Feb.16,1971,birthday present,CEV Bretigny,SA-341-01,F-ZWRH,Check-out,by Cptne de Charre,Castres,ALAT...and over the next few days,we explored the `envelope`.Over the next few weeks we flew other development `Gazelles`,-002-ZWRA,ZWRL-02,ZWRK-04,even height climbs to FL200/6000M.(French civil certification rqmts).Then at B-Down we got XW276/03 to continue flight testing,although the aircraft was not production standard,it was useful for the `basic stuff,load-lifting,winching,radios,etc,until I had a transmission failure in the hover,fortunately,which delayed our progress`at home`.,but plenty of trips to Marignane to fly the different updates to the rotor-head,fenestron blades,fuselage re-jig of tailboom,..I was posted to Bedford in `72,then in `73 we got XW845/852 fo MADGE TAC Trials ..
Back to B-D `75,and more Gazelles to play with`842-846,849,851,853,866,905,xx370,434; Then we did icing/snow/freezing rain/skis in March`76 in Ottawa...Spent most of it `in manual`,measuring control forces in really `crappy `weather..Last flight in a Gazelle 23/12/`76,for fun..
...A `great helicopter`that I enjoyed flying over 380 hrs;you really did `wear` the Gazelle,and could see the world from different `angles`,some inadvertently/inconvenient,but as long as you had your`dancing shoes on`,it was great `fun...
Here`s `846 in Ottawa,looking more like an `iced lolly` than a KFC Chicken leg``