The Last ever RAF Kinloss Friends & Families Aug. 21st 2010

RAF Kinloss and nearby RAF Lossiemouth alternate their individual Friends and Families Days, in 2010 it was the turn of Kinloss.

The day started quite bright and sunny and a bit windy it later became a bit overcast but this didnt stop the small flying display taking place. Unfortunately due to the weather both the expect Dakota operated by the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight and Shempston based Tiger Moth “DF115” had to cancel.

The Flying display started at 1 pm and opened with Tornado F.3 pilot Richard Pargeter in his Pitts S1C performing only what a Pitts Special can do, then we were shown the capabilities of the Sea King HAR.3 from 202 Sqn “D” Flight at nearby RAF Lossiemouth, and finally a pair of XV(R)Sqn Tornado’s also from Lossiemouth carried out a demonstration of their Afghanistan Role Demonstration, (complete with pyrotechniques) which lasted a full 15 minutes.

The small static contained a VC-10 from Brize Norton, a retired Nimrod MR.2, a brand spanking new Beech 200 GT from Cranwell and finally a Tucano fron Linton on Ouse. It was almost certainly the final time a Nimrod MR.2 will be displayed at a military base as part of an Airshow, perfectly apt that it should have happened at Kinloss.

I met up with several friends, in particular Tom Sunley & Al McNeish, also the Team from Squadron Prints led by Gilly who managed to relieve me of a decent sum of money for various aviation related goodies.