Holbeach 21 March

[slogen51]

Only a tenuous connection to this section- Sorry no pictures of planes !

Thanks to a heads up on this site I went to Holbeach hoping to see some action - unfortunately the cloud base was 4000 feet and Aero 41 was at FL150!

The B-52 Aero 41 made three hot runs plus one run aborted due to a malfunction followed two or three dry runs

Holbeach 21-March-2019 Dropped from B-52H 61-0015 Aero 41 by Mike B, on Flickr

Holbeach 21-March-2019 Dropped from Aero 41 61-0015 by Mike B, on Flickr

Holbeach 21-March-2019 from B-52H Aero 41 61-0015 by Mike B, on Flickr

cheers

[Ed H]

Great shots, thanks for posting. Good to see what goes on at the receiving end of a mission.

[Thunderbolt II]

Very interesting to see, thanks for posting.

[stealth117]

Great timing there Just out of curiosity do you know what the weight of these bombs was at all?

Thanks
Martin

[slogen51]

They probably did mention the type in the long stream of numbers exchanged with the ground controller.

I would guess at 2000 pound GBU-31 GPS guided

( I am not that familiar with Holbeach but the controller was saying Friendlies ( them and us) were 1.6km to the south , we were standing about 100m from the control tower)

I have been to Holbeach three times in the last year and this is the first time I have seen anything dropped or fired! I understand that there are Army Apaches there next week during the day

[stealth117]

Hi, thanks for the reply mate. I have seen harriers dropping 1000lb bombs on donna nook a few years back so was interested to see what sort of size these were. With regards to the controllers, they have in the past mentioned friendlies, meaning me my dad and brothers when we have been at the range. They then proceeded to give the pilot our location to do a show of force near to where we were stood, this has happened a few times mainly with tornados and F-15s but it has also happened when the A-10s visited a little while back. You seem to have to be very lucky now to see any actual weapons being used unfortunately but I still like to go to the ranges when I can as it is different to just watching them take off and land at coningsby (where we normally go) plus you do get the odd bonus pass if you get lucky.

Thanks for posting these pictures

[mushbuster]

I would guess at 2000 pound GBU-31 GPS guided

They look very much like BDU-50s which are essentially 500lb inert Mk 82s, GBU31s would have destroyed the range target rather than just create a splash like the impact shown

[slogen51]

Cheers

Makes you wonder how much inert metal has buried itself underground over the years

[falconfighting]

Really interesting to see the "end result" - thanks for sharing