http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/psa-last-hms-gannet-seaking-flight/page/2/

Many moons ago I was fortunate to get a lift in an Army Lynx. There was only the two pilots so I was first in and was handed the headset and seated between the pilot seats which gave me a fantastic view. The pilot was a major which was unusual as normally they were NCOs but this chap was maintaining his hours. And he could fly. I think he really was destined for the Red Arrows.

En route he skimmed trees, flopped over islands as he flew feet from the surface of Lough Erne, missed power lines by what looked like inches and even did a bit of a roller coaster climb and sudden nose dive. The entire windscreen seemed to fill with hills and other really hard things as we sped towards them only to suddenly climb over and down the other side. I thought I was going to die.

And he sang to himself the entire time as he literally threw the Lynx around like a kite in a storm.

Once landed he swore us to secrecy saying ” not a word chaps, okay?”

Another memorable day involved a training day hosted by RAF and the instructor explained the alarm sequence and procedures in the event of a malfunction. He finished very seriously assuring us us that following this the aircraft would “glide to the ground” and pointed to the least aerodynamic aircraft ever…a Wessex parked outside the hut. We didn’t really believe him.

A few weeks after that I was in a Lynx that had an engine fire about 30 feet from landing. Alarms went off etc but the pilot just carried on with the landing and wasn’t too excited. Best thing was a few days later watching it being towed away by a Chinook. 🙂

This one is quite attractive:

Sikorsky CH-148

Had my last flight in a Seaking around 1989 when in the cadets, we landed and got out and a film crew got in they were filming a series called Rescue, they flew up to Creag Meagaidh and crashed. There are loads of pics on google just I never figured out how to post on here.

The video at the start of this thread of the Chinook lifting the Seaking down off the hill was taken by my mate and he’s just spent a couple of days in Aberdeenshire filming and photographing a Skycrane doing electric pole work for sse, think it was transported from the US to Montrose in containers?

Disappointing that they didn’t carry it over with an even bigger helicopter. Possibly suspended under an even bigger one, or just winched from the ISS

I really liked the one that brought me home last night (S92), but suspect I won’t be so keen on the one to take me away again in 3 weeks time.

After over 20 years of flying in the things to various offshore installations in various countries I have had some moments where I truly thought things were going to end badly, but in my head the benefits and opportunities the job brings to my family outweigh the potential for disaster.

I actually had a couple of flying lessons in a R22? a few years back, gave me a huge respect for the skills these pilots have, but also made me realise just how quickly things could get very serious in the right (wrong) circumstance.

Helicopter: A thousand parts spinning around at high speed looking for an excuse to fail!

Have a look on YouTube for xmas tree helicopters for examples of proper flying.

Love / Hate relationship with this one. Takes me to work and brings me home again every 4 weeks…

Always loved the lynx.  Was doing a job at R31 (or 13, can’t remember) above Newry. Bessbrook to job in a Puma. Straight forward. Did the job and were told we were vizzed in and to wait for next available chopper.

A lynx coming back from Armagh said they’d pick us up. Having never been in a lynx I jumped in, rifle pointing down then tried to find seat strap. See the door gunner snigger and speak into head set. Pilot looks over his shoulder and back. Door gunner sniggers again.

Next thing I know we’ve shot upwards and what could only be described as a rotating fall to the side of the hill. We dropped like a stone following the contours and then practically flew below tree top height back up the river to  bessbrook. I Never go on rollercoaster now because they’ll never match the buzz I got from that.

Also had a Puma land on my shoulder in Norway. Because of the white out the crew need a ground reference when landing. You stand with your arms out until the plexi glass is about to head but you then curl up in a ball. It was at that point the pilot ground my shoulder into the snow.

I forgave him because he was friends with our chief instructor and we  blagged a morning of heli  skiing north of Voss. Tax payers money well spent.

Can I ask those of you who seem to love helicopters so much, do you actually fly in them with any sort of regularity?

Small, cramped, noisy, dangerous metal boxes that have a fast spinning knife above your head.  If I didn’t occasionally have to I certainly wouldn’t ever want to fly in one.

A few years ago I was riding to avebury via a farm track.

I had stopped off for rest when I heard a helicopter sound,it didn’t sound like your average chopper that was for sure.

Was blown away (not literally) when an apache longbow appeared over the horizon and proceeded to practise hiding behind tree cover e.t.c

Was watching them for at least 5 mins hovering e.t.c it was bloody awesome i had to say both apache and the sound it made.

Am glad that I wasn’t deemed a target lol

Bloody autocorrect

When I was around 10 my best friends dad was a planner for the company doing all the flights to the oilrigs (in Denmark) and we went out to see the helicopters and got to sit in them all. Got some pictures somewhere with me in pilot seat with wearing a helmet way to big for me. happy times.

Friend later moved to Greenland when his dad got similar job up there, and one day I had a letter with a picture of him in front of a Sea King on the Greenland icecap where he had gotten on a flight to bring in supplies to a research camp, I was sooooo jealous.

Ive flown on a few of the military choppers….

