The Royal Brunei Air Force certainly found the Sperry system to be superb. Unfortunately they (the Sperry systems...) are now obsolete.
Now that rang a
very pleasant Bell. I hope I’m not speaking out of turn here … just a short story …. and it
was over twenty years go. The Air Wing of the Royal Brunei Malay Regiment (RBMR) had very close ties with the RAF and seconded officers would come though for a two year tour. For the first time in their service lives they could decide the kit to be fitted to the Bell fleet. Then they left; someone else would take over and start changing things. The result – no two machines were remotely the same.
I was the avionics tech boss at a ‘well known’ Singapore based Bell Agent. The RBMR would use us for various work and they were frequent visitors. They must have got a little tired of me beating their heads on aircraft ‘standardisation’, and fitting some decent (non Brit Military!) kit. One morning I got a call from the engineering boss (RAF) asking if he could come over to Singapore and meet the next day - he wanted to talk avionics.
He arrived as planned and, over a coffee, he asked me one question. ‘If we were to give you a blank cheque - how would you equip half a dozen new 212’s’.
Wow! Dream Time.
But a simple answer - ‘You pop across to the Flying Club for lunch and I’ll see you there in half an hour – with a list’. I went through the whole package with the latest and greatest from the US military, FM/VHF/UHF Comms, HF Comms, DME, RadAlt, Transponder (Brit Mil I have to say) - the works. I finished the list and sat back and thought about it. Let’s go for broke - how about the ‘new’ Sperry Autopilot. Why not - and in it went.
Two days later I get another call. Everything was accepted! …….. with one proviso. They needed to fly the autopilot before buying. The only place to do that, or next best thing, was Fort Worth with a 412 – and then to Phoenix to meet Sperry with their Aerospat demonstrator. Within three weeks we’d done both – and it was a done deal.
A Sperry autopilot fit had never been done outside of the US - but what the hell – it can’t be that difficult. And so I thought - until I saw the wiring harnesses laid out on plastic sheet on the hangar floor! But the job was done, and on time. The day came for the first test flight, with the Sperry test pilot, and off we went. The whole nine yards - including fully coupled ILS approaches to Changi. Zero defects …….
What a peach of a system that was – beautiful. No doubt one or two of that era will recognise the world famous Sperry TP, below. Happy Days! By gum we ‘ad some fun. ( Maybe this should be in Aviation History & Nostalgia.)
