Originally Posted by
ShyTorque
Years ago I was tasked with a presentation on helicopter icing, for my upgrade to an RAF "A Cat". The obvious reference to use was the relevant Air Publication. However, to my great surprise, the section on helicopter icing was not actually in the manual! It had never really occurred to me to seek it out, having spent most of my time on the "Belize Squadron".
I was lucky enough to go and visit the late Geoff Connelly, who was the incumbent RAF helicopter test pilot at Boscombe Down at that time and who had been involved in helicopter icing trials. He generously gave me a lot of information and having subsequently spent a great deal of time "camping out" at weekends in my office I was able to come up with a decent set of hand drawn OHPs and narrative, which I presented at the due time. I later discovered that the Norway Puma Squadron had nicked it and never gave it back!
Does anyone have the photo that appeared on the cover of an RAF incident report summary, of a Wessex that was forced to land short of dispersal after getting caught in a shower of severe rain ice? It had been on an underslung load training sortie on the south side of Gutersloh airfield and the clear ice built up so rapidly it was too heavy to hover taxy back.
Late? Really? Oh - Connelly not Connolly?