10 NAVY NEWS, NOVEMBER 2009
Picture: LA(Phot) Jenny Lodge, RNAS Culdrose
Days of Humber
ORDINARILY Hullensians don’t take a lot of notice of the comings
and goings of Her Majesty’s Ship Explorer.
Ordinarily, however, they’re not accompanied by a Red Arrows
fl y-past, thumping live music, and ten Clipper yachts bobbing
around.
The P2000 patrol craft was asked to take kee
part in the start of the Clipper round-the-world d
race on the Humber. It was an offer she couldn’nn’t t
refuse.
In fact, there was a three-day festival to
mark the beginning of the fi rst leg of the
race from Hull – and the small RN university
boat joined in throughout.
Explorer serves the universities of Hull,
York, Sheffi eld and Leeds, earning her the
tag YURNU (Yorkshire Universities Royal
Naval Unit).
Five students were on board (plus the regular ular
ship’s company, led by CO Lt Jonny Bannister) for the opening
day of the festival when a demonstration was laid on for the city’s
VIPs on the Humber.
They watched as four of the ‘lucky’ students were transferred
to an RNLI lifeboat, then winched aboard an RAF helicopter for
a brief fl ight…
… which ended several minutes later as the undergraduates
were winched back down on to Explorer – not an easy manoeuvre
for either ship’s company or air crew as deck space on a P2000
is minimal (to put it mildly). It probably explains why one of the
students returned to the mother ship looking a tad green.
“The VIPs saw that our training ship is not just about sailing and
navigation, but also about helping to train other organisations we
may meet at sea,” said Lt Bannister.
“The majority of the students during their time in URNUs will
have the chance to experience winching at least once.”
If that wasn’t enough excitement for YURNU amid three days of
live music, street fairs, art, fi re sculptures (think metal sculpture
set on fi re), Explorer had the honour of leading the ‘parade of
sail’.
Now apparently according to a local saying, it’s never dull in
Hull. Except when you’re hosting a major international sailing
event…
Having enjoyed glorious late summer sun throughout the
weekend, come race time it was overcast and gloomy. Luckily,
yachts don’t need the sun, just a good breeze – which there
was.
Kings and ’streams
Ten brightly-coloured yachts take part in the global Clipper
race, all sponsored by a city, region or country – as refl ected
in the names such as Team Finland, Spirit of Australia, Hull and SAILORS and airmen
Humber and Uniquely Singapore.
at RNAS Culdrose
Explorer guided all ten past Hull Marina (pictured below) and
a waterfront fi lled with upwards of 150,000 people watching
shield their eyes as six
proceedings.
Jetstreams enjoy their
“Although leaving Hull Marina is a regular occurrence for the day in the autumn sun.
ship and her crew, she’d never done so in front of thousands of The training aircraft marked
people – or to live music,” said Lt Bannister. 30 years’ sterling service with 750
“The crew also had to live up to the extraordinary performance Naval Air Squadron by fl ying in
of the Red Arrows whose display above the marina was the formation over the Cornish air
precursor to the yachts’ departure.” station.
So no pressure then… Understandably, the sight drew
In fact, it was the yachts which felt the burden of expectation quite a crowd...
more; two almost collided as they jostled position on the lengthy ...who then withdrew to the
journey to the offi cial starting position off Spurn Point, 20 miles comfort of HMS Seahawk’s
downstream. offi ces to tuck into a birthday cake
At the mouth of the great river, the yachts headed out into the celebrating those 30 years with the
North Sea, next stop La Rochelle. training squadron.
And for HMS Explorer, the rather-less-exotic but still buzzing One of 750’s most experienced
surroundings of Hull Marina. pilots, Roger McDonald, and
one of the squadron’s youngest
students, S/Lt Hannah Best,
cut into a cake (shaped like a
Jetstream, naturally) to mark the
anniversary.
