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Old 7th June 2007 | 13:19
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ShyTorque

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From: Wandering the FIR and cyberspace often at highly unsociable times
Crews were getting very fatigued in Belize in the early 1980s; I took part in an RAF heli pilot heat stress survey. I flew with a medic in the left seat; he took my temperature every 10 minutes and before and after every landing.

The looks on some soldiers faces, as they spotted the thermometer in my mouth while they filed past the cockpit to emplane, was a real picture

The outcome was that I was operating with a body temperature of well over 100 degrees F. It was urgently recommended that the aircraft (Pumas) were fitted with a fan of some sort in the cockpit. Of course, this was regarded with the normal level of priority given to the well-being of helicopter crews........... i.e. none, at least nothing had changed by the time I became a civvie some 14 years later.

I wonder if Puma helicopters, over 25 years later, have been improved in this respect, given the location of their present deployments?
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