Originally Posted by
NutLoose
For want of a simple mounted mirror on a stalk or a camera, so the pilot can see the rear of his aircraft.
Rather like the Puma had to see the intakes, but mounted so they could view the rear of the helicopter..
Unfortunately the Puma mirrors were only installed as an interim mod prior to the polyvalent intakes. They were there to extend the flight in potential icing conditions and as Nutty mentioned, they were initially angled to look at the engine intakes. But they were convex mirrors and could be angled to see down the sides of the aircraft.
When the PV intakes were fitted they were removed, despite Squadron pilot requests (especially myself) for them to be retained. For exactly this type of scenario. Part of the engine failure checklist was to check for signs of fire. Easy with mirrors, but without them the only way was to turn the aircraft and see if it was trailing smoke.