The squadron – motto Teach
and Strike – provides instruction
in navigation, airmanship, radio,
● All hail the new King... which does look remarkably like the old one: the fi rst of the King Air 350s in 750
radar and basic tactical skills to
NAS’ hangar at Culdrose
all observers in the Fleet eet
Air Arm before they ey
The new training set- providing the ‘targets’ for students easy for the students to rely purely
move on to specialist ist
upup will educate aircrew using the Jetstream’s electronic on technology to do their job.
anti-submarine training ing
ffrom the completion ofro kit. “Observers have to be able to
(in Merlins), airborne e
bbasic training to the point The King Air will do the same, rapidly assimilate a great deal of
surveillance and control
they are handed over to but the software of the Tactical data, decide on the best course
(in Bagger Sea Kings),
operational aircraft; for Mission Training system also of action, safeguard their crew’s
or anti-surface/anti-
RN observers (plus allows instructors to ‘superimpose’ lives and bring back their multi-
submarine/general
RAF navigators) that additional targets alongside the million-pound aircraft in good
purpose duties (in
means Culdrose. real ‘targets’ which appear on working order.”
Lynxes).
At present the basic students’ displays. All four King Airs will be in
The Jetstreams will
observer course lasts “The new system has a lot to service by March 2011, when the
be phased out by March h
32 weeks, using the live up to,” Lt Cdr Armstrong last Jetstreams are paid off under
2011, their job being
SSouth West Approaches as adds. a £52m 25-year contract with
performed by four King Air
its ‘playground’ with shipping “We don’t want to make it too Ascent Flight Training.
350s as part of a shake-up of basic
fl ight training across the Armed
Forces...
...bringing us neatly on to the
trainer’s successor, which does
bear a striking resemblance to the
Jetstream.
Revamp begins
The first of four King Airs which
will replace the nine Jetstreams
WORK has begun on a £21m three-year makeover straddles the main road to the Lizard) into the
with 750 has been delivered to the
for hangars and buildings at Culdrose to meet former meteorological school building next to
squadron – and duly painted in
the needs of 21st-Century operations. the runway because “this is where the business
RN livery.
Many of the current facilities used by Sea Sea is”.is
Faced with overhauling nine
Kings at the Cornish air station were put up up He adds: “There is a complex machine
aged aircraft which were becoming
in the early 1970s. working down herwo e, 24/7, and perhaps the
increasingly costly to maintain,
Three and a half decades later they arare rreest of the RN doesn’st t necessarily know
as well as requiring the latest
no longer ‘fi t for purpose’ (the roof of one ne what’w s going on, but the tempo is higher
technology found in front-line RN
hangar recently vacated by the Sea than the surface fl eet.
helicopters, Whitehall plumped
Kings used to fl ap in bad weather…), “As a location for fl ying training,
for new machines.
so work has begun on replacements. it’s excellent: we’ve got FOST on the
“Although it still performs very
Initially, the Sea King Airborne doorstep, good landscape for night
well, the Jetstream has reached
Surveillance and Control squadrons – vision goggles training and of course the v
the end of its service life,” said
849, 854 and 857 NAS – plus the Sea King ng Channel.”Cha
Lt Cdr Nick Armstrong, 750
residual training units will move into the new The airbase is home to ten squadrons, 80
NAS’ Commanding Officer.
facilities. aircraft including Hawk jets, Jetstream and
“Rather than fly nine Jetstreams,
In the longer term, aircraft up to the size of King Air prop planes, plus Merlin and Sea King
we will be able to achieve the same
Merlins could be accommodated in the new helicopters, 1,800 RN/Fleet Air Arm personnel
quality and level of training with
hangars. and some 1,200 civilians making Culdrose the
just four of the new King Airs.”
The fi rst turf for the replacement buildings biggest single employment site in the county.
The King Airs – already
was cut by AET Alex Davies, one of the youngest The rebuilding should be complete by 2012
successfully in service with the
ratings in 771 NAS, and Culdrose’s CO Capt and aside from meeting the demands of current
Royal Air Force – are being
Graeme Mackay. aircraft and technologies, the new facilities are
introduced to the Fleet Air Arm
Capt Mackay has already moved his staff being designed with reduced energy costs in
as part of the UK Military Flying
from the other side of the A3083 (the air station mind.
Training System.
010_NN_Nov.indd 1 19/10/09 16:10:46
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