You are ex SH and ex Puma's and if you want to tell all of us here that at no time in all of your rotary flying time you never once asked for a "bunt for the troops sir" then I will nail my knob to the floor, please think long and hard about your riposte as there are lots of SH folk reading this thread
Seldom:
We butt heads regularly, and surprisingly have agreed on some few occasions... I can - with all those other SH folk reading - say I have never asked for anything, (unless Harry the B is reading this and it was a pre-flight request to fly a certain route in a certain way - which he did with skill, style and panache... Thank you Harry...
). My captains flew their "tasks"... They flew them well... They flew how they wanted to fly and they flew with my acceptance. (Let's not allow me to try to make myself out as some kind of angel because everyone who knows me knows that isn't true). But, and it's an important "but", there were times that I "asked" for the "fun" to be racked back and I will freely admit that my pilots respected my wishes, (details are details and don't need to be gone over). I have been scared by pilots, (the same ones that respected my wishes), and I have flown with pilots that can "put it to the dirt", (for a better way of putting it), that I have loved to fly with - right down to one pilot doing the "Western Highway Shuffle" who told me "You have the left" referring to the instructions he needed to keep the disk from hitting the trees on the left side as he made the lowest pass he could along the entire highway, (you'll understand I'm sure). But all those "antics" were done "professionally". As a crew we did the "dirty deeds" in a calm manner with both of us knowing and understanding the risks of what we were doing. There was no "Top Gun Yeehawing" and such... Just a pair of men, (sorry ladies - there were none in the SH force back then), exploring their limits and in every case we deferred to the side of safety because, let's be quite honest, none of us were trying to die. The
only deaths I saw back then were caused by things that are better addressed in the "Chinook - Still hitting back" thread and, again, those who actually know me will understand why I take such a keen interest in that thread. I believe that the crew in this case were far from the type of crew I knew and really wouldn't have lasted but a few trips way back then before being reigned in by the Auths etc.
As to the way OC Benson came on... I'm in the USA, (20 years now)... I didn't see him as some people wrongly assume without looking 1 inch to the left to see where I'm "from" and I freely retracted my comment when presented with a reasoned argument rather than a frenzied defense of a friend that used the word "livid".
I have no reason to try to "save face". I have my opinion and, like arseholes, everyone has one. The people here can bleat all they like about my thoughts on "standards"... For the most part they merely demonstrate my point...
I believe we started flying at much the same time - I just "banged out" earlier... Can you honestly say that, back in the early 80's. (or since), you have ever flown any task where the intercom sounded like the published excerpts did in this case?
Over to you...