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Old 1st Dec 2008, 03:25
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Nigel Osborn
 
Join Date: Dec 2001
Location: Gold Coast, Queensland
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I remember back in 1975 I was flying Shell senior staff back to Doha for the annual Christmas party in a S62. It had no radar, no sas, no anything. The weather was black ahead & so I flew at about 500 ft underneath the cloud. Suddenly the 62 shot upwards & even with no collective & closed throttle, the climb rate was off the vsi in full auto. At about 6000 ft, in pitch blackness, the storm tossed the 62 out the side & started dropping. Applying full power, the ROD was off the vsi. I yelled at the pax to prepare for ditching as I simply had no control, just kept the AH level. We broke cloud at around 100 ft & regained control at 25 ft. At this point I decided to return to Halul & stuff the Christmas party. Guess what, no senior executive complained about missing the party!
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