Originally Posted by
76fan
Oh dear Crab, you would never have made it in the helicopter ASW role flying Wessex or SeaKings. The ASW Wessex were single engined and I don't ever remember being safe single engine in a SeaKing hover except in a howling gale. We did, however, calculate a SETOW (single engined takeoff weight) for the SeaKing in case ploughing through the water and overpitching to get airborne was a possibility after ditching (something I quickly dismissed when it happened at night to me). I doubt that you would have liked instructing students in wet winching in the piston engined Whirlwind either. Some of us are much older than you and we have all gained experience in different ways, and in more "primitive" types than you have experienced I am sure.
Well I was a SAR pilot and instructor on both, although on the twin engine version of the Wessex, so I do know a fair bit about ops over water, day and night. I did the excellent Canadian Waterbirds course 20 years ago in which SEWTOs were practised along with single engine water landings.
The SEWTO was something for flat water only in my opinion, the 'jump' take off was not really practicable.
I think you miss my point, doing it single engine was what had to be done in those days - those were the aircraft procured for the tasks - doing it in a twin without a flyaway or realistic ditching option (with floats) for anything other than war-fighting or life saving needs a lot of risk mitigation or crews that don't worry too much what happens to their wives and kids if they don't come home.
I am not risk averse, I have sat in singles and twins, both instructionally and operationally, in places where any sort of failure was likely to be terminal - you do what you have to do to get the job done operationally but for training we used to maintain a flyaway option, especially if live winching.
I am hardly dismissing people older and more experienced than me - they are the people who taught me how to fly and operate.