RN Gazelle XW895

[Heliport]

Anyone fly Gazelle XW895 in the RN?
When? Where?

Link (http://www.pprune.org/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=128638)

[cobaltfrog]

Sure did! Not sure if I EOL'd in it though although I did do my Zennor moor wazzex in it!! I think that was S8 or 9. Great fun indeed. 1997 last course at Culdrose.

[vortex ping]

i did too, i was last course but two at the old 705.....trying to work out who you are cobalt....

[WIGYCIWYT]

I flew this aircraft to Shawbury on its last ever RN flight and the last ever 705 NAS sortie! Also had the pleasure of displaying in it as part of the Sharks on my first 705 tour and as solo on Field Gun diplays at Culdrose on my second time around. Fantastic fun, fantastic aircraft and a terrible shame about the DHFS mularkey, still convinced it was a step in the wrong direction. :{

[fuel2noise]

Not sure if I ever flew that side number but agree strongly about the DHFS malarkey. Culdrose 705 produced just what the FAA needed at significantly lower cost..... and while I'm having a little rant (!), it was the 'beginning of the end' to disband the Sharks. Typical RN; canning something special to save pennies...crabs would never have done the same under the circumstances.

[Sloppy Link]

f2n
You are not alone, the AAC now has a system that takes nearly two years to produce a pilot when it it used to take under one. Putting people on long periods of hold is a waste of money, demoralising for the individual and labour intensive as they need an element of re-teaching as they suffer skill fade and don't have the experience to fall back on. We were conned.

[Si Clik]

Feels like a 705 NAS reunion in here.

Still there is no question that we did it cheaper than the rest and we could have saved the dosh by just changing aircraft types and staying at Culdrose.

I was lucky enough to keep flying Gazelles up until last year at BD.

EOLs are always more fun when you can't open the throttle and overshoot (well you can but not legally).

:cool:

[Alty Meter]

I didn't know the Sharks had been disbanded. It explains why I couldn't find a website. Sad.

The diamond logo on the tailfin says 1936-1996. I suppose it must be right, but were the Sharks really founded in 1936?
Anyone know what they flew in 1936?
And what they flew between then and the Gazelle?

[dakotaman]

I flew my first solo in this aircraft in Feb 1977, and flew it a lot during the RNPC, and later on the IRI course, and later still as a Trapper - what is the special interest in this cab?

[6Z3]

The 2* Grim Reaper took them after our '92 season in payment for someone's brass hat. On paper it saved 450 display hours (that's a saving of a whole aircraftsworth Admiral).

In reality we saved nothing; the display hours continued to be flown the following years, as two pairs and two solos, occasionally displaying at the same venues at the same time but making sure they didn't call themselves 'The SHARKS'.

When the Admiral asked why the SHARKS logo was still on the tail the following year he was advised that the Sqn couldn't afford to paint them out - he seemed happy with that.

The final justice? The 2* himself was taken by the light blue Grim Reaper last year.

The moral? 'The SHARKS' were the essence of the FAA, if you want to re-invent the FAA, you might start by re-inventing 'The SHARKS', not the 2*.

[cobaltfrog]

I have to say that I agree with all that has been posted so far....However, the essence of 705 NAS versus DHFS was that it was bloody good fun and because it was single service you felt as though you belonged to the FAA at an earlier stage of your career. This is not to mention the fact that a Gazelle with no DAS and IFF etc etc ie a slick was great fun to fly, although I did nearly get chopped on my FHT when I scared Bob Hubble senseless by nearly jackstalling on I quote " a jacky boy wingover..." Heh ho!

[fagin's goat]

So many voices all spot on the button. Demise of 705 (OK.. and maybe the pongo and crab equivalents) was a crazy decision. Cost more not less to do it 'joint', takes longer and the product is worse (stand by for a party-line-tower to claim the opposite!). I happen to know that the FONA of the time (Big Tell) pulled every trick in the book to try and save 705 but he was shouted down by others who a) didn't give a fig for the Fleet Air Arm and its ethos and b) saw a slavish adherence to joitery as being a pathway to promotion in the new (Labour), post cold-war order.

sad sad sad

[Si Clik]

Interesting quotes about the standard of students.

