Originally Posted by
Pierre Argh
It used to be the case in the RN Fleet Air Arm that the senior crewmember was the captain... hence often that responsibility would fall upon the Observer
The looker was often Crew Captain, which seemed to mean Very Little in the great scheme of things, except when SOBS turned us back to Mother one day, instead of overnighting in NZ: rotter
The Wessex HAS3 could be driven from the back, with 1960's technology: once plugged in at 150' jump height, the range/bearing could be inputted from the back end into the autopilot, with two drivers up the front merely required to press "Transition Down" to a 30' hover. IIRC this was removed from the Sea King HAS1, so the pilots actually had to make the turns as well
