At one point BAFD was working for the Sussex police out of Shoreham. Paul asked me to drop in on it from time to time as it was a long way from home. The pilots were complaining about a tail gearbox oil leak that the operating company leasing the aircraft from Gleneagle had failed to fix although they had changed the seals more than once.
Several leaky ground runs left me slightly baffled but highly suspicious. Removal of the whole gearbox and tail rotor assembly revealed a large crack down the forward face of the gearbox
which clearly was not long for this world.
During this process I received an irate phone call from the operator demanding to know what the hell I thought I was doing carrying out maintenance during the day.
My comments are best left out of print.
Graham Taylor I also remember. He gave me a lift home in G-HOOK one weekend. Chickened out of landing on the adjoining school playingfield next to my house but dropped me off on the hill half a mile away!!!! We lived about 15 miles south of Grahams base. Actually I wonder if that flight was in Grahams previous aircraft G-BEJY, long time ago now almost 35 years. Grahams engineer was Mike Janes who although long retired is still going strong. Left me message on the answerphone last sunday.
Last edited by ericferret; 22nd Jan 2015 at 13:30.