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https://www.forces.net/news/final-farew ... d-cornwallToday Sea King Mk7 Helicopters from 849NAS
conducted a farewell flypast around Devon & Cornwall
to mark the passing of this fine aircraft.
50 years in UK military service -
BZ to all the aircrew and engineers
that made her such a success. End of an era.
https://www.royalnavy.mod.uk/news-and-l ... helicopterSea Kings helicopters make final flight in Devon and Cornwall
5 hours ago
Two Sea King military helicopters
have completed their final farewell flypast,
after nearly 50 years of service.
The two aircraft of 849 Naval Air Squadron will now be retired.
They are being replaced by a new radar system on Merlin Mark 2 helicopters.
The Sea King Mark 7 helicopters saw action in the Falklands, Afghanistan and both Gulf Wars.
The helicopters took off from RNAS Culdrose earlier,
before flying a route across Devon and Cornwall.
The Sea Kings - known as "Baggers" in the Royal Navy -
acted as "eyes in the sky" during operations.
They were filmed returning to their home base
just after 14:00 BST with their escort, a Merlin ZH841.
Their nickname came from the distinctive inflatable black bag
on the side of each helicopter which housed their radar systems.
In recent years they played a vital role both in Afghanistan
and as part of the Royal Navy's anti-drug operations in South America.
The Sea Kings will now be flown to HMS Sultan in Portsmouth,
however their fate is not yet known.
They are being replaced by a "Crowsnest" radar system on the Merlin Mark 2 helicopters.
Sea King flypast ends 49 years of service by veteran helicopter
19/09/2018
Bagger crews fought through weather conditions ‘on the limit’
to bid farewell to the people of Devon and Cornwall
today in a three-hour flypast.
Two veteran helicopters struggled against rain and poor visibility
– but were determined their retirement should not go unmarked…
and the people who braved the weather to see their penultimate flight
were not disappointed.
The two Sea Kings – for the record ZE420 (a spring chicken at 32 years old),
and ZA126 (a more mature 38)
from 849 Naval Air Squadron –
flew as far east as Teignmouth, over the wilds of Dartmoor and Bodmin Moor, the northern Cornish resorts of Padstow, Newquay and St Ives,
before a final sight of Land’s End, Penzance, Mounts Bay and back to Culdrose.
Their flight marks the end of 49 years of active military operations
by the Sea King in various roles and guises.
The first of more than 140 Sea Kings built for the Royal Navy arrived at Culdrose,
just three weeks after the first moon landing.
We were really surprised by the number of people who turned out –
and especially the number of schoolchildren who spelled out messages for us.
Commander Chris Hughes
Since then, the helicopter has been used for
anti-submarine warfare, search-and-rescue missions, general duties,
carrying Royal Marines Commandos into action (which it did in the Falklands, Iraq (twice),
the Balkans, Sierra Leone and Afghanistan),
and provided airborne early warning and intelligence to the Fleet and ground forces.
It’s in that last role – the Sea King Mk7 airborne surveillance and control –
that an aircraft designed in the late 1950s flew its final mission.
It earned the ‘bagger’ tag after the Falklands conflict in 1982
when the airborne early warning variant was hurriedly introduced;
the large black sack sticking out of the fuselage
houses a powerful radar which scans the skies for potential threats.
Those original baggers had one major flaw –
they couldn’t track hostile aircraft over land,
a problem rectified when the much-improved Mk7 entered service in 2001.
It proved to be a revelation.
Crews found that they could not only detect aerial threats,
but they could also track vehicle movements on the ground.
The Mk7 proved indispensible
in helping Allied forces to evade and ultimately destroy Saddam Hussein’s army around Basra and the Al Faw peninsula in 2003…
and helped ground troops and police in Afghanistan arrest
insurgents and seize masses of weapons and bomb-making equipment.
All of which is a long way from
a dank, gloomy West Country on a mid-September day.
“We were really surprised by the number of people who turned out –
and especially the number of schoolchildren who spelled out messages for us.
One group lined up as ‘BZ’ –
naval terminology for ‘well done’,”
said Commander Chris Hughes, 849’s Commanding Officer.
“It’s been really heartwarming to see so many people wanting to say goodbye to the old girl,
particularly in the conditions:
rain and fog, which became worse as the flight continued.
The poor visibility and low cloud mean we were operating on the edge.”
He flew in ZE420 alongside Lt Cdr ‘Tank’ Murray, Lt Cdr Richard Lewis and Lt Ben Selwood.
And guiding ZA126 safely around the region were
Lt Cdr Ian Chudle, Lt Cdr Matt Round, Lt Dale Eyers and Lt Martin Pittock.
The helicopters face one final flight – from Culdrose to HMS Sultan in Gosport,
where they will await disposal – next week.
Their airborne surveillance and control role will be taken over by
the new Merlin Crowsnest which arrives at Culdrose next year
and will operate from new carriers HMS Queen Elizabeth and Prince of Wales from 2020 onwards.
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