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Old 4th Jun 2011, 23:29
  #54 (permalink)  
chopper2004
 
Join Date: Feb 2006
Location: The Alps
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Was told by a mate of mine who worked for the old Bond Helicopters, that in the 80s, one of their S76 had landed at Macrihanish roughly about that time for some unknown reason, probably refuelling / pit stop purposes in 83/84 and there was a bit of humour with regards to lunch. Whoever was on Ops at the time said that the captain and the licensed engineer could eat in the Officers Mess, while the unlicensed engineer who tagged along for the flight was only allowed to eat in the Sgts Mess. The aircraft captain apparently kicked off a stink and said he would not be separated from the engineer, thereby saying they'd all eat together in the NCO mess

Anyhow was told that their S76 had landed and parked next to a then HH-53 deployed up from Woodbridge and a Herk, probably a HC-130 also from Woodbridge. But that was the only US presence there that particular day.

Regardless of its being now Campbeltown Airport, the airfield still plays host to USAFE exercises in particular, the 352nd SOG. Theres pics on the USAF/USAFE website of one particular exercise involving the Special Tactics Group in NBC conditions 6 years back

352nd SOG closes out ORI deployment at RAF Machrihanish

That wouldnt be inside the Gaydon hangar, one of those pics?

AR1, silly question if god forbid, whatever was parked in hangar at said time, that didnt make an appearance in either Bill Gunston's books or Jane's or Flight International pubs, had a mishap and said crews had to bail out, I take it it would've been up to the folks then at Woodbridge to fly out with their Pave Lows and Combat Shadows to rescue and recover rather than say D Flight at Lossie
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