Ilton Open Evening

Every year the Royal Naval Air Station at Yeovilton puts on an open evening at its satellite airfield in the small village of Ilton, some eight miles from Martock.
There were several Naval helicopters on show, all of which were manufactured by Agusta Westland.
I had a great time showing Cora, Euan and Violet, as well as my Mum and Dad and Lisa, all the parts I was once involved with on the Sea King and Lynx during my time at the company.


My Dad and I are pictured here in front of an old Navy Lynx. Also on display was the latest Lynx "Wildcat". About 15 years ago I was part of the "Future Lynx" development program, which is now in production as the Wildcat.

Lisa, Cora, Euan and Violet got to climb up into a Sea King. Cora even got to wear the one of the aircrew's helmet.

 





















The British Army Parachute Display Team, The Red Devils, also dropped in for a quick aerial display.
There was also some impressive flying displays with a Lynx and Sea King.

















There was a large airport fire engine at the airfield that the children could climb up into and operate the powerful hose. Euan was very excited when he was allowed to press the button to sound the horns and sirens.
















I was a beautiful summer night and I had a lovely time playing with Cora, Euan and Violet.
It also great to see my Dad walking around so well after his knee replacement surgery just six weeks prior.


On another section of the runway were a couple of commercial helicopters, one of which was the AW169.
At Woodward I worked on the contract proposal - which we won - to design, develop and manufacture the hydraulic power control module, or PCM, for this helicopter. I am now working on handing this program over to operations to start the production phase.
This helicopter was one of the flight test aircraft and is fitted with instrumentation and computers to collect flight data as part of the testing program. I chatted to the test pilot, explaining the I used to work for Agusta Westland and now work for the company that supplies the PCM. He told me testing was going very well, with no hydraulic problems, and that it was a great helicopter to fly.
After our chat he allowed me to sit in the cockpit and Lisa took a few snap shots.