Two "find the sub" dits... the first directly concerns 820NAS, the second they were participating in:
Flying off Invincible during a CASEX the boys had been using JEZ and pinging on a UK Sub... when things got a bit tricky, and they were "temporarily unaware of the Sub's position"
Senior Pilot, flying one of the cabs, calls "Hot" and throws the Seaking over into a sharply banked turn (for a SKG?) and dives towards the Sub he can see on the surface... but as they approach, realises it's not the UK Friendly, but a Soviet conventional boat, running on the surface that no one else seemed to be aware of or know anything about.
Many years ago, a message came through to Culdrose that the RAF had lost contact with a Soviet Sub moving up the South West Approaches... and the call came out to "Scramble"... All available Seakings on the Air Station leapt into the air, crews ready and willing for a bit of "hot contact with a real Red"... the action had been going on for about an hour, when ATC received a call from the Civilian S61 Helicopter on the scheduled passenger run between Penzance & the Isles of Scilly saying, "Did you know there's a Submarine down here on the surface?".... Guess what it was?