Why can't it be a little more relaxed allowing the public to enjoy the static and showground relieving the surrounding roads a little?

 copyright Flightine UK 2004