As one of the "I did both" team I don't think finite flying standards were or even are lower.

The real problem is the disjointed nature of flying training across all three services at present with huge holds and very poor course spirit (the boys and girls keep getting moved around).

Additionally getting things changed at 705 if the likes of 702/848/706 were unhappy was a darn sight easier.

All too contractural and 'costly' these days.

:suspect:

[12 PSI]

Hey Dakotaman, Me too! First solo, all the way round NT Predannack, although a bit after you.

Ah, the EOLs. It was only on beefers course that I discovered you had to move the sticks - they always seemed to move on their own during training!:=

[6Z3]

Passed my FHT on 705 NAS in XW895 in '77 to earn "Wings of Gold" lovingly stitched into dyed-in-the-wool dark blue barathea - a special day

Believe the unit is the post-IHC phase of a tri-Service light helicopter course now.

[Heliport]

dakotaman

Interest in the cab - photos here. CLICK LINK (http://www.pprune.org/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=128638&perpage=15&pagenumber=1)

[Arkroyal]

Once only

Back in the saddle after summer leave 1979.

5/9/79 2 hrs with 'The squeak from Gweek' Revision & Advanced Autos.

[STAN DEASY]

Cobaltfrog

It was so scary i dont remember it !!

but if you are the chap who went jungly and lived in SC's house near Dorcheter the FHT cab was ZB647!!

Cheers

(Now I shall have to change my handle)

[oldpinger]

Hmmm,

Nothing exciting- failed one sortie in it (D16 whatever that was) and low level EOLs, ahhh those zoom climbs, you've got to love them!

[maintranschip]

Oldpinger, D16 was advanced autos (part 2). The best trip I managed in it was the 50th anniversary of Taranto formation at Portland. An excellent formation and a good Taranto night.....I think!!!!!!

[cobaltfrog]

Standeasy

Right on both counts!

Was ZB647! An you did take control! Heh ho I think your final words were something along the lines of "You could have done so much better.....!"

Still with BMI? Saw the old TOG as a crab. Seems mellower now!!

[snafu]

D7 (Basic autos) in Dec 95 and D9 (EOLs) in Jan 96!

Strangely enough, they were my only trips in that cab, even though my course didn't finish 'til May 96.

Happy days!!:ok:

[fuel2noise]

Just checked the old parchments and I did my D40 IF Test (didn't do an actual IRT on BFT course) with Mark Osman on 30 Jul 1984...and passed! Only did two other trips in that machine all course...but boy what a happy summer of love that was - happy days:O

[jockspice]

I also did D40 in this cab 10 years after fuel2noise and also passed. Lucky aircraft? Great days at 705, as was, and miss the Gaz-slick a lot!

[spud]

Night solo circuits July 1981. Can't believe I used to fly an aircraft without a bog, galley or a bed.

[fuel2noise]

Spud. Not just a bog and galley. What about a lovely hostie bringing you a coffe with a smile :O That would have been something to distract you in the middle of a 360 auto to the autofield.....

[peterperfect]

Spud, It didnt have a bog, galley or bed; yet most cabs on 705 managed OK without the mods, including the occasional discerning hostie, one suspects.

Fuel2noise: XW895 Chelsea Barracks & rtn 3.55 DCO....via Chatham House SRZ......

ppfn

[fuel2noise]

peterperfect: I did Chelsea Barracks for my landaway but that was in XW897 6&7 Sep 1984.... got my beefer laid in West Kensington so passed the trip ('Captaincy 1 & 2' if I remember it was billed); now those were the days.

[airborne_artist]

Mu sole attempt at controlling this wonderfull piece of engineering was on Jan 22 1980, with Nige North, the wonder on the accordian. D16, Advanced autos.

