Ar 5
AR5
Does it still come with the 20 lbs hissing handbag?
And has it really not been superceded since I used it in the mid 80's?
The groundy respirator went from S6 to S10 by the end of the decade, I seem to recall!
CG
And has it really not been superceded since I used it in the mid 80's?
The groundy respirator went from S6 to S10 by the end of the decade, I seem to recall!
CG
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Aaahhh, AR5
What fond memories stir at the very mention of the name.
Anyone else particularly enjoy the inverted snorkelling session in the pool at North Luffenham.
Or how about the sweating off 3 stones per minute just getting dressed in all the gear.
And that whistling handbag was just so cute!
Ginseng
What fond memories stir at the very mention of the name.
Anyone else particularly enjoy the inverted snorkelling session in the pool at North Luffenham.
Or how about the sweating off 3 stones per minute just getting dressed in all the gear.
And that whistling handbag was just so cute!
Ginseng
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....or sneaking up behind your mate and closing his outflow valve, watching his head slowly inflate whilst he fumbled around to open the valve again...sadistic, me? Never....
16B
16B
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Or some stupid **** saying you had to wear NBC kit out to the aircraft from Ops, if you were going down the route during a Taceval. Notional bunkers were something else again. Talk about playing at war for the CO's promotion.
Almost as good as having to file flight plans to Ascension during the war, and then being told your coms security was diabolical.
Plain ruins my day thinking about the whole stupidity.
Almost as good as having to file flight plans to Ascension during the war, and then being told your coms security was diabolical.
Plain ruins my day thinking about the whole stupidity.
I didn't mind it once it was on and you weren't moving about - it was that farce of hopping about on one leg trying to get those ba$tard overboots on that pi$$ed me off! There had to have been a better way.
Yes, I had the fun of wearing the b£oody thing in the pool at North Luffenham. Such fun......
Thank heavens we didn't need it in GW1. We all took it out with us, the engineers tried to lose mine whan they moved everything from Bahrein to Riyadh when I was back in the UK (that prick of a SEngO thought it was sooo funny), but it finally reappeared. Then the movers tried to lose it when we finally got back to the Covert Oxonian Aerodrome. But it reappeared a few weeks later - finally said goodbye to the $odding thing a decade later.
Yes, I had the fun of wearing the b£oody thing in the pool at North Luffenham. Such fun......
Thank heavens we didn't need it in GW1. We all took it out with us, the engineers tried to lose mine whan they moved everything from Bahrein to Riyadh when I was back in the UK (that prick of a SEngO thought it was sooo funny), but it finally reappeared. Then the movers tried to lose it when we finally got back to the Covert Oxonian Aerodrome. But it reappeared a few weeks later - finally said goodbye to the $odding thing a decade later.
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Remember being asked to fly with mine in theatre in the run up to GW1. Accidentally put hook on helmet through rubber seal when donning. Cancel trial, fly normally, reschedule for 24 hrs (curing time for repair)
Next day, accidentally etc etc. Reschedule. Warn my maintainer he will run out of seals before I become more adept!
Trial cancelled!
(My CO was a v.savvy ex F4 driver who got the picture instantly and accepted my explanation and promise that we would be better off in the old S10 with it's "rubber band mods"!)
Next day, accidentally etc etc. Reschedule. Warn my maintainer he will run out of seals before I become more adept!
Trial cancelled!
(My CO was a v.savvy ex F4 driver who got the picture instantly and accepted my explanation and promise that we would be better off in the old S10 with it's "rubber band mods"!)
Inter Arma Enim Silentius Lex Legis
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Had a captain during GW1 who insisted we all spend a few hours wearing the dam thing in the cruise. Each and every cruise just to get used to it! Like we didn't wear it enough in the sims!
The same idiot who insisted on opening all the handbag batteries on the flight deck, eventually finding one lithium battery that was leaking badly. Oh how our eyes watered. We had to depressurise at FL250 and crack open a para door and dump it. I suspect we may have given an Italian trawler a scare that night..
The same idiot who insisted on opening all the handbag batteries on the flight deck, eventually finding one lithium battery that was leaking badly. Oh how our eyes watered. We had to depressurise at FL250 and crack open a para door and dump it. I suspect we may have given an Italian trawler a scare that night..
It was binned for GW1 when 2 'Guinea Pigs' went all wobbly after 30 minutes in the Darhan heat - one was carried to the med centre with total heat exhaustion! It was decided that we would let the Iraqis try and kill us rather than our own kit - very sensible.
