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.

Plenty of AH7 & AH9A still in service, as well as grey ones. It's highly unlikely that you'll ever see a Lynx released to civilian flying, (apart from the heavily modified G-LYNX rotorcraft speed record holder, now a museum-piece) as they're highly maintenance-intensive to keep flying, and would struggle to meet current standards. They make a comfy campervan on exercises. The number'll be there, on each side.

Any update? Went here when it was still RAF, then as a sprog driver in 78, and the last time in 94.

Got to do some interesting detachments. One major FTX found me and two bods driving around the North German Plain in our Ptarmigan-equipped Sultan acting as a secure telephone box for the Umpires - two weeks in the sun, with a Spam outfit. Only once were we tempted to swap compo for MREs. Later in my career, having passed my pilot's course I crewed one of a pair of Lynx sent to the south of France to support a Sandhurst final exercise. Another two weeks of fun and sunshine. It was just after the tragic accident in the UK where, on a night insertion by Puma, a TA Major had stepped off into the night while the cab was still approaching the landing site, so a lot of emphasis was put on stopping the young Rodneys from thinking they were in Vietnam and standing on the skids while we were blatting around. Anyone getting bright ideas was discouraged by being treated to a few wingovers. Another trip away from the constraints of home-base was at two ship det to Bad Tolz to support the Special Forces School winter exercise. Being short of volunteers, myself and another Corporal pilot got paired-up. As I had about two weeks seniority over my buddy, I got Powers of Authorisation for the week, so I got all the responsibility, but no extra dosh. We got to fly some interesting trips, lived in a hotel and were basically our own bosses. Considering one of our colleagues had wrapped a Lynx around a barn on the same exercise a couple of years earlier, the powers that be had enormous faith in our self-restraint.

Recklinghausen. Went there once to swap a cast RL for something a little more modern around 1979. Drove back to Detmold in another RL.

Sorry to hear of your news, Neil. Keep the faith. Andy

Warendorf was 4 Petroleum Depot, a place I visited often in the early days of my career in BAOR. We used to take our MK aircraft refuellers there for part of their regular earthing system checks. As to the original question; yes, and then some. After three years pushing, pulling and cleaning helicopters I got to spend six years driving them. Imagine being given the keys to someone else's Aston Martin V8 Vantage, an Amex Gold Card and a license to flog around the countryside at warp-factor snot. One day, when my kidneys are shot, and the damage that my knees have had to endure thanks to crap boots finally catches up with me I may look back with regret to those halcyon 13 years in BAOR. Until then, I'll raise a glass of duty-free to Wolfgang, who's driving skills with an overladen bratty wagon were unbeatable.

Your customer is going to be well pleased. I'll be following this thread with interesst, as I've got 40-plus Chippy hours and some happy memories from the best part of my pilot's course at Middle Wallop. For fans of the aircraft, there's a thread running over at http://www.pprune.org/aviation-history-nostalgia/385363-chipmunk-beautiful.html with some cracking photos.

#9 Line laying was a task for which the Scout was theoretically available. I don't think any Army aircraft was suitable for sowing mines. You're probably aware that the Lynx could carry two 20mm cannon. The cabin floor was fitted with feed-chute apertures, although I can only ever recall seeing pictures of the fit in Westland's blurb.

The general concensus was that they did stray off-route. The funeral was a well-promulgated Out-Of-Bounds. The footage shows that once they'd come face-to-face with the procession they tried reversing out. The result wouldn't have been very different, just a number of 'civilian' casualties, 26 max.

You'd be surprised at the amount of covert vehicle traffic that went on. From my understanding, following a comprehensive de-brief and having watched the full, unabridged Chancellor coverage (the helitelly Lynx was covering the funeral, and was crewed by two very good friends of mine) the unfortunate pair were conducting a tour of their TAOR as part of a handover. The civvy clothes and covert car were part of their unit's routine ops. One had recently arrived from BAOR and had failed to sanitise his kit. He was carrying a SOXMIS card with the telephone number 'Herford 2222' (the SOXMIS sighting reporting number) which was interpreted in the heat of the moment as 'Hereford', ergo SAS.