Lost on Exercise

[STN Ramp Rat]

I cant help but feel the real story is not as exciting as the headline .... but hey its the era of fake news

Helicopter pilot lands to ask for directions in Kazakhstan - BBC News (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-38996750)

[Rosevidney1]

I'm sure most of us have been 'uncertain of our position' on occasion but I suppose this chap didn't have any railway stations complete with large signboards to assist him. :p

[Saintsman]

I was once sent from Manston to find a helicopter that had got lost in the fog after crossing the Channel. We found the crew in a cafe and they then followed our Land Rover back to base.

I think it was a Belgian Allouette.

[Wensleydale]

The first aircraft toland at Waddington Aerodrome was a Bristol Scout from the RNAS Training Establishment,Cranwell, in early September 1916 (the exact date is unknown). It was flown by Sub-Lt Leonard “Tich”Rochford who described the occasion in his autobiography “I Chose the Sky”.

The following morning, I took the Bristol [Scout] up to 10,000 feet andthen commenced a spiral descent. It wasa fine day but rather misty and when I came out of the spiral at 4,000 feet Iwas lost. I flew around awhile torecognise a landmark and then found myself over a town, which happened to beLincoln though I did not know it. Soon Isaw below me an aerodrome under construction and there I landed.

It was Waddington which in World War Two was an important bomberstation. There was only a small contingentthere in the charge of a lieutenant. None of them was able to swing my propeller but the lieutenant put at mydisposal a Ford “Tin Lizzie” car with a driver, who took me to Lincoln toborrow an RFC mechanic to start up my machine. The ford stalled on the steep hill into Lincoln as its fuel tank wasnearly empty and the petrol would not flow into the carburettor. However the driver backed the car down thehill, turned it round, and ascended the hill in reverse gear. Having collected a mechanic we returned withhim to Waddington where he got the gnome engine started and I arrived back atCranwell at about 1 o’clock. After twomore flights in the Bristol I was told I had completed my flying training andhad been awarded my Wings.

Lt Rochford DSC*; DFCsurvived the war: he went on to become a 29 victory Ace usually flying aSopwith Camel with No 3 Sqn RNAS which became No 203 Sqn RAF in April 1918.

[BATCO]

Great sympathy for him on two counts.

1. The weather was pretty poor (see BBC picture). ok so I'm not a pilot, but I have been navigationally embarrassed in the mountains a couple of times.

2. During a Vienna Document inspection in Kazakhstan (whilst serving on JACIG) I recall a Mi17 flight heading south from Karaganda (of A Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich fame). Nothing but grass, grass and more grass for over an hour of flight. Then a railway line (with station but no associated village - 'because mandated in 5 year plan'). Then grass etc for another 45 minutes, then Lake Balkash (and Mig 25 base).

And drifting a little. Cold War warriors might remember those plastic sheets showing a Motor Rifle Regiment at 1:50 000 scale, deployed for advance. Well, on the steppe we saw a Motor Rifle Regiment, parked up in ranks just like that, slowly rusting away, with the grass poking through the tracks.

Regards
Batco

[Rigga]

I was once on an evening flight in a Whirlwind moving into snowdonia toward Valley when we were flying up a hill as the fog came down and darkness also fell. The two occupants of the upper floor seats 'became disorientated' and could not make the map work. As we were close to a road and we could see lights approaching I was asked to stop the car and ask where we were, I was dressed in a flying suit and had a 60s-type inner and outer helmet on at the time. I made my way the few dozen yards across the field to a gate and stood in the road waving the car down....when it rounded the bend and its lights fell on me - it braked sharply, turned around quickly a powered away very quickly for, I think, an Austin A40!
So, you're a car driver on a Welsh hill in the middle of nowhere and you hear strange loud noises and see bright flashing lights descending close by your side - then a large headed green being apears in front of you...what would you do?