Idle hands

[Arm out the window]

Hey big fella, good to hear from you.
Must've been fairly exciting getting that kind of effect on a black night, just what you'd want as you're departing over the water.

Yep, I think the cameraman just didn't get my best profile on the day - my so called better half was very complimentary and said 'Which one's you?'!
I believe we may be seeing you gracing our TV screens soon though?

[MightyGem]

From experience, don't try and unfold a map when single pilot with the doors off.....

Ah yes...I didn't really need that map after all.

[stillnoeyedear]

Yes, my ugly mug will have a gob attached, no doubt I'll hang myself. At least it will give the armchair crtitics something to chat about. Looks like Big Jeff may come up our way soon! Have fun and fly safe, I'll try and pick your voice on the airways.

[OCTANE100]

You might want to have your static system checked. It is likely the static plumbling is dis-connected/leaking between the instruments and the static port which is at the bottom of the fuselage centre (roughly below the aft cabin seats). This static tubing is a thermo-retensive plastic, you heat it up to push it on-to the alloy fittings. The 'B' nuts on one of the adaptors could also be loose.

Strange really, I have never come across a squirel where the cabin doors seal well enough to create a cabin pressure differential so easily.

Haven't touched a '350 for a while but I remember some S/n's have two static sources at the location I described (pretty much next to one-another) and some only have one.

Otherwise, stop sticking your bl..dy hand out the window!!

[Arm out the window]

Thanks, Octane100. I'll look further into that. There's a couple of squirrels in the fleet so I'll see if the other one does it next time I fly it, too.

[Ascend Charlie]

AOTW,

You will see from old comic books that Superman used to fly with his fists clenched, and for good reason. Try it next time you stick your Arm Out The Window, and compare it to open palms - you will overcontrol to bu88ery with them open.

[Arm out the window]

True AC, although I've found it goes OK if you make a little aerofoil shape with your hand and use the little finger at the back as an elevator!

I miss the wire cutter support framework from the Huey, perfect for holding onto with the arm out in the airflow.

[fluffy5]

I know of an old boss who has a b2, who has it fully stabilised. we used to take the p*ss, so he could go hands free while his personal assistant in the second seat gave abit of light relief. Funny how she always re-applied her lipstick when they landed.

[[email protected]]

I was RHS captain in a Wessex doing SCT IF with the other guy flying in the LHS. We did all the normal up, down, left and right stuff and then decided to do some UPs (unusual positions or unusual attitudes). So, he closed his eyes, I did a couple of wingovers and then left him in a diving turn to recover with the usual 'You have control.' BUT, not wanting to make it too easy, I stuck my finger over the pitot head and the ASI went to zero. The attitude he then selected to try to recover from what he thought was a low IAS, high RoD UP meant I had to get my hand off the pitot and back onto the controls again bl88dy quickly to prevent us doing something the Wessex wasn't quite capable of!

Needless to say, I stuck to boring, easy UPs ever after that....

[ShyTorque]

Having started to read that, I was going to ask if you were the one of the chaps who allegedly accidentally looped a Wessex in cloud during inadvertant entry into cloud during a "practice limited panel and SAS off" UP, which got more than a little out of hand.

Probably a bit before your time though; it was a green Wx at Odiham in 1978 or '79.

Traffic on the M3 motorway near Basingstoke was supposedly slowing down due to the blade slap noises that one made.

They changed a few things, afterwards..........transmission, three pairs of underpants, SOPs etc.

Could name names, but won't

[[email protected]]

Shy, I remember the story you mention very well - I started on the Wessex in '83 and that story would be recounted at every opportunity - especially during the IF phase!

Someone managed to get a Wessex on its back in the Aldergrove zone in '85 or '86 (again on an IF sortie waiting for an SRA) which is why we never let ex-Puma pilots do wingovers again

And ex-Chinook pilots were even worse, especially if they were 'distracted' during the manoeuvre and forgot to avoid the ground

[Heli-Ice]

AOTW

Also try sticking your head out the window while flying and see what it does to your back-pressure relief valve

[ShyTorque]

Well, Crab - Wasn't the Princely moral from that "cripple a crewman and get promoted"? Sorry for the Dark humour.

At least my Puma wingovers were auth'ed by the AOC!