RAF's SH problems solved ...
Gentleman Aviator
Bet I could still climb up the RHS blindfold.....
....easier now without the Nitesun mounting......
... although I guess the colour scheme suggests ex Strawberry cabs...
....easier now without the Nitesun mounting......
... although I guess the colour scheme suggests ex Strawberry cabs...
Join Date: Apr 2005
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Some of them are ex-84 cabs, including the last Wessex I ever RTR'd.
I second the lack of Nitesun making access easier. Wessex + Nitesun + middle of the night + requires RTR + tired Tiswas stacker + silly hot exhaust inches from your nose = great fun all round.
Still, they kept us warm on those cold winter nights at R850.
I second the lack of Nitesun making access easier. Wessex + Nitesun + middle of the night + requires RTR + tired Tiswas stacker + silly hot exhaust inches from your nose = great fun all round.
Still, they kept us warm on those cold winter nights at R850.
Gentleman Aviator
Ah the Nitesun scaffolding...
I recall an occasion in NI when one of the EGOS (very) old and (not very) bold pilots was posted to the 72nd. 'Twas part of an Innsworth plan to spread the pain and extract from Shropshire those that had been there since Pontius was on 1 Sqn.
Said Salopian - a slightly built chap with a famously bad back who had once been the GTS PoF man - had climbed out of the RHS after his night sqn acceptance trip for a running change. He mucked up climbing out (
) and somehow managed to reach the ground standing in the middle of the scaffolding ...... whereupon his back "went".
So he could neither climb up nor bend down to escape ......
..... in the end I think the replacement pilot climbed in and Walter Wessex had to lift off to release him.....
.... and yer tell that to the young folks o' today and they'll not believe yer.....
I recall an occasion in NI when one of the EGOS (very) old and (not very) bold pilots was posted to the 72nd. 'Twas part of an Innsworth plan to spread the pain and extract from Shropshire those that had been there since Pontius was on 1 Sqn.
Said Salopian - a slightly built chap with a famously bad back who had once been the GTS PoF man - had climbed out of the RHS after his night sqn acceptance trip for a running change. He mucked up climbing out (
) and somehow managed to reach the ground standing in the middle of the scaffolding ...... whereupon his back "went".So he could neither climb up nor bend down to escape ......
..... in the end I think the replacement pilot climbed in and Walter Wessex had to lift off to release him.....
.... and yer tell that to the young folks o' today and they'll not believe yer.....
Join Date: Mar 2006
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Probably some people around who know how they work, too...
Gentleman Aviator
But at least the "freight deck executives" shovelling the coal would be well-prepared for their twice-yearly fitness test.......
Thought police antagonist
Join Date: Jul 2003
Location: Where I always have been...firmly in the real world
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I'm just wonderig if the three located at Hixon are the same three I saw duing my visit(s) there....if so, they've been there a bit longer than 3 years. One was an ex SAR cab, the other two were in camo. I was given to understand they were all airworthy at the time.......thus it came as a shock to the system to note that, despite being undercover.....ie in a warehouse with open doors, there was a distinct lack of those useful items called....blanks and covers. 
Donkey’s years ago I was on 33Sqn when it was first formed. In Bedford they were trialing a letdown aid known as Madge. The chap, whom I knew, who was running it was concerned about the Puma using it with the planned 100ft. break-off because he had heard that the Puma required three days notice in writing to stop. No problem, quothe I, so one other and me punched up there with a Puma to have a look at it.
There was a Wessex with the kit fitted and a trials Madge unit in a field some distance away. My mate climbed in, did the necessary and then it was my turn. The civilian fire section was going on strike at 1300hrs so we had to get our Puma airborne before then so my assessment was time limited.
I climbed in, acknowledged the bloke in the left hand seat who read the take-off checklist and off I went. I flew it like a Puma and the odd gasps suggested I wasn’t watching the torque-meter, not that I knew, the Whirlwind and Puma didn’t have one. I flew the system, being ex Valiants I could fly an ILS and I expressed the opinion that there was no cause for concern.
On returning my mate was already burning and turning with our Puma because we had about three minutes before we had to leave. I thanked him, climbed down the side, jumped into our Puma and we pissed off.
About three hours later there was a phone call at Odium for me, it was the chap at Bedford.
“It was a bit rude of you leaving him in a Wessex burning and turning.”
“I left him to shut it down.” I explained.
“But he was a navigator,” a long pause. “You are qualified on the Wessex aren’t you?”
“No.”
That’s how I was captain of a Wessex without doing the OCU.
There was a Wessex with the kit fitted and a trials Madge unit in a field some distance away. My mate climbed in, did the necessary and then it was my turn. The civilian fire section was going on strike at 1300hrs so we had to get our Puma airborne before then so my assessment was time limited.
I climbed in, acknowledged the bloke in the left hand seat who read the take-off checklist and off I went. I flew it like a Puma and the odd gasps suggested I wasn’t watching the torque-meter, not that I knew, the Whirlwind and Puma didn’t have one. I flew the system, being ex Valiants I could fly an ILS and I expressed the opinion that there was no cause for concern.
On returning my mate was already burning and turning with our Puma because we had about three minutes before we had to leave. I thanked him, climbed down the side, jumped into our Puma and we pissed off.
About three hours later there was a phone call at Odium for me, it was the chap at Bedford.
“It was a bit rude of you leaving him in a Wessex burning and turning.”
“I left him to shut it down.” I explained.
“But he was a navigator,” a long pause. “You are qualified on the Wessex aren’t you?”
“No.”
That’s how I was captain of a Wessex without doing the OCU.
