HUET (the Helicopter Underwater Escape Training) is very much a part of many helicopter operations around the globe, from the North Sea and most offshore locations where crew and pax have to update every couple of years, to fire fighting ops in Australia where helicopter pilots have to complete HUET every two years to meet State agency criteria. That came in after a Helitack ditched during a bucket fill and the pilot was rescued by an onlooker, who just happened to be the Chief Minister for the ACT!
Sea Survival, tho', was something best forgotten when we were taken out in an RAF launch and chucked out into Falmouth Bay to bob around in our one man dinghies awaiting a pickup. If you were lucky in a daytime run the worst was a bucket of water being chucked out at you from the SAR helicopter as you put on the winch strop.
But at night, another story. As the junior pilot on the Sea King IFTU I was the obvious choice to be wet winched at night to check out the procedures; and believe me, relying on the sea-cell light as a primary aid to be found isn't confidence inspiring.
Now a bit of background: the previous winch fits (Wessex, Whirlwind, etc) were all single speed controls so a practiced crewman would pay out an extra 6-10 feet of cable and hold it in a loop, ready to be let go as soon as the tea-bag had hold of the strop. This, along with lowering a bit more cable, was meant to ensure that the strop wouldn't be snatched out of the survivor's hands as the helicopter overshot before making a stable hover.
Enter the Sea King with a variable speed, fast winch control. Enter junior pilot grabbing the strop, crewie dropping 10ft of cable plus fast lowering of more cable, most of which finished up well underneath the dinghy. Having been drowned in the downwash of a Sea King in a 30ft hover ('cos that's what we did in the Wessex) I had no idea where the cable was and simply gave a thumbs up when in the strop, which was then raised: except it went under the dinghy, three times around me and pulled me down before up!
Procedures modified the next day (that's what IFTU is for, after all) and the hover raised to 40ft plus no more bights of cable by the crewman
