Queens of the Skies they was!
I enjoyed flying the T-Bird as much as any helicopter I have flown.....clambering up the side of the ol' girl after having slung your kit into the windy...now that is a Man's Helicopter!
Add in the Riff Raff being imprisoned below your boots....having that great big windy to open so you could lean out and see the world from a right perspective....you had to as Bristow had mounted all sorts of useful Decca stuff and a third Bar Alt on the panel and in the windows.
She was stable, dependable, well mannered....and in plain terms a "Lady".
She provided entertainment.....you could watch the snow cone form on the main gear wheel....then disappear as the weight of it caused the wheel to rotate.....she spit snowballs out of the EAPS just at the corner of your vision....and made you wonder what the heck had happened.
The brakes never worked equally....or one preferred not to work at all....the tail wheel lock would either not release or would not latch...dependning upon which mode caused the most angst.
....and.....if you needed to do anything under the bonnet....you need two HVAC tin bashers and a small boy to get at anything.
We had some grand times flying the T-Birds.
And some stories to tell....locating ourselves in London by checking the time, whizzing about the Rassay Sound not looking at torpedo's, sneaking into France under a Bomber's Moon.....great days.
Eh, Soggy?
Now as to the other imitation of the T-Bird there was the Wessex....which was a great bird too.....in her own way.