Snarlie - friend.... my post was to ensure the younger members of this thread understood precisely what happened all those years ago. Sadly I can still recall it far too well.
Whether you intended it or not, the tone of your message, along with the short statement about the RN teaching the RAF to fly the Sea king could have been interpreted several ways.
Of course the RN was doing great stuff with the Sea King (and the Belgians and Noggies too!) for quite a few years before the RAF got their hands on some yellow Mk3s - and amongst other things you learned about salt accumulation on compressor discs during prolonged hovering in gales near large vessels!
We learned a lot in those early days from many RN hand me downs, including night low level over water expertise, and from Culdrose bar talk... and were grateful for it... as we were soon to find out. It doesn't change the fact we then took things further, as was inevitable once it was our train set to play with - SAR mountain flying with the Sea King being an early and demanding learning exercise! We learned too that our monthly winch usage was on average some 10 times per cab greater than that of any RN cab at the time...and exposed several key problems with it that the RN experience had yet to fully expose. All in all then a joint effort that has contributed to the SK's continued success in the SAR role, even if the old girl is now well past its sell by date by modern standards. I for one really do hope the future comes sooner rather than later... its well overdue now.
