Well I'm on weekend leave from a flying course at RNAS Yeovilton. Thought I'd share some pictures. I'm part of the Naval Unit at University, and due to wanting to be a military pilot I was sent on this course for a taster. Roughly 8-10 hours flying over 10days. After 5 hours I was flying circuits, just need to perfect the landing, and judge the decending rate a bit better. As they say there is only one thing thats guaranteed about flying, and that is that you have to land haha Here are some pictures, excuse some blurry ones, camera isn't the best in world, and some were taken in a rush...............
The first two pictures are of the aircraft I am flying. It's the Grob Tutor. Used by 727 Squadron for the flying course and also for grading. The flying course is as a taster for military flying and also to learn a bit about the Fleet Air Arm and Yeovilton.
Grading is taken whilst at Dartmouth on the Officer training. I beleive it's after the second term, and the grading itself is pass or fail. If you fail, then you get the 'chop'. If you pass then you are past the first hurdle and hopefully onto DEFTS (Elementary Flying Training) at Barkston Heath.
This is a picture of the Hawk. Famously the aircraf used by the Red Arrows display team (RAF ) Part of the reserve squardon at Yeovilton, and used to train Fighter Controllers. Reservists also take the pleasure in flying them too.
The Hawk's used for flying training are based at RAF Valley as part of the Advanced Fast Jet Training. Extremely competitive, but for those that make it are then streamed to their Operational Conversion Units (OCU's) be it Typhoon, Harrier, Tornado etc.. New Hawks are almost ready to replace the current batch, which will have an updated glass cockpit.
Off again this sunday to finish off the course so Il add some more pics when i get back.