Managed to escape from the Ice Dancing final on TV - where was I....?
I had thought that the date of the ditching was imprinted on my brain for ever, but the the early onset of dementia plays strange tricks! A look back at my logbook reveals that the fateful day was 10th April 1972, not 1971 as I said before, when after 15 minutes of flight............................................... ..........................................XV662 decided that she would attempt to continue with 4 and three quarter rotor blades instead of the manufacturer's recommended 5. Needless to say, the outcome was not good, but at least we sort of flew it onto (then under) the water and all got out. The failure was not confirmed for some years, until on 12th December 1974, an identical Sea King HAS 1 suffered exactly the same fate in the Bay of Biscay. By a strange quirk of fate (cue eerie music), I actually watched the aircraft ditch from another Sea King, then winched the crew up - again all of them managed to get out. We did get a photo of the aircraft before it capsized, and that showed one blade shorter than all the others, thereby ultimately providing closure to our own incident almost 3 years before.
I attach another piccie, this time of the Old Girl's (actually, come to think of it, she was still in the first flush of youth!) final flight.
Incidentally, nothing personal TC. I really hope you manage to find someone suitable. I've even got Dark Menace's mobile number if you'd like, but I expect you probably couldn't afford him!
