Whirlwind 7
Aah .... the Whirlwind 7 .... what a dear old lady. The many cartridges sometimes needed to get all those cylinders firing, the many minutes in winter spent waiting for the oil to warm up to the required temperature before one could engage the rotor, the engine "surge range" which was always a battle for the students to avoid or control with the twist throttle on approaches, the height climb to 10,000' where one demonstrated the narrow speed band between retreating blade stall and the inability to hover (odd how many instructors had colds about that time on the course, so one had to go up again, and again, with their students) the auto down again with the lever raised ... Never did believe that I did EOL's unaided in her as a student, but loved her as an instructor ....
And what about the Mk 3 ? I flew them whilst a student and if I remember correctly they could be flown in manual control ?
Soggy's experience with the Nimrod also reminded me of the time I was in a WW7 at 10,000 doing the above when I was told by radar to avoid a fast moving target approaching from the east ..... a little like sitting in the hover at 30' dangling the sonar and watching two Buccaneers fast approaching at 40' .... only one way to go!