Valley Aviation Society Trip Report Page

Written trip Reports & photos from various V-A-S members in a PDF format. Please feel free to browse through the reports. To save a copy to your hard drive, simply once the PDF file is open, click on the save button to save.

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PDF documents marked with are password protected and they are only available to V-A-S fully paid members. You will be asked to provide a User Name & Password when you click the link to the V-A-S members closed report.

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(Please use your V-A-S Membership Number for both. Username & Password as you see it on the card. Your number can be found on the bottom right corner on your VAS Membership Card. Please use capital Letters)

RIVAL OF THE MiG by Jim Newton (Added 17th May 2011)

V-A-S Members Access only

The Mikoyan MiG-15 is world famous, it's exploits during the Korean War cemented it's place in history and placed it's designers, Artyom Mikoyan and Mikail Gurevich on to the pantheon of jet fighter design. So successful was their fighter that a final total of 13,131
aircraft were produced in the Soviet Union between 1949 and 1959.

THE KINGFISH AND THE ARCHANGEL by Jim Newton (Added 12th April 2011)

V-A-S Members Access only

When the Lockheed U-2 became operational in June of 1956 the CIA estimated that it would be unsafe to overfly the Soviet Union after a period of two years, due to the rapid advancement in Soviet missile technology. Shortly afterwards the timescale for safe operation was reduced to six months. The estimation may have been cautious, but by mid 1960 it was reality.

VIETNAM TOUR 2009 by Jim Newton - (Added 5th March 2011)

V-A-S Members Access only

Vietnam had long been on my list of countries to visit and in 2009 the opportunity materialized thanks to Andy Marsh of "Alpha Mike Tours". Whilst Vietnam was only a part of a much larger tour it was, very much, the focal point and the added bonus was that photographic permission had been granted by the authorities.

Beech MC12W Article- by Neil Dunridge - (Added 5th March 2011)

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It has become increasingly important in the on-going operations in Iraq (Operation Iraqi Freedom) and Afghanistan (Operation Enduring Freedom) to provide fast and reliable information to the troops on the ground. Sometimes it is more important than dropping weapons.

KANDAHAR AIR WING, AFGHAN AAC - by Neil Dunridge

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It has long be seen that the way to stabilize the situation in Afghanistan is to help the Afghan people to help themselves, co-operation in building up an infrastructure and to become self reliant are the number one aims.

THE NIGHT WITCHES - by Jim Newton

V-A-S Members Access only

Following the invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941 the Russian Army was inundated with volunteers wishing to defend their "Motherland". These volunteers included a sizeable proportion of young women, but whilst there was no formal restriction on women joining the army all applications were blocked with the intention of discouraging the applicants.

OPERATION MOSHTARAK - AFGHANISTAN - by Neil Dunridge

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Operation Moshtarak as it was to become known was the largest counter-insurgency operation since the first operations in 2001. Report and photos by aviation reporter/photographer, Neil Dunridge.