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RAF Sea King HAR3A ZH545 Belonging to 22 Squadron based at Wattisham, Suffolk known as Rescue 170 visits Sheffield City Disused Airport 27/03/2012

Thats a belter Alex!! Lovely work!!

Great catch!

Nice shot Alex, could do with a bit of clockwise rotation just to sort that horizon out, but otherwise the lighting on it is lovely!

ZH545 is definately a Wattisham machine, I see it all the time down here, it normally calls "Rescue 125" when operating in this neck of the woods. We also have ZH543 at Wattisham at the moment too.

Ian.

if it was calling 170 this is NOT one of the wattisham aircraft on duty at the moment but on loan
regards
Matthew
http://www.wattisham.org.uk" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Thanks for the information guys. I had ZH545 Confirmed as at Wattisham. Just not aware on the call sign at the moment...stuck between "Rescue 125" and "Rescue 170" I cant fully remember what she called up as. I think it was 170 but don't quote me on that.

Lets put it this way, its based at Wattisham, or certainly was up until 3 weeks ago when I photographed it there.

Very nice shot you've got of it there in Sheffield by the way ..... Ian

Absolute cracking shot

Kind regards

Calum

Thanks Chaps..

Gents,

The SAR birds at Wattisham frequently change, although they are always drawn from the HAR3A batch of ZH540-545. Wattisham callsigns are Sierra Romeo Golf/Rescue 125 and 126 on the rare occasions when both birds are operating. If this one was calling 170 then he was not being operated by 'B' Flight at Wattisham. Over the winter 'B' Flight, 22 Sqn had ZH544 and 545 but that could very easily have changed and they were probably due for a swap. I'll have a look over the next week or so.

Gary

gary1701 wrote:Gents,

The SAR birds at Wattisham frequently change, although they are always drawn from the HAR3A batch of ZH540-545. Wattisham callsigns are Sierra Romeo Golf/Rescue 125 and 126 on the rare occasions when both birds are operating. If this one was calling 170 then he was not being operated by 'B' Flight at Wattisham. Over the winter 'B' Flight, 22 Sqn had ZH544 and 545 but that could very easily have changed and they were probably due for a swap. I'll have a look over the next week or so.

Gary

Understand that mate, but like I've already said, Wattisham were operating 545 and 543 3 weeks ago, so if its changed its very recently.

Ian.

Sheffield Airport is no longer in commercial use but the South Yorkshire Police Helicopter uses a section of it, did the Sea King land in their area?? Regarding the comment on the horizon in the photo this is the hill at the rear of the runway. A great photo well done

I'm going to have to go and see that seeming as I live in Sheffield! Nice shot

Scorch998 wrote:
Understand that mate, but like I've already said, Wattisham were operating 545 and 543 3 weeks ago, so if its changed its very recently.

Ian.

Hi Ian,

No worries. It could well have been changed recently, as apparently '544 has been swapped for '543 sometime since I lasted popped up the road and had a look. I don't get up to the fence much during winter. I first photographed '545 on this detachment at Wattisham back in March 2012, so it probably was due for a swap and may well have gone since you last saw it. There doesn't seem to be a set pattern on airframe assignment changes, at least not to somebody watching from the outside as I've seen them sometimes change within a couple of months before, yet in this instance '545 has been on the flight for about a year.

Gary

On the night of the visit I had this machine confirmed by a very trusty source that it is Wattisham based.

Just to confirm that ZH545 is still current with "B" Flight at Wattisham. Stopped off at my mates tonight at 5.40pm who actually lives in Wattisham village, as I passed the base both Sea Kings were out so I stopped and took a few pictures. Sure enough as already posted ZH543 and ZH545 are the Sea Kings currently based at Wattisham. Bearing in mind that ZH545 was with the Wattisham Flight approx 3-4 weeks ago and is there again at the moment I would say that when the picture was taken in Sheffield it would of still been with the Wattisham flight, unless it was on loan elsewhere for a few days of course, which I very much doubt!.

Regards .... Ian.

Scorch998 wrote:Just to confirm that ZH545 is still current with "B" Flight at Wattisham. Stopped off at my mates tonight at 5.40pm who actually lives in Wattisham village, as I passed the base both Sea Kings were out so I stopped and took a few pictures. Sure enough as already posted ZH543 and ZH545 are the Sea Kings currently based at Wattisham. Bearing in mind that ZH545 was with the Wattisham Flight approx 3-4 weeks ago and is there again at the moment I would say that when the picture was taken in Sheffield it would of still been with the Wattisham flight, unless it was on loan elsewhere for a few days of course, which I very much doubt!.

Regards .... Ian.

Thanks Ian,

Any ideas what B Flight callsign is?

As gary1701 has said callsigns from Wattisham B Flight are normally "Rescue 125" with "Rescue 126" being used if both are airborne at the same time. Maybe the 170 that you possibly heard was reference to flight level or bearing??.

Hope that helps.

Ian.