Hundreds of residents turned out to cheer a famed Sea King helicopter as it toured Moray at the weekend.
The £30,000 aircraft was secured for the region last month following a mammoth public campaign.
The Morayvia charity plans to display it at its Kinloss base as a permanent tribute to the RAF search and rescue heroes who kept vigil over the region.
On Saturday the group paraded the vaunted copter through Buckie, Elgin, Lossiemouth and Forres to thank locals who got behind its Save a Sea King campaign.
Morayvia chairman Mark Mair said: “The tour was held to let the people of Moray know that we now have a Sea King back here, and that it will soon be on display.
“We had a great response from people, there’s a lot of interest in the Sea King.
“One of our key aims is to help educate children about the work the Sea Kings performed, and a lot of youngsters were really excited to get the chance to sit aboard the helicopter.
“We had people of all ages attend the tour, some of our pensioners were just mesmerised by the Sea King.”
Mr Mair added: “Saturday was the first time I had the chance to go inside the Sea King since we purchased it, and it brought back so many memories for me.
“This aircraft saved thousands of life while it was active and this is our way of paying tribute to the people who helped achieved that.”
The group is still raising funds to exhibit the helicopter at its Kinloss aerospace heritage site.
It received a major boost on Saturday in the shape of a £2,000 donation from Buckie’s Regency garage.
The Sea King fleet was grounded in after 40 years patrolling the region’s skies, but only two months later Morayvia announced they had procured a retired copter from the Ministry of Defence.
The legendary Sea King XZ592 was ferried 620 miles from Gosport on England’s south coast to Moray last week.
The helicopter was built in 1978 and served in the Falklands during its military career before being transformed into a search and rescue aircraft.