[fuel2noise]

...with all this top-grade notsalgia for the Gaz-piece I wonder if 'those who touched the hem of the 705 garment' could reach into our pockets and acquire one to re-kindle those fondest aviation moments? Base it in a cornish field somewhere and then have some fun. As an aside we could even re-create the extra-curricular activities so essential in forming the Fleet Air Arm heros of our generation. Any takers??

[airborne_artist]

What's the going rate for one with reasonable hours left on the main components?

[desertbaker]

dug the logbook whilst at work today and found I flew this racing gazelle once way back in Jan 86 during an IRI's course (deep joy) at Culdrose.
Great time of year to hold an IRI's course though!

[floppyjock]

As an ex AAC pilot I didnt fly it. But I did last september when it stopped in at Kingmuir ( Sorbie ) in Fife.

Much appreciated and I thank you.

Same time next year :D

Floppy

[squadronblue]

Flew my FHT in this a/c with Barry Kirby on 27th July 1981, and had the pleasure of flying the machine again with the observer (!) in the left seat of the calendar phot.
Have a video sequence available if anybody is interested, taken at Redhill a couple of years back.....

[pingerpuke]

Flew this for D15 (Advanced Autos) in Jul 94. Strangely that was my only trip in it despite having to go back for a refresher after a year's holdover before 706.

Remeber my time on 705 with great fondness, although I'm not sure we could ever recreate the atmosphere of the squadron even if they did do away with DFS. You can but dream...:hmm:

[airborne_artist]

Base it in a cornish field somewhere and then have some fun. As an aside we could even re-create the extra-curricular activities so essential in forming the Fleet Air Arm heros of our generation. Any takers??

Personally I'd never make it out of the Beehive on the quantities I remember downing in there of a night....

[peterperfect]

airborne-artist: better downing too much beer in BBOB (back bar of Beehive) than the time we lost Samantha's mate's snake under the settle !! Happy days.
pp

[MaxAOB]

Now chaps, the back bar of the beehive with samantha (and friend) after a sessione in the red fred - we really are getting nostalgic. I remember those friday happy hours when you couldn't move in the main bar then off to Penzance and the barn to celebrate surviving another week! The FAA started dying when they pulled the plug on the training at CU. The W/R these days is a sad relic of a halcyon past. I vividly remember those zaps especially 14 pilots course - Cunning stunt men!! One zap was inside trap 1 on the first floor of keppel for years! Stan Deasy will remember the very first imitation squadron badge for a flying course "Tedium" mocking the glorious eight hundred and tenth!

Ah golden days

;)

[6Z3]

MAOB.

Ah Samantha's friend (Zelda? or something like that). Do you remember the night the snake got out?

[MaxAOB]

I remember well, there was also a few trouser snakes around on those nights!! I have never looked at a ping pong ball in the same way since. Pussers rum nights - i'm getting all nostalgic again, was asked tonight at end of 4th sector wether i miss the andrew or not, if it was always like those days then a hell of a lot! However things move on and change - not always for the better.

Anyway my curry and ale await me after 12 hours stuck in my skybus.

:= :bored: :hmm: :} ;)

[fuel2noise]

Delighted to see posts above... nostalgia isn't what it used to be.

Thought readers would be comforted to know that the carpet (next to the bar) in the Barn is still as sticky as it was when I was on BFT in 1984! Talking of sticky... always wondered if Samantha had shares in Johnson & Johnson. Peter Perfect is bound to know the answer!!!!!!!!

[6Z3]

...and in marshmallows. Now that's the right way to eat them.


Where were we? XW 895. Among other memorable sorties, B1 recat v Burnett 1985, as well as pre-A2 workup (which went a great deal better than A2 v God, but then that wasn't in XW 895)

[peterperfect]

6Z3
I do believe the classy janner herpetologist was called Wanda, Cribber's Stag Night ? Where is she now: doing effects of control demos at Paignton Zoo per chance I was in 6Y2 by the way.

Have we gone off the original thread ? ..........yes but who cares !

Lets face it, a good number of Wafus must have flown in XW895, but only a few got the dubious honour of the marshmallow.

