Wings and Wheels Society.

Trip to R.A.F. Lyneham 24th August 2005.

Eighteen members of the Wings and Wheels Society enjoyed an outing to R.A.F. Lyneham on a very wet Wednesday 24th of August. After a greeting from our hosts the group was given a detailed talk on how the base conducts its operations around the clock 12 months of the year. The group was then taken on a tour of the base starting with the Mobile Air Movements Squadron, this unit are on short notice standby to mobilise and deploy anywhere in the world with all the equipment necessary to unload and load the Lockheed C130 Hercules aircraft that R.A.F. Lyneham operate. The loading equipment was very impressive, not only in terms of size, but the versatility of their operation. Next stop on the tour was a visit to one of the C130K model Hercules aircraft, the group was given free range to look around the aircraft in detail including the flight deck. The base meteorological office was next on the tour, there followed a very interesting talk on the equipment used to gather information about the weather, which included satellite and infra-red imagery. All this information was used to give current weather information and to predict what will happen with the weather. It was quite amusing that the civilian Met Officer, even with all the high tech equipment at his disposal was still looking out of the windows regularly to back up the satellite data. After a brief stop for tea and biscuits the group was taken to the Army Air Despatch side of the base for a photo opportunity with the Douglas C47 gate guardian. The Wings and Wheels Society would like to thank our hosts for a most interesting visit.

Copyright of all pictures in this gallery belong to R Kelsey.