The season got 'under weigh' with a Squadron fly-in to everybody's favourite naval air station (ex) - HMS Daedalus. Now in case you did not know, in Greek mythology, Daedalus, in spite of having murderous tendencies, was really quite a clever chap. In keeping with best naval traditions of ingenuity and resourcefulness, invented and constructed two pairs of wings, one of which he attached to the back of his son Icarus who was his number 2, and the other pair to his own back. One day whilst they were carrying out a maximum altitude climb over Crete, Icarus, (like no.2's tend to do) became a bit too ambitious, peeled off, exceeded his VNE - his wings folded and he got the chop. Daedalus managed to glide to Sicily where he became a builder and lived happily ever after.

Fortunately naval aeroplanes have a rather more rugged construction and they have operated very successfully from Lee on Solent since 1917 when it became a seaplane training station. A large area behind the seafront became a full sized aerodrome in 1934 finally commissioning as HMS Daedalus in May 1939. Naval flying came to an end in 1993 and the airfield, although still owned by the MOD, is now used by the Hampshire Police Air Support Unit which is equipped with the new Britten Norman Defender 4000 aircraft which we saw and admired at Bembridge last year. The Squadron was going to have a presentation by the police unit but I understand that they were otherwise engaged on an emergency.

After an excellent lunch and a walking tour of Daedalus old camp, which included peering through the windows of the sadly overgrown Wardroom block (noting that the bar shutters were firmly down !), we were shown round the Hovercraft Museum and the staggering variety of hovercraft on display. If you are feeling generous the Museum is short of funds - as of course is the Royal Navy……………

Following that we had a Search and Rescue presentation by Bristows and a look round the big twin engined Sikorski S61N. As a former CO of four Search and Rescue flights equipped with the underpowered Dragonfly or Whirlwind 3, I was very envious of this powerful and extremely well equipped machine. Bristows have been operating the S61N since 1970, updating continuously and now with long range capability, an automatic flight control system, auto-hover, search radar, FLIR, a dual hoist system and a full range of navigational equipment - what more could you want? This SAR chopper, G-BDIJ has been operating from Lee since May 1988 and covers an operational area from Hastings in the east to Christchurch in the west and southwards to mid channel, although of course it can operate well outside this area when required.

A report by Ron Dobrée - Carey. Photographs by Phil Moore and Peter Lovegrove.