Perhaps the FAA Museum could set up a small vignette entitled "The lost snake under the settle" , it would be better than looking at encrusted bits of old Barracudas (but there again...).

[6Z3]

The nostalgia is indeed oozing. Perhaps we should suggest that this thread ought to be a sticky. But then again it might be taken the wrong way...

...which leads me back to the Back back bar, and that (surely extinct by now) double headed Dodo (I'm forever getting names wrong).

[fuel2noise]

... and there was the evening when darling Sam brought along a 'friend' with a delicious chocolate coloured skin tone.... 'jambon noir' if you will. Rick Hatters had never seen such a choice example and had (yes really!) to be physically restrained by the boys until his ardour was dampened by copious pints of spingo... or was it cider.... time blurs the memory.

Any takers for a Barn club run for old time's sake one day??

[spud]

And the Samantha night when Weaves' parts got painted purple and I missed it 'cos I got jobbed for a ground run and arrived late. A blessing with hindsight.

[6Z3]

D44. Attempting a cushion creep limited power TX out of the St Earth Confined area (and just about succeeding, with a limited power wing over to miss the trees at the far end)!! Sandy M suitably unimpressed.

[STAN DEASY]

Ahh nostalgia!

Happy hours and trashing cars.

Samantha's face when Andy Leach returned serve with his table tennis bat was a picture as was everyone elses when BW was shown to be wearing Gieves and Hawkes boxers!

The best advice I recieved on 702 was from a Course Officer who pointed out that the Continental Landaway Subs was not to be spent on pressies and postcards but was exclusively destined for booze and tottie - those wise words resonate daily!

[fuel2noise]

Stan Deasy.... wise words on the spending of subs!

I am very proud to note that when I finished EFT my 50/60 stated "this officer flies the Bulldog as if he is waiting for a hostess to bring him a cup of coffee." I have always regarded this as a high accolade and have attempted to operate all the aircraft I have since flown in the same manner.

705 cultured much the same spirit in and out of the cockpit..... the thought of a hostie looking after the crew during a 360 auto/fast-stop/engine-off merits close consideration..........

[DWARF BULKHEAD]

705, great time, great bunch, great instruction.

F2N

Never managed to drink a cup of coffee in a 360 though.
Keeping the sodding ball in the middle while controlling Nr and spelling Chrysanthemum backwards for Mark Osman used up all my capacity.

or was it Mumehtnasyrhc backwards?

Time take its toll

[airborne_artist]

Close examination of my one remaining brain cell shows that I dinged the frangible tail end piece on XW895 while doing practice EOLs at EGDR.

I over-corrected in the landing-run, several times, and we came to a halt at 90 degrees to our original heading.

The tower hit the crash button on our behalf.......

[fuel2noise]

Dwarf B'head.... Mark Osman's special word for spelling during a 360 was 'rhododendron'.

On that note, who else was presented with a daisy to mark the first Gaz solo by their 705 beefer? It was standard practice to stick the aforementioned flower into one's logbook to mark the event... as I noted on a previous thread it was a summer of love, 1984.

Also, why is this thread not a 'sticky' when it deserves far more attention than raking over endless Chinook coals.:\

[The Ferret]

Just checked my log book and I have 4.10 in this fine aircraft - did my D8 (Circuits with emergencies - wow!) with Jan Criddle back on the 22 May 1979, then my D10 again with Jan Criddle (the engine off landing sortie where the Beefer has to check that there are only 2 skid marks and not 3!). Then flew it again on the 12 and 16 Jul 79 for my D42 (GFP Revision) and D28 (Confined area landings!) both with Nige North. Ah happy days! :D :O :D

Oh - by the way - I too remember Samantha in the Beehive - 1013 as the back bar used to be called! Don't think I ever experienced the marshmallow - but the ping pong balls stick in my mind.............or was it...............my..........?

[MaxAOB]

F2N,

Reckon i have sussed you out, i remember you using that phrase often. The give away is the written word though - which is very similar to how you wrote my 206's!!

