RAF Coningsby 24-26 August 2022 Dave Anderson
Making a three day family visit to Lincolnshire, a few base visits had to be included in the trip. On the way down, RAF Barkston Heath was not far off the A17 and as I hadn’t seen many of the new Grob G120TP Prefects, a quick visit was made. You can turn into the base entrance and park on the left this gives an easy view of the ramp and all aircraft outside can be seen. Today there were 11 seen and 9 new ones for me which made the visit worth while. Back on the A17 and passing RAF Cranwell nothing of interest outside so no stop required..
ZM304, ZM306, ZM307, ZM310, ZM312, ZM314, ZM315, ZM317, ZM318, ZM320, ZM321 all 3 FTS / 57 Sqdn
Next stop was RAF Coningsby, arriving just after 12pm, Coningsby is an excellent and easy base to watch and photograph Typhoons from various locations around the base. First call is the lay-by (Dogdyke road) outside the BBMF hangar and walking along the fence gives views of the main ASP (29 Sqd & 41 TES) and the “new” z sheds basically a drive in drive out shed for a Typhoon, used by 12 & 29 Sqd. All jets in this area can easily be read off, driving a few hundred yards down towards the end of the runway on the right hand side is a large car park with a food take away van, this area gives views of anything on the runway. 3 and 11 Sqdn use the HAS complex to the south, most of 11 Sqdn were away "on business" If runway 25 is in use its not much good for departures as they are already climbing away, if they are using 07 then this is a great spot for landing views. Today they were on 25 so we continued around the base, left onto New York road and left onto B1192, then just before the runway traffic lights a left turn into a farmers field gives views of the 25 runway threshold, great for photos and nothing moving are missed from here. There is a donation box for the local air ambulance for using this field. It was very warm but cloudy and multiple sorties were flown during the afternoon, we stayed until 4.30pm. Very few Typhoons carry squadron marks now and are often moved between units, a few with old marks were photographed see below.
| Serial | Type | Unit | Marks carried | Callsign | |
| ZJ929 | BAe Typhoon FGR4 | 29 Sqdn | 29 Sqdn | Triplex 33 | |
| ZJ937 | BAe Typhoon FGR4 | 29 Sqdn | 29 Sqdn | Anarchy 21 | |
| ZJ950 | BAe Typhoon FGR4 | 29 Sqdn | Rampage 21 | ||
| ZK310 | BAe Typhoon FGR4 | 12 Sqdn | 11 Sqdn | Vandal 22 | |
| ZK339 | BAe Typhoon FGR4 | 41 TES | Apollo 1 | AM | |
| ZK339 | BAe Typhoon FGR4 | 41 TES | Rebel 51 | PM | |
| ZK340 | BAe Typhoon FGR4 | 29 Sqdn | Triplex 31 | ||
| ZK341 | BAe Typhoon FGR4 | 12 Sqdn | |||
| ZK352 | BAe Typhoon FGR4 | 3 Sqdn | Chaos 42 | ||
| ZK364 | BAe Typhoon FGR4 | 12 Sqdn | 12 Sqdn | Vandal 21 | |
| ZK367 | BAe Typhoon FGR4 | 3 Sqdn | Python 21 | ||
| ZK369 | BAe Typhoon FGR4 | 3 Sqdn | Chaos 43 | ||
| ZK375 | BAe Typhoon FGR4 | 41 TES | |||
| ZK377 | BAe Typhoon FGR4 | 3 Sqdn | |||
| ZK383 | BAe Typhoon T3 | 29 Sqdn | 12 Sqdn | Triplex 32 | |
| ZK431 | BAe Typhoon FGR4 | 3 Sqdn | Chaos 41 | ||
| ZK433 | BAe Typhoon FGR4 | 12 Sqdn | |||
| AB910 | Spitfire LF Vb | BoBMF | Spitfire 97 | ||
| G-OWTN | Embraer ERJ-145 | Eastern A/W | (BAe Systems) | Felix 37 | fr Warton |
Overflights
| ZK559 | Boeing Vertol CH47 Chinook HC6 | Lifter 1 flew north - south then north to south again in the evening |
| Boeing Vertol CH47 Chinook HC6 | Lifter 2 with above on the second south trip | |
| M-SHRM | Agusta Westland AW139 | Flew abeam north - south |
| PH-FLF | Cessna 337B Super Skymaster | flew east to west to Weston in Eire |
| ZM417 | Airbus A400M Atlas C1 | Low level north - south around 1600 |
| N771SR | Cirrus SR-22 | South - north around 1603 |
Next day (Thursday) we had stuff planned but managed a quick call in to see if anything had changed, needing only 10 Typhoons with 5 of them seen yesterday and today another one ZK424 had just come out of the TMF hangar made the stop worthwhile.
