"FIGHTER CONTROL GETS AIRBOURNE"

  HMS SULTAN Visit

Fighter Control’s On Task Chief Editor, Rick Sleight, reports on the inaugural visit for the FC Visit Group, to HMS Sultan at Gosport on 29th March 2005.

FLIGHT PLANNING:

After weeks of preparation, the inaugural Fighter Control [FC] visit took place at the Royal Naval Air Engineering and Survival School [RNAESS] at HMS Sultan in Gosport on Tuesday 29th March 2005.

Throughout winter 2004, many FC forum members registered with the FC Visits Group, administered by my ‘better half’ Kirsty. By the beginning of 2005, over 100 people had already joined our fledgling group.

In February 2005, Kirsty began the process of contacting many aviation related locations around the UnitedKingdom, to request visits for the group. Almost immediately, a steady flow of positive responses for the 2005 programme, were returned to the FC office, with offers of visits to Arborfield (28th April), Coltishall (19th August), Cosford (26th May), Marham (26th July), Netheravon (9th May), Syerston (30th June and 10th August), plus the HMS Sultan visit on 29th March. We have also been offered visits to Hawker Hunter Aviation at Scampton and RAF Spadeadam, however we are still awaiting date confirmation on these, as at 19th April.

We have also received positive responses for the 2006 programme from, Cottesmore, Dishforth, Leeming, Shawbury and BAe Warton, so 2006 looks like being an exciting year for the group also!

One of the very first locations to reply was HMS Sultan, who offered the group a visit on 29th March, with 15 places, which we gratefully accepted. As part of the group Terms and Conditions, visits are advertised to the registered members via an email group, on a Friday evening and Sultan was the first visit to be advertised in this way. Within two days the visit was almost full and by the following weekend, all 15 available places were taken, with three other members on the reserve list.

Once Kirsty had confirmed the names of those attending, to her contact at Sultan, everything was set, for the first group of Fighter Controllers to get ‘airborne’!

MISSION:

Once one or two emails had been exchanged between those attending, to arrange car sharing etc., everyone arrived safely and on time, with everyone arriving at virtually the same moment.

	We were met by our host for the visit, Steve Dugan, [Common Training Group Officer] from the AESS, who gave everyone a brief rundown on the rules and regulations and shortly after, we were off in search of our ‘bounty’. Steve proved to be a superb host, knowing exactly what our members required from the visit.
The visit began with a look at the airframes in the Cockerell hangar, where Aircraft Battle Damage Repair [ABDR] training is performed by the trainees.

Next stop was the Newcomen hangar, which contained many more training airframes most of which were ex Royal Navy [RN] Sea Kings, recently retired, due to the arrival of the Merlin HM.1 in RN service.

After a short walk, made at top speed, to avoid the ever present drizzle, we took refuge in the Stephenson hangar, where the fictitious 760 Engineering Training Squadron keep some of their airframes. The light in this hangar was very conducive to photography, however, unfortunately only three airframes were inside but it was good to see a pre production EH-101 Merlin, ZF649 inside here.

This airframe was saved by the AESS, when it was no longer required for pre production work and is now used to give apprentices hands on experience of the Merlin, which they will undoubtedly work on in their future careers. At this juncture, as it was our inaugural visit, I asked Steve to take a photograph of the whole group, which he kindly did and thankfully most of us showed our ‘good sides’!

Having stripped them of the spares they required, the RAN then asked the RN how they could dispose of them. The simple answer was for the AESS to keep them and use them at Sultan, amongst the many airframes used, which total approximately 70 in number.

One last location was visited, which was a little unusual! From under the cover of some bicycle shelters we were afforded some respite from the continuous drizzle and also to photograph a once rarely seen Sea King HAS.5, XZ570, which previously operated from Boscombe Down in Wiltshire, where it was used in it’s latter years for Merlin radar trial work.

Throughout the visit, note taking of airframe serials and markings was allowed, as was photography and Steve was also happy to answer any questions that were directed to him. Steve was not only extremely knowledgeable but also injected a good deal of humour into some of his responses too! When asked about why one of the Sea Kings was painted matt black, his simple reply of “Stealth” was answered, without change of facial expression, until he gave the real reason!

The injection of such humour and friendliness was indeed welcomed by us, as sadly, the only thing to hamper an otherwise excellent inaugural visit was the inclement weather, which provided a constant downpour of drizzle, throughout the day.

Every airframe on site was shown to the group during the visit, even the Gazelle which was locked inside a classroom in the ‘Daedalus’ building, however it could be seen clearly through the windows. The duration of the visit was approximately two hours and was thoroughly enjoyed by all those attending.