Yes, I should've qualified my response by saying that all but 3 hours of my time on Lynx were on the Mk 1 - the Mk 7 was just coming in as I moved back to my parent service. I later learned that under the 'reorganisation' of airworthiness - perhaps 'filleting and gutting' would be a better expression - from which HM Forces are still suffering, the Lynx Mk7 service-intro was run by the same 'team' that had responsibility for the Chinook Mid-Life Update from Mk1 to Mk2. I had just assumed that the Army always introduced new variants with no Aircrew Manual, no Instructor's Guide, no FRCs and everyone just had to make do. Little did I know that this was the first sighting of the "new normal", which would in part lead to such tragic loss of life on the Mull and the miscarriages of justice that have still not been properly redressed. Shameful.
The fellas from the RN with whom I had the pleasure of working alongside from time-to-time were full of praise for the Mk3 (apart from its ditching properties, particularly if the floats didn't properly deploy), and were clearly capable of doing remarkable things with the beastie. I wish I'd remembered to include diginagain's description from post #37, which I often used to hear from AAC colleagues
