I flew my first LCR night check on the Puma with Dick, from Odiham. The visibility deteriorated badly (it was in those terrible days when the farmers used to burn the corn stubble) and he asked my opinion on the matter. I said it seemed to be on the limits. He agreed but asked me to continue until I was no longer happy to do so. My final part of the check was to land at a NATO T, which had been set out in a field by a crew from the other squadron. As we approached, we made the required RT call, only for the pilot of the only other Puma on scene to reply saying that unfortunately he was on the ground but his crewman was outside collecting in the lighting set and he had no way of stopping him. They assumed that we would have already scrubbed and returned to base. Dick asked him to remain on the ground and asked me if I was prepared to have a go at landing next to him. I did and managed it safely. At that point he told me that as far as he was concerned, if I could do that, I was more than LCR. His encouraging words meant a huge amount because I had previously struggled with the Puma at night mainly because I couldn't see over the instrument panel due to all the seat cushions on the fleet being collapsed, thankfully rectified when the seat base PSP was introduced. I know he later kept an eye on me from a distance and was always very pleasant to me - not a privilege everyone enjoyed because in certain circumstances he "took no prisoners".
Later in my career, I became a Puma QHI. During night flying on Salisbury Plain Dick was carrying out a night check on a Wessex pilot.. We were all based at Upavon for the week. The infamous Salisbury Plain fog rolled in. Dick and the pilot he was checking decided to do one more circuit at the remote HLS then recover the training underslung load to Upavon. The visibility decreased very rapidly, but on time they saw what they took to be the NATO T lights in the middle of the airfield. However, when they came to the hover they were somewhat shocked to find they were actually looking at the "Welcome to RAF Upavon" sign on the main road outside the guardroom and had unwittingly flown between two hangars to get there!