849 Squadron FAA

[Nigel Bunker]

Does anybody have an image they could e-mail me of the 849 Sqn Bee as found on the tail of their AEW Gannets? O am looking to make a decal which will go on top of the radome of my 849 Sqn Hawkeye AEW.2. PM me in the first place if you can help.

[Mossie]

Nigel, there's plenty of shots of 849 NAS Gannets on Airliner.net:  Gannet Pics on Airliners.net

There's a profile on Wings Palette that might be useful for printing your own decal from:
http://wp.scn.ru/en/ww3/s/488/9/0/4

Model Alliance have a decal sheet with the Bee on it, maybe you can tap someone up for it rather than buy the whole sheet?
http://www.hannants.co.uk/search/?FULL=ML72121

I might have some shots on my home computer, the Yorkshire Air Museum have a 849 NAS Gannet.  I can't promise as I had a virus problem recently & lost many photos, but if I swing around there sometime soon I might get a few pics for you.  I'll PM you if can find one.

[Nigel Bunker]

Thanks for the links Mossie - I am looking to make a decal about 50m dia so need a good image to start from.

[Aircav]

Is this any good ?

[Nigel Bunker]

Aircav - that is excellent - thank you

[PR19_Kit]

I might have some shots on my home computer, the Yorkshire Air Museum have a 849 NAS Gannet. 

As a point of interest there weren't any non-849 Sqdn Gannet AEW3s. It was the only operational AEW3 NAS and all the ships flights were part of 849. I think the Squadron was home based at Yeovilton, but when their carriers were docked they tended to be boarded out wherever there was a nearby Naval Air Station.

I was lucky (or maybe un-lucky.....) to get a 30 min air test flight in the back of an AEW3 in the summer of 1961 while it was at Culdrose for a short while. Was it ever cramped and noisy in there! 

Trying to look out of thye bulged side window, the only vision break in the rear compartment, was almost impossible as my borrowed bone dome was bigger than the window! 

One day I'll build one.....