Yorkie370

I can empathise, but at least by the time I'd made it to the dizzy heights of Lynx pilot, the noise from two Gems and the gearbox tended to drown-out any complaints from the pax.

From memory, having driven them for a few years, the FFR alternators do make a lot of noise.

Given the possible link to an RAF MT Depot, it might be worth asking these guys; http://www.airfieldinformationexchange.org/community/forum.php

True; a far greater range of Gucci shiney stuff, especially in an aviation unit.

Quite right, Clive; it is a 6 rather than G, although in my defence I only made G1098 Storeman. FAMTO was far too advanced for me!

The G MT13 stock code is one that I recognise from my time as an MT Driver in the early 1980's, as is the NATO code beneath it, so that bit is fairly modern. As for the fitting; the internal padding doesn't ring any bells, so is unlikely to be Bedford RL or MK, but might be Militant or earlier.

The SAS used to operate a small fleet of A109. Latterly they've had the use of Lynx 7 and 9, and Puma. You wouldn't get too many burly, moustacheod, heavily-armed gorillas in a Gazelle.

What you were surprised-by was an EC135; considerably larger than the Gazelle, which, if you and your crew are 'big-boned' makes for a cosy cockpit. Imagine sitting in a Mini - one of the original Morris versions...

If by 'Flying Egg' you mean the Gazelle AH1, you'll find a number in UK museums, or Withams had a fair few. The only other one that I can think of that looks like an egg would be the Hughes 500.

Me too.

These days someone pays me to sit on a floating drilling rig to prevent it from falling over. Before that the Queen paid me to sit in her helicopters to prevent them from falling over, and some other stuff.

ISTR the Central Gliding School at RAF Syerston had one that had been stripped of it's cargo body and was used to run-out the winch-wires from the winches after launches. Nice restoration.

On my first visit to the Province in 1980 I had to pick up a Bedford MK TTF from the depot at Kinnegar in east Belfast. One of the sheds contained a number of civilian cars being converted to CMV. One chap was seen to be painting tyre pressure numbers onto the wheel-arches, in the spirit of the sometimes-anal methods employed by the military. A number of our unit's panel vans and buses had them so marked. Much later on another tour I got to drive a Senator from Fermanagh to Aldergove - five of us, complete with three HK53s, two GPMG and a brace of pistols and a mountain of sundry kit. The 'sleeping-policemen' around Aldergrove made short work of the expanded polystyrene tiles stuck to the underside.

Known as 'compression', I believe. An illusion caused by the properties of the lens. To get some impression of the distance between the two aircraft, look at the comparative size of the engines on both aircraft.

The AH9 and (latterly 9A with CTS800-4N engines) have been in Army service since 1992. The wheels are supposed to give a performance enhancement by permitting rolling takeoffs from suitable surfaces. In essence, the wheels and oleos were heavier than the original skids and any improvement was negligable. It did make it easier to drag the thing in and out of the hangar.