Originally Posted by
Thone1
I do recall that even a few big SAR cases were flown during that time, one leading to severe salt ingestion due to gale force winds, resulting in a flame out shortly prior to "jumping" over a cliff.
"Zoom"-climbing shortly prior impacting the cliff was a standard procedure back then. Having an engine fail just before climbing made it all a little bit more interesting.
Tom,
You can find references to the Merc Enterprise rescue and Dave Mallock flying the Mk41 here on PPRuNe: there was no 'zoom climb' involved so please consign that crew-room fable to the rubbish bin! Dave had engine surges for some time while transiting back to CU from Plymouth overwater, at cruise, and when he was back over the Lizard Peninsular the surging was so bad that he did a night auto into a ploughed field, nearly turning over in the process.
Originally Posted by
GrumpyGramps
I seem to remember it happened by accident when I was at Lossiemouth back in the 80's. I think we had a Sea King fitted with a light grey blade which was very noticeable from above. Later the yellow blade was introduced as some protection from all the fast jets with small windows and short sighted pilots.
Try fighter evasion tactics development with a Wessex in the late 60s/early 70s!
In the debrief there were three big visual giveaways for the fighter to find the Wessex: one odd coloured blade, the pilot's white helmet and gloves, and the yellow LSJ (OK, that makes four
)
That resulted in green helmets, green gloves and green LSJ. And odd coloured blades for SAR, which came about in the 1980s.