LJ
LJ
It was binned for GW1
Avoid imitations
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Thoroughly awful bit of kit, not well suited to field conditions.
Once lived and flew in mine for 3 days in the early 80s during a deployed site field trial, in the European summer heat. We were given short breaks in a shelter to ablute and eat but apart from that, we were constantly kitted up, always dripping wet with sweat. No help was given with moving our full personal deployment kit to and from the aircraft each time we flew, which I remember as the one thing that really p1$$ed me off the most!
My crewman and I were required to sleep wearing it, as best as we could. I remember being required to plan, brief and lead a 4 ship early morning task wearing full kit, having slept in simulated contaminated conditions, which was an interesting experience to say the least, not least the actual difficulty of communicating verbally outside of the aircraft.
The worst part about sleeping in it was that despite using a head harness, the mask moved off the face unless you slept flat on your back, allowing cold air to blow straight in your eyes. My colleague woke up at midnight, screamed, pulled off his still hissing AR5 and threw it on the straw (we were sleeping in a barn hayloft under the watchful eye of trials team staff). He rubbed his eyes, uttered a few choice expletives, then re-donned it, fastened up the head harness and went back to sleep. The following morning he couldn't remember anything about it! He was deemed "a casualty".
At Endex, on finally getting home and undressed to have a shower I found I was covered from neck to foot in ingrained charcoal from the undersuits.
No doubt everyone would be very glad to see the AR5 gone!
Once lived and flew in mine for 3 days in the early 80s during a deployed site field trial, in the European summer heat. We were given short breaks in a shelter to ablute and eat but apart from that, we were constantly kitted up, always dripping wet with sweat. No help was given with moving our full personal deployment kit to and from the aircraft each time we flew, which I remember as the one thing that really p1$$ed me off the most!
My crewman and I were required to sleep wearing it, as best as we could. I remember being required to plan, brief and lead a 4 ship early morning task wearing full kit, having slept in simulated contaminated conditions, which was an interesting experience to say the least, not least the actual difficulty of communicating verbally outside of the aircraft.
The worst part about sleeping in it was that despite using a head harness, the mask moved off the face unless you slept flat on your back, allowing cold air to blow straight in your eyes. My colleague woke up at midnight, screamed, pulled off his still hissing AR5 and threw it on the straw (we were sleeping in a barn hayloft under the watchful eye of trials team staff). He rubbed his eyes, uttered a few choice expletives, then re-donned it, fastened up the head harness and went back to sleep. The following morning he couldn't remember anything about it! He was deemed "a casualty".
At Endex, on finally getting home and undressed to have a shower I found I was covered from neck to foot in ingrained charcoal from the undersuits.
No doubt everyone would be very glad to see the AR5 gone!
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I was on one of the AR5 test crews at ISK in the late 80s - what a nightmare. I remember the medical bods meeting us on the steps as we disembarked to take photos of our hands...all wrinkly after 6 hours in a pair of washing up gloves.....
Remember the stupid little drinking straw - we had soup but all the little bits clogged up the straw....and how about the vomiting drill?? excellent.
We did some AAR practice with a safety pilot on the flight deck. our skipper at the time refused to play the game and removed his stuff - flight safety hazard!! Bravo!
Remember the stupid little drinking straw - we had soup but all the little bits clogged up the straw....and how about the vomiting drill?? excellent.
We did some AAR practice with a safety pilot on the flight deck. our skipper at the time refused to play the game and removed his stuff - flight safety hazard!! Bravo!
Leon,
Fair go - neither did I really, but I got away with it for an awfully long time..
Fair go - neither did I really, but I got away with it for an awfully long time..
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I'm sure that AR5s have been seen for sale in those special shops in Soho - not that I've ever been to one, you understand - imagine, all that rubber and talcum powder (well, Fuller's Earth) - gives me goose bumps just thinking about it (not to mention LLAD in RAFG in an F4 in it.....
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Richlear!
Seem to remember the vomiting drill was to move the face mask up and away and then to throw up neatly into the neck seal. What one did with it from there is anyones guess. Another vomiting drill 5 minutes later I should think.
Apologies to all who have, or are just about to eat.
Seem to remember the vomiting drill was to move the face mask up and away and then to throw up neatly into the neck seal. What one did with it from there is anyones guess. Another vomiting drill 5 minutes later I should think.
Apologies to all who have, or are just about to eat.