On training a few stand out. For sheer, unadulterated fun, a 2v2 with a Puma against a pair of GR7s in Scotland - Jets said they could fight for an hour, the Puma broke on start and so MG and I just had a fab fight...still the only time I've had to climb at the guns break to avoid the jet....
Yesesss! Not sure we stuck to the rules there!
For me, two things stand out:
First night of the first Gulf War, egressing in excess of M1.0, TFR after having had an open-loop pull up after dropping our JP233. After we landed, the engineers were on shift change, so both shifts were there when we got off the bus to sign the jets in. I'll never forget the cheering and the good wishes that we were all back safely.
Much later, in another world, navigating two Chinooks on Operation Maidenly In Sierra Leone to pick up 23 UN observers, including 1 UK officer, who had been isolated by the RUF for a couple of months. The weather was so bad we couldn't see one side of the river bank from the other and we had over a dozen birdstrikes as we slowly made our way toward the target. Finding the two targets for the Indian SF troops that we were carrying and then finding the UN compound, having been given coordinates in the wrong format, in weather that I shall never forget, was hugely rewarding.
SimonK, you never did get out much, did you?!
