ShyTorque, you are assuming roles the Gazelle never had or was even capable of doing. In the observation role, for which it was bought and paid for, it was a damn fine machine. The Gazelle could carry all the equipment required right up until 2004 and some of it was heavy, plus 2 and still spend 2 hours over the target, it was absolutely fine for the job, some even managed 3 hours on a good wind day, into wind. Ask me if I'd have preferred a 2nd engine on a similar sized aircraft you are damn right I would, for all the reasons Crab is telling you, I'd prefer not to accept all the added complexities it sadly brought along in the Lynx (That certainly wasn't the machine for the role) twin squirrel (or whatever they are called nowadays, would have been perfect for the job but we had 300+ Gazelles and its role was observation, it's that simple. for Hughes to suggest the people living underneath the flightpath or the crews in them didn't matter is farcical. We did use Lynx occasionally over the city but because it was capable of expanding the observation role, as did the the Puma and Wessex occasionally.
MD, you are right it didn't stop us, But even with the best part of 4000hrs on the machine I certainly didn't like doing or practicing it and I would consider it nowadays as an emergency. It was necessitated because it was the machine we had for the role. As for any auto pilot the vast majority of Army Gazelles were not stabilised, no SAS, no stick trim, no nothing, with the exception of a couple of dud switches. I know we bought 12 with that fit but this was for totally separate role and the equipment carried caused all sorts of problems.
Why not just accept your views and leave others to accept theirs I'm still 100% with Crab.
Last edited by MOSTAFA; 13th June 2016 at 11:48.
Reason: Felt like it!