Originally Posted by
Doors Off
Mark Six, you are nearly correct. Close but no cigar. ADFHS had at least 1 Perhaps 3 damaging (unsure of the categories, but at least 1 was a right off) incidents on hyd off on the BA’s. I went through on BA’s can’t recall if I was on the first or second BA course, we were taught to hover and manoeuvre in the hover hyd off. Accidents happened, thankfully no serious injuries. The Pomms had the legend Keith Champion to learn from, who was an outstanding flight instructor, mentor and champion that learnt his Squirrel craft at ADFHS prior to the World’s ****test cricket team getting BA’s and twist grip throttles.
I digress however, to suggest that the military was beyond reproach is incorrect.
I never suggested the military was beyond reproach and I was aware of the 1997 incident. There were extenuating circumstances (very lightly built pilot recovering from a broken ankle I believe, with a heavily loaded aircraft?), and that incident occurred during refresher training, not pilot's course. I wasn't there so I won't comment on instructor technique...
The basic trainer was the UH-1B, not H. I trained on them, and saw one destroyed in front of me at Wagga when the transmission mounts broke at the bottom of an auto. They were a very durable and forgiving machine but we definitely bent a few of them.
Keith Champion was possibly the best hands-on pilot I've ever seen (and I'm sure he'd agree with me!). We were at the ADFHS (and other places) at the same time.