Ye gods Fareast! You must be as old as John Atkinson!

CG

Have to agree with Shy Torque, although it is 38 years since I flew one !. I recall that what you saw below the yellow band was where you were going if the donk stopped, (without any hydraulic power on the controls of course).

FED was that from Toome Bridge in 1975 by any chance??

At least ol' Beags found his way into a "military forum" finally!:E

The Yellow Band
 

If you crouched down in the seat did that extend the range? I always understood its purpose was a horizon reference and talking to an ex-Sioux driver in Bessbrook many years ago, he recalled that with a couple of thousand feet of clear air beneath the skids the 47 was a very efficient glider. Never having managed to blag a lift in one I've no idea, but looking at that main rotor – massive in comparison to what it's supporting – it seems feasible? To complete the set, this was the only movement that day at Y011; Scout XV136 departing for ?

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

Some "madeleine moments" here. As one who trained on (RAF!) Sioux I'm sure the yellow line was an horizon. Not so much artificial but (as BEags will no doubt remember from UAS days) as a datum for visual flying.

IIRC the Vne was 91 kts (is that a round figure in mph?) and could indeed be only achieved "downhill". But the RAF Sioux were supercharged, I don't think the Hairy Arm Corps ones were.

Thinking (BEags again) of the Beaver and its use for jollies, I remember one instance when P*rc* S*tt*n was FATOC-ing at Lisburn, and was keen to get a buckshee trip back to ODIZ.

The plan went thusly:

1. Invent and task totally bogus VIP task for Beaver to pick up pax from ODIZ (always handy for Aldershot).

2. Add himself to manifest for "empty" outbound leg.

3. Cancel task at last minute, getting the (expected) response - "Bugger - after all that planning! We'll go anyway as a training trip!"

4. Result. :ok:

[Edited to add: 91 kts = 105mph and the cruise IIRC was 74 kts = 85mph, so that may have been the reason .....]

May 1974. It was during the UUWC strike. Whilst they were removing the Sioux's blades I was discussing the possiblity of purchasing a heifer from the farmer whose field it was in. The strike had closed the abbatoirs so farmers were losing big money. Our Eng O was a qualified butcher so my plot was to come back with a Puma plus one of our spare 9 mm. rounds; knock the cow over and bring it back to Algergrove. There it would be shared out in freezer packs between the subscribers. Unfortunately, everybody was too stingy to front up the cash so the idea collapsed.

There was nothing wrong with the Sioux. OC Recce Flt had run out of fuel.

No way a 9mm would take down a cow....:eek:

You'd have been better clubbing it to death...:ok:

I would have known where to put the bullet. I had done a few kudus for biltong in Rhodesia.

Dun
 

;)

So could I - but not on this forum !!!

Utter tosh... You've probably slept in sheets that could stop a 9mm...:\

Especially the rounds sourced from the Indian subcontinent that left a whiff of curry after firing.

Queen's UAS - Looking for a cherished momento ...
 

Guys/gals,

I've loved reading this thread - one of the very best on PPRuNe. A bit of a long shot, I agree, but I am trying to track down a particular object which might have been liberated from Queen's UAS at or near its closure.

If anyone knows anything of the whereabouts of a rectangular 8" x 4" (ish) brushed aluminium plate bearing the words "Olympia Stadion Berlin", I would be delighted to hear from you. It means a lot ...

Yours,

EWP

Phamous............
 

Cheers for the memories...........as had already been stated they were a credit to their techies. Of course I only recognise them from on top when in the 'underslung' position! :E

Was on a Helichamps competition, when a Scout had two engine failures in two days!

Tiger In The Hills
 

Thirty years on from the last view and back to Crabair
Very relevant when approaching any of the pads on the hilltop OPs.

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

Here, with Sgt T****n W*****d in the doorway, XW199 has everything under control on finals to -

The water's the giveaway.

I bet T****n nipped out to use the loo as well!! :}
This one time, R*** H even used the surrounding razor wire to slow the cab down! :E

Ahhhh XW199 the first helicopter, indeed the first real aircraft I worked on in the RAF outside training! when it was on the OCU fleet. XW200 XW201 XW202 XW218 being the others, XW 218 replacing XW198 after it did a jig on the end of the lazy runway and beat itself to death..... It was bound to happen as Airfix produced the model of it..

As for the Bell 47, one autorotated at Cranfield and as it landed on heavy the bubble blew out in spectacular style, who needs emergency exits, when the cabin simply disappears from around you.

Whilst at Cranfield having left the RAF, I was suprised to see a couple of engineers frequently doing full burning and turning runs on a Gazelle, enquiring what will you do if you get ground resonance, the reply, "what's that?" didn't exactly give me much confidence... I didn't hang around.....

Nutloose:

Looking in my logbook I see XW200, 201 and 202 from Feb 85 to Apr 85 regularly...

Maybe we met....

Wrong! Here is a picture to prove it.

http://i229.photobucket.com/albums/e...ver/img012.jpg

Airfix came round to 33 Sqn to all the research on XW214 and then one day in March 1973 I had a call to say the model was ready and could we fly some of the kits in the actual aircraft. Unfortunately 214 had had a somewhat noisy discussion with a Belfast hanger door frame in Aldergrove followed but a bit of pique where it laid on its side and wound around 100 metres of gannet wire around its rotor head. Being a metal bladed Puma it had also worked over a few civilian cars parked nearbye.
Luckily Auntie Betty had some spare Pumas tucked away so we had been issued with XW227 which had in no time sported the letters C L on its boom. At the end of the day I took 227 to Battersea on the 28/3/1973. We had an excellent lunch on Airfix and then they took lots of photos of the aircraft showing the C L but not the XW227. The scan above is of an unbuilt kit from that flight.
There were later kits with those ghastly poliwhatsits on the engines but at the time that XW198 threw a wobbly that was the only kit going.