Following on from the mentionings relating to Nigel's Wessex days; Roi Wilson who was a senior pilot with 848 when they formed:
Capt. Roi 'Tug' Wilson ex-848 Sqn
"Wilson was already an experienced fixed-wing pilot when he converted to helicopters. He was not discouraged when engine failure forced him to ditch a Dragonfly in the Solent in March 1953.
He commanded the search-and-rescue flights in the carrier Eagle between 1953 and 1955, making nine aircrew rescues, most of them in the icy waters of the Denmark Strait.
The Royal Navy was quick to recognise the potential of the helicopter as a commando carrier, putting it to work in the Malayan conflict. From 1955 to 1957 Wilson was senior pilot of the newly-formed 848 naval air squadron, which flew the Whirlwind, ferrying troops deep into the jungle where they were taking on communist insurgents.
On one occasion he conducted a daring mountainside rescue of a critically-injured soldier by flying into a makeshift jungle clearing barely wide enough for the rotors and with no room to turn. Having hoisted up the casualty, he had to change from hover to horizontal flight while reversing out of the clearing in the fading light, drawing power at the limit of its performance from his machine.
The next morning, whilst flying over dense jungle, he again suffered engine failure, but successfully conducted an engine-off autorotation and managed to land in a tiny clearing, preserving both aircraft and crew.
For his conduct during these two incidents he was awarded the DFC.
Next, whilst serving on exchange with the US Marine Corps from 1957 to 1960, Wilson flight-tested a two-bladed Hiller helicopter, a type which had suffered a number of unexplained fatal crashes after the rotor hub had snapped off. He survived, and his work helped explain the potentially fatal consequences of zero gravity manoeuvres in helicopters.
Wilson volunteered for the Navy as a naval airman 2nd Class in 1941, learning to fly at Kingston, Ontario. By 1943 he was employed ferrying aircraft over North Africa, and on September 23 – while flying a Supermarine Walrus amphibian from Nairobi to Alexandria – his undercarriage collapsed on landing at Juba, Sudan. The aircraft was badly damaged, and Wilson enjoyed his first near-fatal incident.
On December 18 1950 Wilson suffered yet another engine failure in his Fairey Firefly of 812 naval air squadron, having to ditch in rough seas eight miles east of Comino Island, Malta. Caught by his straps, Wilson sank with the aircraft but managed to cut himself free; he shot to the surface, injured and minus his one-man dinghy. His observer, Lieutenant James Hawker, was already in his, and Wilson climbed in with him. Both men were rescued after a two-hour search by the submarine Tabard.
From 1966 to 1968 Wilson was commander (air) in the carrier Albion, involved in the withdrawal from Aden and in the Confrontation to prevent the Indonesian takeover of Borneo. In 1971 he became Chief of Staff to Commander British Forces Malta during the withdrawal from the island. In 1974 he was appointed CBE.
His last appointment was as Captain of the Royal Naval College, Greenwich. As director of the lieutenants' course, one of his students was the Prince of Wales.
In a flying career spanning 64 years, he flew 3,000 hours on more than 40 aircraft types in the Fleet Air Arm. He flew a total of 6,000 hours from his first solo in a Miles Master in 1941 to his last logbook entry in 2005, when he piloted an Enstrom helicopter."
(Excerpts from Wilson's obituary in the Telegraph)
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