I guess those comments about the bulldog were preparing you for the summer of '89. Wonder where the Sprite freestyle ski team ever got to? Alas my team shirt has been cleared out by 'er indoors.

Remember that wonderous exchange " 10 kts, 15 Positive Climb" quickly followed by "Don't talk to me i'm on instruments!"
:eek:

Concur your comments re sticky - which was how i spent that summer as i recall!

Nostalgia isn't what it used to be! Reckon that the military forum should be more as a nostalgia site as it might attract more people that are actually in it.

Regards to L.

:cool:

[DWARF BULKHEAD]

F2N

THAT EXPLAINS EVERYTHING. I NOW KNOW WHY I GOT DX'D FOR SPROLLING!

AGREE WITH STICKY COMMENT BUT WE ARE NOT THE MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE AS WE AINT CRABS - THANK HEAVENS.

MAX - DO I KNOW YOU? HAVE WE SLEPT TOGTHER?

[airborne_artist]

Dwarf Bulkhead

Don't shout - you're not on spot 2 now, or is the caps lock on yr keyboard locked down?

[DWARF BULKHEAD]

shhhhh....... very sorry, but i am a little deaf you know.

perhaps that explains why i did understand much on 705 or was it the chain gang and harrier ground runs when living on 2 deck.

pehaps i should change my handle to deaf bulkhead

[MaxAOB]

Dwarf,

Needless to say have slept with many!! Not quite sure if we have been intimate though!! F2N was drafting my 206's well before he was SP of 8** so no fluid exchange there! i did have the pleasure of sleeping with them during Ocean Slave - although those that know me will be wise to the fact that i would prefer to forget the deployment - especially the bit of the indian ocean between diego garcia and djibouti!!!!!!

IMHO we should begin a campaign to make this sticky - crabs or no crabs.

:8 :ok: :p ;) :O

[fuel2noise]

MaxAOB...let's work it to the bone...c'mon, let's work it to the bone...

Delighted to see you up on this thread; well sussed! Reckon I have just about acquired the spare capacity to take off and talk after many more years of hard practice!

Wise word re: the Sprite boys... I was (spookily) just thinking about them the other day cos I did meet up with Michael de Rijter in Amsterdam some years ago. Happy, happy days and certainly in the category of "I learned about flying from that"!!

Best wishes for now as there is some fuel I need to convert into noise.

PS Rumour has it that Slid is running an eatery somewhere up in the smoke having fallen from grace with Mrs Slid, not to mention running out of jobs in the andrew. Poetic justice?

[MaxAOB]

F2N,

Have just returned from turning about 13 tonnes of fuel into noise in spain! 800kgs isn't even near our MLA these days. I am amazed that Mrs S was still around after the Malaysian deal anyway! Reckon we need to suss the eatery and book ourselves in for a full fried b'stard complete with aregonies (spel?).

Hope to bump into you before the annual event in January - have heard on the grapevine that you now back in the command hot seat and even training - you obviously growing old in style!

Good to talk and best we hit the nostalgia button again soon.

:hmm: :p :8

ps. Wonder where the lovely wendy swainbank is these days, spin the doncaster and abbey hotel in great malvern dit often on 'interesting' night flights.

:p

[MaxAOB]

Not sticky enough yet!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

:cool:

[fuel2noise]

MaxAOB..... Wendy S; now there was a woman in touch with the needs of the Fleet Air Arm!

[MaxAOB]

She certainly prevented me from needing my arm!!!!!

I still remember the look on all those faces outside the Abbey Hotel when she sped up in 'er fast flash motor (which i could borrow if you remember) and whisked me off for a night of passion in Worcester!

On a similar topic am still waiting for Party Party to come out on DVD! What are we up to now the famous five Sensational six.

As i recall it was top gun/Blues Bros/Life of Brian/Party Party and the Animal House was it not???

When did Johnny Reeves' Tax disc expire? He selling flash these days rather than being a fast, flash fella!!

:cool: