The standard of 'O' levels in those days is the standard that degrees have dropped to now.
Lol! Oh dear, you're probably not far from the mark, sadly!
Further up the page we see evidence of a RN Wessex which suffered the collapse of its port landing gear during landing. The pilot, Lt. John Foster, aborted the landing and returned to the craft's operating base where a wheel change was effected within 8 minutes (so we are informed) while Lt. Foster nursed the Wessex through a low hover - bravo!
In Australia in 1974 a RAN Wessex suffered a similar fate (see below). The cockpit voice recorder (in those days a duty performed by a member of the Royal Australian Signal Corps) captured the conversation (originally recorded in shorthand) between the Commander and his Co-pilot:
Cmdr: "What a f**king pain!" "Can't those bloody Pommies learn to put these things together properly?"
P2: "You're right Cap." "What are you gonna do."
Cmdr: "Well I don't want to f**k about with the thing, what's your suggestion?"
P2: "Well Cap we're not that far from my girlfriend's place and, as you know, she works with Qantas and has a couple more Shiela's stayin with her."
Cmdr: "And?"
P2: "Well, I was thinking, we could put the bugger on the beach and I could go check-up on me Shiela and see if she and her friends could come down and 'rescue' us." "You know, bring back some of the amber nectar and set-up a barbie!" "Whaddaya think?"
Cmdr: "Its not something the Pommies would do!" "Sounds good to me - let's do it!"
RAN Wessex, Murrays Beach, 12th November 1974
