And here she is at RAF Eastleigh in 1956 or 57.
XE309 was eventually shipped back to the UK in a Beverley and my father had the dubious task of preparing the Sycamore for its journey. There were no jigs, trestles or cranes available for this process. So the helicopter was hoisted aloft in one of the hangars using a rope tied around the rotor head and secured to one of the roof trestles. The undercarriage legs were then removed rather gingerly before the aircraft was lowered onto some car tyres carefully arranged on the hangar floor. This highly unorthodox procedure had to be carried on a Sunday to avoid any of the top brass finding out how it was being done. Had the Sycamore been damaged it would have resulted in a career limiting step for my father. Luckily all went according to plan but he never found out how they got the helicopter out of the hangar and onto the Beverley.
QP