XR 518
Aaah!! August 5 1967 Jim Clark and I were target practice for the locals near Habilayn in the Radfan. At 90 kts. and 1000'agl they put at least 3 bullets in us (so we were lucky compared to to time they got 3 hits out of about 4/5 shots at guys moving around the camp one day). One went up thro' the cabin, missing the stick leaders spine by inches (pre metric days then!) and out thro' the gearbox deck with no significant damage; the other two went into the tail pylon and all but severed the tail rotor control cables, but hitting the turnbuckle and removing about 90% of it left enough to retain control to stagger on from Al Ma'amir to the strip.
Flew up spares and engineers and fixed that day. Can't recall much of an airtest or paperwork, just get on with it and a couple of beers that evening.
So fond memories of this particular Wessex, glad to hear she continued to look after crews for years.
A toast to the Queen of the Skies that never let me down despite my use and abuse in 3000hrs.
cheers, lsd