Sea Kings

A few weeks ago Daughter Katy transferred to the Fleet Air Arm and started her training at HMS Saltern over in Gosport. For those not familiar with the British military the Fleet Air Arm is the navy air force.

After a few years of more general shipboard duties Katy decided to train in aircraft engineering. Families were invited to go along to see the facilities which as well as seeing Katy was an opportunity too good to miss. The tour took us through the workshops have examples of the different helicopters the trainees will be working on.

Not surprisingly most were retired aircraft, like these Sea Kings which were great to go aboard. They are due to go out of service in the next few years and the modern replacements won't have anything like these old dashboard gauges and controls, the flight controls being replaced by computerised and head up displays.

This was an interesting detail the tail including the rotor assembly fold for more effective storage aboard ships. At the top of the body section you can see a transmission coupling which takes power from the main engines to the tail rotor which is a nice reminder of how vital these components and their maintenance is.