What can I say that hasn't been said already?
Getting the people and kit in proved difficult. I am sure the guys loved the experience of hover taxying backwards into the corrie in weather that was still pretty grotty.
We eventually got the kit in and the engineers did a sterling job. The aircraft was 'toasty' inside when I got there, and was in pretty good nick. I have seen more water inside first standby aircraft than was in this one. The engines fired up first time on the internal battery. There was a bit of vibration so the head was shut down and some bits of ice on the mainblades that had been missed were cleared off.
From then on everything was straightforward, just a quick hop down to Glenmore Lodge due to the fading light and to allow the aircraft to completely thaw naturally.
The following day all the equipment was offloaded from the mountain and sorted, again helped by the 845 guys despite having completed their part of the task.
Unfortunately during the start to fly the aircraft back to Lossie it suffered a Hyds failure. Although it does seem a huge coincidence, the failure may not have been anything to do with its time out in the cold. The fix should be fairly quick but I don't know if it is back home yet as I've finally had a day off today
Loads of people to thank for helping us including 845 NAS, MAOT, MASU, Kinloss MRT (and I think Leuchars too), Cairngorm MRT, Glenmore Lodge, Royal Irish Regiment (for supplying a hooker) and probably others that I have forgotten.
Hopefully this won't happen again for a while