Puma, landed at a pretend explosion site as part of my EOD course. Horrible noisy and cramped thing !

Merlin, used to be a Sqn Armourer on 78 Sqn so flew in these quite often for gunning sorties. So smooth when flying and used to send me to sleep.

Chinook, My fave of all time, was out in Basrah in 2004 and managed to get a “Jolly” with the aircrew to go to a gunning range in the desert. Unbeknown to me the Pilot was a SF jockey and took great pleasure in trying to make us all sick by climbing and throwing it over the top quite often. Whilst this was happening one of the loadies had two straps and was doing somersaults on the ramp !!. We also had to divert into Basrah Palace on the way back to collect some high roanking chap which was a bit of an eye opener !

Fast roped out of these things – always felt like the feker was about to shake itself to bits……whirly things of death!

I once sat and watched a Chinook lifting a CH-53… it wasn’t very happy about it but the noise was impressive…..

The chinook is my favourite way to travel. They have legroom, room for luggage and great ventilation. Not so keen on the Blackhawk mind, it’s more sporty looking, but no headroom and quite cramped in the back.

Thought you would have like Bell Huey’s with a name like that…

Whilst this was happening one of the loadies had two straps and was doing somersaults on the ramp !!. We also had to divert into Basrah Palace on the way back to collect some high roanking chap which was a bit of an eye opener !

One of my old 7 Para RHA lads got a rollocking for basically surfing out of the back of one, hanging out the back with two load lines clipped to him, OK until he buffeted and slammed into ramp and broke 3 ribs, meaning he couldn’t join us for the next jolly at the Iraqi beach.

Mate in the navy also tells a story of a Chinook with an underslung Marines Pinzgauer dropping it on to deck of ship (probably HMS Ocean as he served on there but not sure) only to realise that one of the hook-up team hadn’t put handbrake on Pinzgauer, so as it was released, the vehicle rolled down the deck straight into the sea.

Plus my brother in law is an electrician on Chinook’s at Odiham, it worries me the amount of gaffa tape he has (MOD stuff is good for going tubeless though)

Oooo! Nice shots, B.A.Nana!

Small, cramped, noisy, dangerous metal boxes that have a fast spinning knife above your head.  If I didn’t occasionally have to I certainly wouldn’t ever want to fly in one.

My mate flies passenger jets for the world’s favourite airline.  His mate from home flies helicopters, demoing mainly for rich people but also some air ambulance / police contract world.

Quite entertaining bantz listening to the two of them, but my fixed wing mate has managed to convince me that being in a box with a big fan on isn’t so much a case of if it happens, but when.

I make big fans, they don’t fail often but when they do………..

Quite entertaining bantz listening to the two of them, but my fixed wing mate has managed to convince me that being in a box with a big fan on isn’t so much a case of if it happens, but when.

But couldn’t the same thing be said about turbo props and other, propeller-driven aircraft?

“But couldn’t the same thing be said about turbo props and other, propeller-driven aircraft?”

Consider the difference between the failure of the engines on an aircraft with wings and one without wings.  One of them has significantly better potential outcomes than the other.

Stone vs glider?

I was working around canary wharf on Monday and a Chinook was flying around. My theory was it maybe dropped some guys in for the city airport bomb. Awesome machine.

https://redthunder.000webhostapp.com/forums/topic/helicopters#post-14

Always loved the Westland wessex, in a parallel universe where this forum doesnt suck I have put up a picture. Unfortunatley in this one I cant (insert sad face)

Any ways its a cool chopter, perhaps a wizard or mage posseses such skills as to find a suitable image & share it with us.

Consider the difference between the failure of the engines on an aircraft with wings and one without wings. One of them has significantly better potential outcomes than the other.

Why not fit both?

https://redthunder.000webhostapp.com/forums/topic/helicopters#post-15

Taken with a compact camera, was fairly close!

Flying offshore in the early naughties out of Macae in northern Rio de Janeiro state the pilot came in to the end of safety briefing to give his safety talk where he said “we will take off to the north and do a sharp left turn while climbing hard before the end of the runway, due to being shot at from the favela at the end of the runway” To which I asked “how do you know they have been shooting at you?”

“Oh, they hit us a couple of times”

Can we do some oddball Russian choppers?

Oooo! Nice shots, B.A.Nana!

Birk with little climbing experience took a very pretty Canadian work college up an easy multi-pitch climb (we presumed he was hoping to get his leg over, would like to think he blew it, big time).  The crux near the top was easy but exposed, he fell apart. We found him on the phone to Llanberis  MRT and we agreed to rescue them. Then got a call that a heli would pick them up, so sorted them out for heli  rescue (secured all their gear and instructed them on signals to heli crew). We climbed the crux and then got a shout from below that the heli wanted to be reassigned and would we intervene, we said no (everyone climbing back down the crux seemed to us like it would increase the whole danger). We sat at a safe distance, got the sandwiches out and waited for the photo op.

(Last of the Russians…)

Spent an amazing 7 years hanging out that back of this old girl, definitely the highlight of my career.