I recall being tasked to pick up a load from Bessbrook to take to R21, which was (if my memory serves) about 10nm to the south. It was in the middle of the frame (tasking window), so we hadn't scoped it beforehand, but on arrival back at BBK from the previous task, the crewman's tone of voice should have revealed that it wasn't going to be an easy load! The load was a shed....flat packed and tidy inside a net, but with the pitched roof on top of the walls and floor, so as soon as we'd lifted it, the aerodynamics around the roof meant that it started flying independently inside the net!! On our way out of BBK up 'The Tube' it became obvious that we couldn't maintain normal speeds, so we reduced speed until the load settled.
Flying from BBK to R21 at 20(ish) kts takes a while!! I think we may have been quicker if we'd driven it there, although our hover-taxy most of the way wasn't that different.
Finally.....the load was dropped and we headed to BBK on vapour, landing I reckon about 30sec before the No1 Eng would have flamed out!
Good fun, but by God I learnt a lot about tasking flexibility out there!