hihover
Another couple from that period.
1) Clive and Geoff tasked from Soest to Munster to pick up Brigade commander +1 and carry out a recce.
They duly arrive at Munster early and are met by the Brigadier, who is not prepared to sit in the back and would now like to carry an extra pax after they had been to the mess for tea, Clive explained the new rules to him and asked what he was suposed to do with his crewman, 'I don't care Sergeant, you deal with it and make sure he is not here when I get back'.
An hour later the Ops room received a phone call from the Brig asking where his helicopter was, to be informed that the pilot had followed his orders, returned the crewman to Soest and was just waiting for the techs to complete the paperwork after removing the duals.
2) On a TEWT in Germany My Pilot was tasked with flying a General (cant remember who) and I would have to give up my front seat, I reminded him about the duals and he told me to remove them, as I was fitting the blanks the General asked me what I was doing and where are the duals? I told him that for non aircrew the duals have to be removed. He ordered me to put them back, To which I said 'I can't sir, only techs can refit them', he then turned on my pilot and informed him that he had some flying lessons from an RQHI and wanted the duals refitted, my pilot had no choice but to agree with me.
The General then took the pilot to one side for a bit of finger poking, after which my pilot returned and told me to take my kit as the General did not want me in his aircraft, he was to carry another 2 Senior officers and they may have some sensitive issues to discuss, and I should join the road party at the bottom of the hill.
I removed my helmet and Navbag and started to walk down the hill to the road party only to watch them pull onto the main road and drive off, I went back up the hill in time to see the aircraft lift, After sulking on a rock for a while I saw a lynx approching form the east and waved at him with My Dayglo flash card.
I knew the Pilot Paddy and as luck would have it they were from Detmold but had to drop spares off at Soest so they took me home.
My Pilot turned up much later, a little p***ed off as he had mainly been following the autobahns to drop the general off then return to Soest (my navbag had all the maps and charts).
and they would now have to organise a search as when the the road party arrived at Hereford I was not on board and none of them had seen me. As he had no maps he was unable to go back to the TEWT to find me.
He didn't take it too bad when the OC informed him that I had been in the Crewroom for at least an hour awating his return.