After the Leicester crash, and then yesterday's ismr press release about SAR helicopter support, I need cheering up. A HeliOps calendar would do the job nicely!
One dark cloudy November night a few years ago, an MRT exercise with a RAF helicopter was curtailed because it was too dark in the corries even for goggles. I was getting a lift back with the helicopter and the light conditions meant we couldn't get back across the hills the way we had come. So we set off down the coast to probably go all the way round.
So we're 1500' above the sea and I am at a bubble window with one tube of a pair of goggles barely able to make out the mountains several miles off on the port side. Smell of burning. Ach, it's an old aircraft: they smell. Lights come on. Yes, the cabin really is full of smoke. Everyone looking for the source. Lifejacket? Oh yes, eff'in lifejacket!! Panic over: radio power supply had committed suicide. Power off, fire out, door open. Breathe! Captain on intercom, "Are you all right back there Jim?" "Per Ardua." says I.
Back home for tea and medals. :-)