Early NVG and FLIR in UK?

[Low Ball]

NVG In The AAC

I was an instructional Flight Commander at Middle Wallop from '73 to '76 and was posted to NI as the Theatre QHI in early '77. PNG were being trailed by D&T Sqn in the latter part of my time as the Flight Commander and I was cleared C to I on PNG on both Scout and Gazelle. There were 2 types of PNG around at the time, monofocal and bifocal the latter allowed one to see the instruments. Both types had a bracket which screwed onto the visor track. The PNG were mounted in a plastic frame which prevents you from looking out of the side and were designed for use by vehicle drivers. During a recce to NI to assess the roles for my new appointment I was shown how PNG (procured as a UOR) were being used at the time. There was no permenant QHI in theatre at the time and the rules and training were being made up on the hoof under the guise and protection of operational necessity. They were hand held (no helmet fitting in the Province at the time) by and Inf JNCO in the left hand seat of the Scout giving directions to the pilot who was flying mortal. THese Inf JNCOs wouldn't recognise a sight picture approach if one jumped up and bit them. I was proadly shown a Scout which half a hedge wrapped round the skids. On taking up the appointment I stopped this lunacy and it's very lucky no one had been killed in the interim. More PNG and helmet brackets were quickly introduced and formal training, 10 hours, was completed when crews, both pilot and crewman, were cleared for operations. As time progressed equipment became available for pre NI training in UK and BAOR and I recall spending time with incoming aircrew training them before arrival in their own theatre. Time passed as a staff officer and other appointments which took me away from flying duties and when I returned ANVIS had replaced the PNG and I was qualified on Lynx. On a further return we were issued with a Ferranti set of goggles which were good and before deploying on GW1 each crewmember was issued with his own personal issue. Flying on NVG in the desert was awesome. Happy days or rather nights with some 200hrs on NVG and alive but with lots of grey hair.

LB