Gents & Crab, the aircraft was flown back last night. I’ve just looked at it in the hangar the damage is superficial now the windscreens have been replaced. The OSI being conducted at Stn level will discover what lessons there are to learn but at this time it appears to be a gap that had developed in the move from paper to electronic mapping. But let’s wait shall we...
As for what I was doing at Chivenor we planned and authorised a period of GH during a gap in a longer sortie. We practised the exercises that we fly by night during the Combat Ready Captain workup, guess what Crab the aircraft’s capabilities have moved on in the decades since you were a SH Pilot. I’ve seen the photos Josh took and can understand how they’d look exciting to a child son of a SAR pilot. The inference to Catterick is interesting, that’s the VERY reason we train our ‘youngsters’ to fly these manoeuvres; so they, when tempted, know how to do them safely and therefore avoid the tragic outcome seen there. As for the personal implication (I’m not surprised), I’ve actually grown up a bit in the more than 25 years since we last flew together! You should try it.