| Serial | Type | Unit | Marks carried | Callsign |
| ZJ937 | BAe Typhoon FGR4 | 29 Sqdn | 29 Sqdn | |
| ZJ950 | BAe Typhoon FGR4 | 29 Sqdn | Warlord 13 | |
| ZK310 | BAe Typhoon FGR4 | 12 Sqdn | 11 Sqdn | Wolf 21 |
| ZK331 | BAe Typhoon FGR4 | 12 Sqdn | ||
| ZK335 | BAe Typhoon FGR4 | 29 Sqdn | ||
| ZK339 | BAe Typhoon FGR4 | 41 TES | Apollo 11 | |
| ZK352 | BAe Typhoon FGR4 | 3 Sqdn | ||
| ZK353 | BAe Typhoon FGR4 | 29 Sqdn | 29 Sqdn | |
| ZK363 | BAe Typhoon FGR4 | 12 Sqdn | ||
| ZK367 | BAe Typhoon FGR4 | 3 Sqdn | Rampage 11 | |
| ZK368 | BAe Typhoon FGR4 | 29 Sqdn | Warlord 12 | |
| ZK369 | BAe Typhoon FGR4 | 3 Sqdn | Rampage 12 | |
| ZK374 | BAe Typhoon FGR4 | 29 Sqdn | ||
| ZK375 | BAe Typhoon FGR4 | 41 TES | Apollo 12 | |
| ZK377 | BAe Typhoon FGR4 | 3 Sqdn | Rampage 13 | |
| ZK383 | BAe Typhoon T3 | 12 Sqdn | 12 Sqdn | Wolf 23 |
| ZK424 | BAe Typhoon FGR4 | ex TMF | ||
| ZK431 | BAe Typhoon FGR4 | 3 Sqdn | ||
| ZK433 | BAe Typhoon FGR4 | 12 Sqdn |
On Friday the sun was out, so before we headed to the coast for the afternoon we called into the 25 field for a few hours, first of three launches started at 10am, nothing flew in the afternoon other than the BoBMF Lancaster and Hurricane which came in low over the village as we headed back to the hotel. Fridays can be very quiet, on some Fridays they don’t fly at all. Most Typhoon's depart using military power but we were treat to "Riot 1 and 2 flight", both lined up together, went into full afterburner and pulled up vertically to 10,000ft in a matter of seconds, nice end to the visit.
A small museum at Tattershall Thorpe was on our way back to the hotel, its not open very often but two aircraft can be seen outside, both new ones for me so worth the stop. The museum has the nose of a Buccaneer and a few few civil registered mainly replica aircraft inside.
| Serial | Type | Unit | Marks carried | Callsign |
| ZJ913 | BAe Typhoon FGR4 | 29 Sqdn | ||
| ZJ914 | BAe Typhoon FGR4 | 29 Sqdn | Special | Riot 2 |
| ZJ929 | BAe Typhoon FGR4 | 29 Sqdn | 29 Sqdn | |
| ZJ942 | BAe Typhoon FGR4 | 29 Sqdn | Riot 1 | |
| ZJ950 | BAe Typhoon FGR4 | 29 Sqdn | ||
| ZK310 | BAe Typhoon FGR4 | 12 Sqdn | 11 Sqdn | Wolf 22 |
| ZK340 | BAe Typhoon FGR4 | 29 Sqdn | ||
| ZK352 | BAe Typhoon FGR4 | 3 Sqdn | Chaos 14 | |
| ZK364 | BAe Typhoon FGR4 | 12 Sdn | 12 Sqdn | Wolf 21 |
| ZK367 | BAe Typhoon FGR4 | 3 Sqdn | Chaos 12 | |
| ZK368 | BAe Typhoon FGR4 | 29 Sqdn | ||
| ZK369 | BAe Typhoon FGR4 | 3 Sqdn | Chaos 11 | |
| ZK372 | BAe Typhoon FGR4 | 12 Sqdn | ||
| ZK377 | BAe Typhoon FGR4 | 3 Sqdn | Chaos 13 | |
| ZK383 | BAe Typhoon T3 | 12 Sqdn | 12 Sqdn | Wolf 23 |
| ZK428 | BAe Typhoon FGR4 | 29 Sqdn |
Tattershall Thorpe Museum
| XM192 | Lightning F1A |
| XS887 | Westland WS58 Wessex HAS.1 |
