Helmet cross
 

Just a quicky... could someone please take 20 sec to explain the significance of the white cross sometimes displayed on a pilots helmet... ? Many thanks..

Its reflective tape to aid locating him at night if he has ended up in the ogginsplosh.

For fear of responding to a bite, the cross is reflective tape to enable easier location at night during SAR Ops in water, as long as the aircrew keep the helmet on! Hope that helps and awaiting bite response! DB

And in case it's of interest (and we're not being bitten!), the small patch of velcro on the top of the helmet is for attaching the Firefly strobe light, a rather better location aid than the reflective tape, whereas the large bit of velcro on the back is for the NVG counterweight.

Cross to bear
 

All very true gentlemen, but what do you do if you don't want to be found? How much use the reflective cross now! Ditch the hat quick!

Which would give reason to the black tape over the white tape when the ink in your logbook is green...... ;)

Green ink :yuk: , we taped over the reflector when on ops in northern ireland. Still used black ink, even the night we got shot at. :p

Fortunately we here are so massively overstaffed with squippers that it was no skin off their noses to spend ages retrofitting this tosh to our helmets....

:ugh:

Just like they have nothing better to do than stitch up the left thigh pocket on our desert dpm flying troosers so it doesn't snag on the collective. We don't have.

Is there just someone higher up their food chain that just hates squippers and comes up with stupid jobs for them to do when they're working their arses off anyway? Makes you weep....

I remember watching the Para squadron of the Royal Engineers getting ready to go for a jump and noticed on the top of at least one helmet the words, "Dig Here" - nice touch, I thought:E

I was once told by a hairy crewman, that if they could clearly see the cross you were face down and thus low priority, any wire tensioners care to comment?
It was in a pub he was chubby so must be true:ok:
Charlie sends

Stop Start,

Maybe if you got your Sgt/FS/WO squippers to deploy you wouldn't be that busy!:ok:

OK... so it's a sort of 'X marks the spot'... Many thanks for the response... very entertaining..

It was black taped in the Tucano due to it reflecting off the canopy and spoiling the view from the rear seat.

Some squipper WO's become SWO. So thats them out of deployment list

No names no pack drill

Tosh? Nice to know you take your own survival, and the efforts of others associated with it, so seriously.:hmm:

The cross
 

Charlie luncher;
I'ts common sense, arrive face down...little chance...but, will still work all the way to a&e; If your not face down the sar crew will give you the best level of service available. The cross does help hugely, not only with a white light search...

TR. It's not that relevant to my fleet thanks. Mods like these come in across the board seemingly without reference to the type of aircraft. Velcro for a firefly on my lid is cock all use in an MS dinghy - tip top if floating about on your own perhaps. Likewise, the thigh pockets on the fireproof desert DPMs are quite handy. However, some rotary types found they snagged on the collective. My particular type doesn't have a collective - directive is though that all LH thigh pockets be sewn up. Squippers at my locn are therefore tied up with triv like that when they could be concentrating on stuff that actually needs doing.

Despairing at the inflexibilities of the system doesn't reflect on my attitudes to survival issues. I've done enough courses and time on ops thanks :hmm:

The white cross is where you track with the pipper.......

Oh yeah, silly me. :rolleyes:
And if you end up bobbing around the oggin without an MS raft?
Or are you flying safe in the assumption that'll never, ever happen? :hmm:
Got to agree on the FRCS95 thigh pockets though but look at it this way, unpicking the stitching takes up an entire evening on Ops. (Of which I've done quite a few too........"thanks")

:rolleyes:

Given the option of prioritising things like this then yes, me ending up in the oggin, alive, wearing a helmet, with a firefly, without an MS is pretty low on my list of likely occurences. There are plenty more things that are likely to bite me on the arse way before that. Been doing the job long enough to make "assumptions" like that. Thanks again :ok: