Not 72 or 230 just a Belfast ATCO .....we had one of our guys who spent a lot of time under route 2 "entertaining" in his Astra . His favourite evening was when Klingon went over the top low level at the vinegar stroke....sad fecker:ok::ok::ok:

On the pad at BBK 0200, three bacon sarnies from TSW
Grobbling up R13 in foul weather to collect a video with crucial int..... and returning it to the NAAFI!
Sitting on the pad at XMG watching house bricks landing all around
Drumcree! Watching the Chinny bring in 2 Eager Beavers cos the prods had arrived with a JCB their side of the battlements
Driving past Daisy Hill and threatening the RAFP driver that if he didn't turn around I'd shoot him myself.
Seeing OC72s face when his clothes for the road move were delivered!
The Army poster in the Buzzard tower "ARMY! Be the bestest!" - laughed till I wept. Love subtle banter.
Grosvenor on toast morning after 2 hrs of EVCP
Grosvenor fire drills - Jeff Young "F*k off RSM, do I look like I´m on fire!"
Grosvenor - aerobics Oz style (on telly, not me obviously)
All STANO crew arriving to tell us to sharpen up on our NF procedures then landing on a fence post
The night they re-legalised fireworks! Eat your heart out Apocalypse Now!
Delivering a truely unhappy cat to G40!
Bringing the honey box back! Literally hauling Sh1t back and forth.
Warning a certain pilot (HV) that our approach to Stormont was a bit quick then looking at his face as he surveyed the furrows in the nice lawn!
16 hrs in the dog section at Stormont while Bertie Ahearn & Tony Bliar argued with the locals inside

Pooh Bear at Templepatrick
Taking the wife's shortcut into Belfast through the nice area with the paintings...!!
Blackbush Distillery tours
Mini Tiger Meet with the Chech Hind and the Luftwaffe Tonka boys.

O dark o'clock - "Any happy bunnies out there?"

Orange Whip!

My wife and I have searched high n low (and we're good at finding food!) but have yet to find an icecream to compare to Maud's Pooh Bear!!!!

Talking in code with visiting relatives whilst trying to have discussions in local restaurants without giving the game away - because we didn't look like Forces!!!!

The look on Buzzards face when delivered one of the wife's pizza's by helicopter down to R850 !
PS. A "Playboy Special" if my memory servs me correctly

Nice seeing some pics of "Home" was particularly interested to see the Wessex at Glenlola school in Bangor I also remember being given a guided tour of a scout there many years ago.

As to Courting in carparks remember it well!!!!! we all lived with our parents so was only place could be embarassing if footprint appeared on windscreen when it misted up ;)

XR 518
 

It was one of the SAR cabs on 72 late 1995 and 1996. Only appears in V813 cab/SAR entries in my log book. I seem to remember a dedicated SAR cab was repainted green around that time. Each time it was involved in a call out, a bit of green paint was chipped off by the crew!

SAR To SH
 

Thanks for that acknowledgement Tiger Tales, and Paul Chocks / tomdocherty72 for confirming XR518’s time at Aldergrove. More to follow if the thread continues.

Also taken on 21st August 1995, this one shows the flotation boots referred to in my previous post, as well as XV723’Q’ in the background. Who's that walking from the cab?

http://i765.photobucket.com/albums/x...otographer.jpg

All I know of XR518's subsequent history with Sixty Squadron is its decommissioning flight from RAF Benson to Fleetlands on 27th January 1997. A two ship, with D*** W******s, P*** A*****y and myself in 518, by then coded ‘O’, recording XR523'M', also being laid-up, crewed by Sixty Sqn CO D*** F*****, E*** C*****n and S** B**d. Never having seen 523 in-Province, my interest in that ex-72 cab (M) was a set of photos published in Col Mike Dewar's The British Army In Northern Ireland. I'd brought a copy to Benson and got the crew to sign the relevant pages on arrival at Fleetlands. First coincidence relevant to the above shot - the crew-cab that took us all back to Benson? XV723'Q', by then also with Sixty.

Now for the second one. With the source not attributed in the book, the images were captioned as an Eagle VCP near Newry on 19th March 1975, XR523 being ‘AM’ at that time, and in 1997 I wasn't internet connected. Only came across their origin last year on the Royal Green Jackets official website where I discovered -

A Coy Bessbrook

The relevant set from the late Cpl Bert Henshaw's archive. Nos (5).jpg and (6).jpg were published along with another aerial shot (4) apparently missing from the site. Though credited ‘A Coy, Bessbrook’, I reckoned it wasn’t, so went with the book description to check the main routes round Newry, and found it some two miles east of that ‘city’ – as it’s now officially designated – on the road to Hilltown.

Apart from the absence of the Wessex and search team, the scene is virtually unchanged today, with the original posts and rusty barbed wire still topping the stone-faced bank and the distinctive stone arch culvert under the highway. Does that 19th March 1975 date match anyone’s log book?

Yes. I know. Anorak! but it's history now and that's why this thread has so much potential if it continues in a sensible manner. I'm not an aircraft - or rotary - enthusiast per-se; the individuals and surroundings form an important part of the picture, which is why I record personnel names and locations where possible. Whilst sensitive at the time, they're archive material thirty or forty years on, so long as the threat has disappeared.

I hope the photos bring back good memories for those of you who served ‘over here’.

one story i remember reading in county down spectator was one of the wessexes exercising with the Bangor life boat lost control and had to make a forced landing in the grounds of crawfordsburn hospital or in grounds of the country park!

Not NI related, but I'm assuming the metal cylinders on each side of the fuselage are exhausts? Did that make entering the cabin a bit interesting? (There doesnt seem to be much between them and the door)

They are exhausts and because they are angled upwards and outwards it is not too big a deal. However flight deck crew changes were a bigger deal, especially at Shawbury were crews changed all the time, so procedures were introduced to close one engine down during rotors running crew changes. Can't remember the term, but someone will.

"Things you never hear:..."

and "What do all the crewmen on 72 have in common?" "They've all been flying with DB when he said "It's the first time I've ever been lost"

And the horrors of his leaving doo.

I did that too! Watching Ian Paisley and the rest of his gang getting a bit agitated outside the gates, (never been called an "English scab" before, or indeed since!) and being asked by the RUC to "stop winding them up, they're this close to storming the place already". Only a little bit sleepy when we took TB and BA back to Hillsborough, and only slightly missed the HLS, but when we turned round the lights had been turned on and we were into wind so I think we got away with it (in our defence we had been on duty for many many hours and by then it was about 3 in the morning?)

EESDL

There is a Mauds in Windsor but the name of the best ice cream has been changed to Poor Bear'd Delight....still tasted awesome even in December when it was firking freezing outside!

ian176
The proximity of the Stbd exhaust to the refuelling point made rotors running refuels interesting, hot and noisy!

And you could always PERRRF (port-engine-& rotor-running-refuel) and shut the stbd down, leaving port donk and rotor going. Minimal time to fire it up again afterwards. But rarely needed - throttling back the stbd normally helped.

Even on the JOAC (Junior Officers Air Course) at Yeovilton in 81 or thereabouts I and all the other schoolkids were briefed on the importance of keeping close to the fuselage when climbing in or out of the beast, and were showed a horribly melted waterprooof jacket to reinforce the lesson. No one shut any engines down for us! Then or since.

You bet I can think of a term for that...

If there was a Night Sun dangling off the side too it got even more 'interesting'.

Still, it kept us Tiswas lads warm on cold nights. Every cloud and all that....:ok:

By the way, does anyone know why the PSP at G40 was fitted the wrong way up (plank connecting hooks uppermost)? It could be a bugger trying to find the earthing lead in the dark after it had been pulled out of your hand by a random hook, with the loadie tapping their foot waiting.

Oh and whoever mentioned the 'honey pot' tanks earlier, thanks for bringing back a very bad memory I was trying to forget. I won't divulge full details now as some of you chaps may have only just finished lunch but it involves Puma downwash, a certain hollow at G40 and an insecure lid........

Wessex trial colour schemes 1991
 

Just found these pics of Wessex trial colour schemes before the 2 tone green scheme was adopted.


Wessex in NI pictures by oldsarbouy - Photobucket

Great pic's ave never seen Hc2 in them colours, had seen the hc2 in all olive drab " X" XR498. But none of the above colours, has anyone got any pic's of hc2's in the olive drab. Also need some help with any pic's of FAA's Wessex Hu5 from 1977-1982 in Northern Ireland espically in BBK or South Armagh.

Thats probably the one where they were training with cliff winching and had a VERY interesting electrical failure, resulting in a run-on through a fence?

lsh

Ish, wasn't that Shackman that happened to? he frequents this site so maybe could tell the tale with "warts an' all"........

Not sure of the crew, pretty dramatic though.

Incredible that despite being accused of "over maintaining" the aircraft at times, the generators had no service scheme at all (if working OK) and could be 25+ years old, in theory !!

lsh
:E