The best of times as a crewman for me was flying single pilot missions in Belize, the UK and continental Europe - especially on AMF exercises, both North and South. Great days, some aircraft had not been modified yet and the decometers were our primary nav aid. We, as crewmen, felt ‘invincible’, with the HP duly occupied, we were co-pilots/navs/engs/alms all rolled into one. Op Banner was the only environment, at the time, where we flew 2 pilot ops within the mainstream of day-to-day SH flying.
Then something ‘strange’ happened. Society changed rapidly; there was empirical evidence to show that the pilot output standard from Shawbury no longer reflected what had hitherto been the case. We were getting a different calibre of pilot coming through the system. Pilots found that the skills that were being asked of them - as they progressed through the OCU - too demanding.
At around about the same time, the Harding report appeared (the RAF’s attempt to convince our political masters that the Apache would be better housed within the SH Force), this was followed by the Curry report. This report attempted to address the aircrew manning of the SH force, as a result of the comments hitherto made. What has evolved since then is what we have today.
IMHO a different world - demands now placed on our crews and hardware that no one could of imagined during that earlier period. We were still flying profiles to deter the 3rd Shock Army after all.
We have seen many changes, and as I come to the end of my career as a SH crewman, I am confident that those who are stepping forward today are more capable than I was at each stage of their training, but in different ways.
Let them know they have our support; I have always admired the quality of RN crewmen, as I have admired the AACs ‘crewmen’ albeit for different reasons.
There are too many over-generalizations been made on this thread, which is very frustrating for some, I am sure. This medium, quite rightly, prevents its readers getting a full picture of the diverse roles our SH crewmen are being asked to perform.
The RN, RAF and the AAC perform unique functions in the rotary world; let us focus on the positives. We have a long journey ahead of us to achieve a tri-service force, there are those at the top who do not wish it, let us prove them wrong. Maybe MFTS will be the catalyst.