After a difficult journey in the snow and ice, it was with great expectation that we arrived at the holding car park waiting for the bus to pick us up and  drive us onto the airfield. We had half expected a phone call the night before to inform us that the event was going to be cancelled as most of the UK was gripped in a Siberian spell which had brought many parts of the country to a halt, however we were met by our guide for the day Sqn Ldr Locke who proceeded to brief us on the days agenda, informing us that photography was allowed in all areas of the base however no photographs of the Puma wreck please, and make sure you remove all hats when onto the pan (heck it was freezing out there!!) The plan was to visit the various hangers around the airfield in the order of 14,13,10,11,17,18,4,3,5,2,1

This would cover aircraft in deep storage and then the active side of the airfield including a visit to the Horsa project and the hanger where the Westland team were preparing the AH-64's for delivery to the Army Air Corps, on this occasion we were advised that we could not talk to the technicians as the workload was so intense at the present time that they could not be interrupted, the replacement of the Gazelle with the Apache being at a very high pitch evidenced by the growing number of Gazelle airframes arriving for storage within the facility.