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Sea King HC.4 Identity?


Paul Bradley

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This photo is of a Royal Navy recruitment poster I picked up about 10 years ago. It shows a Sea King HC.4 on IFOR detachment to Split-Divulje in Croatia, flying low over the Cetina River gorge at Omiš. The code letter on the nose is 'C' but, other than that, I have no clue as to the identity of the airframe - can anyone tell me what serial and what squadron? And does anyone have any other photos of this aircraft at that time?

 

 

010_zpsyzf9djez.jpg

Edited by Paul Bradley
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"Fleet Air Arm Helicopters Since 1943" has ZA297 to 845 Squadron, marked as (Y)C from 7-Sep-94, refinished and marked first IFOR and later SFOR, airfreighted to Split 14-Jun-96 and returned to Yeovilton 14-Feb-97 (as well as other movements), so that sounds likeliest?

 

Tim

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It's an 845 NAS cab.  845 side codes were Y C (in this case) or YA , YB etc. However for some reason we never ever painted the 'Y' on the cabs even in the good old days of the Wessex Mk5.

 

846 NAS side codes were VA, VB , VC etc, whilst 707 NAS (as was) was ZA , ZB, ZC etc.  848 I think was XA, XB, etc, although I could be wrong about this as I can't remember that far back.....

 

MM..

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  • 3 weeks later...
On 2/18/2017 at 5:54 PM, missile-monkey said:

It's an 845 NAS cab.  845 side codes were Y C (in this case) or YA , YB etc. However for some reason we never ever painted the 'Y' on the cabs even in the good old days of the Wessex Mk5.

 

846 NAS side codes were VA, VB , VC etc, whilst 707 NAS (as was) was ZA , ZB, ZC etc.  848 I think was XA, XB, etc, although I could be wrong about this as I can't remember that far back.....

 

MM..

 

Edit - I stand corrected!

 

It seems 848 were NOT X codes

Edited by Ex-FAAWAFU
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On ‎18‎/‎02‎/‎2017 at 5:54 PM, missile-monkey said:

It's an 845 NAS cab.  845 side codes were Y C (in this case) or YA , YB etc. However for some reason we never ever painted the 'Y' on the cabs even in the good old days of the Wessex Mk5.

 

846 NAS side codes were VA, VB , VC etc, whilst 707 NAS (as was) was ZA , ZB, ZC etc.  848 I think was XA, XB, etc, although I could be wrong about this as I can't remember that far back.....

 

MM..

Whisky side numbers for 848 shippers

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Sqn codes changed over time, possibly due to disbanding then reforming. 

 

In the late 60's/early 70's,  848NAS Wessex were V as in the photo below of HMS Albion off Christmas Island with 848 embarked 1971.  The codes clearly show VJ, VV, VH and VS.

hms_abion_with_848nas_embarked_1971_off_

 

Entries in the book "Fleet Air Arm Helicopters since 1943" has the following:

for Wessex in the 1970's:

707NAS had the code W as in WZ for XT481

845NAS had the code Y as in YL for XT514

846NAS had the code X as in XG for XT512.

 

for the Sea King:

846NAS had the code V as in VR for ZD627 in 2000

848NAS had the code W as in WV for ZD479 in 2001

845NAS had the code Y as in YE for ZD477 in 2009

 

I haven't yet managed to find a Sea King Mk.4 NAS with the code X.

 

Teeny-Weeny Airways for 3BAS was good enough for me!

 

Mike

 

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7 hours ago, missile-monkey said:

So who had the X-Ray side letters? Was that 847? 

 

MM

 

According to Ballance's Squadrons and Units of the Fleet Air Arm (p.467), X was worn by 846 Sq at Culdrose and Yeovilton between 1971 and 1975 (example Wessex HU.5 XT461 XD/VL) and by "847/845" during Corporate in 1982 (example XS491 XM and, from the 847 Sq entry (p.224), XT482 XL).

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