In the middle of the 70s there were a couple of Scouts in Belize.. Having had lots of experience dragging Scouts back to Aldergrove I ventured an opinion to the O/C, a Major, that we might well have to do the same thing one day to one of his. He was adamant that there was absolutely no chance of this happening. Two days later a Scout landed on a narrow O/P pad on the ridge above the police station at the extreme south west corner of Belize, the clouds of smoke indicated a turbine seal failure.
Off two of us went, Dennis Holland in the other Puma as far as I remember. He had a winch, the REME in the back and I had the load pole. They winched the crew down who removed the blades and hooked it up to me. Whilst I took it to Salamanca Den picked up the crew and blades and followed on.
We had to refuel so I put the Scout on the road, it was disconnected and I took on as much fuel as I dared. I swear the Scout climbed up the strop as we cleared the trees but then the problems started. This Scout had a winch fitted and it refused to behave above 55 knots against a Scouts normal 95knots underslung cruise.
The Puma being a constant fuel consumption variable noise machine it was apparent that I did not have enough fuel at this speed to get to the airport. Something had to be done.
There was an airstrip halfway between Salamanca and the airport so I my plan was to land the Scout at this airstrip, Dennis’s passengers would unhook it, then he would shut down and guard it whilst I bolted off to the airport, refueled and came back. This we did and after refueling I beetled back for the Scout. It was now dark.
This wasn’t a problem, Dennis’s anti-col light was more than enough guidance and as I descended into the heart of the airstrip I switched on the landing light and we went IFR in mosquitoes. The poor sods down there had been tormented for an hour and they weren’t happy.
I flew it back to Belize International and as I knew it was the officer’s mess cinema night I trained the landing light on the Scout and flew it slowly round the camp.
The Major never spoke to me afterwards.
Last edited by Fareastdriver; 8th Sep 2007 at 16:02.