gblwy
Well Known Member
This 15-minute video is a flight in “Papa Sierra” my RV12, back from RAF Leuchars in Scotland to my base in Perth, in less than perfect weather. The only audio is RT chat tapped from the intercom.
RAF Leuchars is an RAF front-line air defence base. During the cold war they regularly intercepted Russian “Bears” approaching UK airspace, with Phantoms, and latterly Tornados. Recently they have re-equipped with Typhoons (Eurofighters). The base is under threat from closure. Meanwhile, they open the base up to GA traffic one day per year for a “safety briefing”. This year’s briefing was on 6th August, and the weather was typically Scottish i.e. heavy showers.
In spite of many GA aircraft making the trip, Leuchars decided the weather was too poor for the all-weather Typhoon to give us a planned air display, but we were nonetheless expected to make our way back home! And this was following a couple of hours of safety lectures...
I have spared you the 20-minute departure hold, but I have left just a little time on the ground at the beginning so you can see a Typhoon taxying left-to-right in front of us. The 15 minute flight home is virtually unedited. You can see the rain on the camera lens, and at one point I can be seen mopping up drips of rain trying to get into the radio stack ;-)
The flight home was made at relatively low level, so you can hear the lady in the GPS starting to get a little nervous of the terrain ahead. The two bridges on the right are over the Tay (a large salmon river) at Dundee. The leftmost of these is the rail bridge. Historians may be interested to know that an earlier bridge fell into the river while a train was crossing.
http://taybridgedisaster.co.uk/
You will see I made a tight circuit at Perth in the rain, and was not too fussed about landing on the centreline.
http://youtu.be/E8l54tWEWWM
Flying in Scotland....Keith
RAF Leuchars is an RAF front-line air defence base. During the cold war they regularly intercepted Russian “Bears” approaching UK airspace, with Phantoms, and latterly Tornados. Recently they have re-equipped with Typhoons (Eurofighters). The base is under threat from closure. Meanwhile, they open the base up to GA traffic one day per year for a “safety briefing”. This year’s briefing was on 6th August, and the weather was typically Scottish i.e. heavy showers.
In spite of many GA aircraft making the trip, Leuchars decided the weather was too poor for the all-weather Typhoon to give us a planned air display, but we were nonetheless expected to make our way back home! And this was following a couple of hours of safety lectures...
I have spared you the 20-minute departure hold, but I have left just a little time on the ground at the beginning so you can see a Typhoon taxying left-to-right in front of us. The 15 minute flight home is virtually unedited. You can see the rain on the camera lens, and at one point I can be seen mopping up drips of rain trying to get into the radio stack ;-)
The flight home was made at relatively low level, so you can hear the lady in the GPS starting to get a little nervous of the terrain ahead. The two bridges on the right are over the Tay (a large salmon river) at Dundee. The leftmost of these is the rail bridge. Historians may be interested to know that an earlier bridge fell into the river while a train was crossing.
http://taybridgedisaster.co.uk/
You will see I made a tight circuit at Perth in the rain, and was not too fussed about landing on the centreline.
http://youtu.be/E8l54tWEWWM
Flying in Scotland....Keith
Last edited: