‘FULL-ON’ TO ACHIEVE FLYING MILESTONE

A Sea King Observer from Royal Naval Air Station Culdrose has celebrated a significant milestone in his career by reaching 3000 flying hours.

Lieutenant Commander Richard Full based with 849 Naval Air Squadron, the Fleet Air Arm’s Sea King Airborne Surveillance and Control (SKASaC) Unit is currently working as the Observer Training Officer.

Rich joined the Royal Navy in 1988 at HMS Raleigh near Plymouth as a Seaman (Radar) and after training went on to serve onboard HMS’s London and Cumberland. After successfully transferring to become an officer at Britannia Royal Naval College (BRNC) at Dartmouth in 1993 he qualified as a Royal Naval Observer on 750 NAS at RNAS Culdrose. He has flown a variety of naval aircraft during his career from in the early days of completing his Basic Observers Course in the Jetstream T2 in 1995, then qualifying operationally on the Sea King Airborne Early Warning (AEW) helicopter Mk 2 in 1997 through to 2000.

An instructional tour on 750 NAS followed before Rich moved onto BRNC to take up a Staff position from 2003 – 2004, where he was instructing new-entry officers. Returning to the Fleet Air Arm and RNAS Culdrose he converted to the SKASaC in 2005 and has since served in Afghanistan as part of Operation Herrick. Staying with the Sea King force he converted to the Sea King Mk 5 and also operated with 771 NAS, the Search and Rescue Squadron at Culdrose between 2010 and 2013. Before joining 849 NAS again as an Instructor he spent 6 months in Bahrain as part of the UK Maritime Command in the Middle East as the Aviation Subject Matter Expert.

“I’ve done some fantastic flying during my time in the Royal Navy,” said Lt Cdr Rich Full. “I was really surprised to receive the recognition that I did from the rest of the squadron to mark this aviation milestone.”