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Body of chaplain slips from rescue harness whilst being winched by RN helicopter from loch: http://www.pressreader.com/uk/the-press-and-journal-aberdeen/20150919/281526519848601/TextView Just as well PPRuNe's 'crab' on Rotorheads hasn't found this site yet or he'd be crowing his head off at this mis...

That's Navy... It's not a real helicopter... <snigger> Oohhh! (said in the manner of Larry Grayson) I fell foul of the 30 minute editing restriction having forgotten to add this to John Sproule's photos. He also invented this minesweeping modification to a Whirlwind HAR3. Unfortunately I have lost ...

I had a model carved in solid wood of XS863 a couple of years ago - fuselage length is about 15 inches (38 cms). It is shown armed with a Mk44 homing torpedo.....

Forward now to 1966 and these are 815 Squadron Wessex HAS Mk1's on the pan at RNAS Sembawang, Singapore in January 1966... 815 Simbang Jan 66 (4).jpg just prior to this..... 815 Simbang Jan 66 (2).jpg and right in the middle is '54' which is XS863. This is now at the Imperial War Museum at Duxford i...

Going back in time and courtesy of his son, this is John Sproule - inventor of the Sproule Net - in a RN Hiller at Gosport in 1953.....

and here flying a Dragonfly demonstrating the Sproule Net .....

Airborne Aircrew wrote:1. John Darby with the kids of Dolores village in south western Belize

I collected more kids than him.......

Rhodesia - Feb 1980

AA - what looks like a Nightsun - was that a local mod and in what role was it used?

Wessex302.jpg The photo above is of a Fleet Air Arm Wessex HAS Mk1 in the Radfan 1964 - a scan of a dusty 35mm negative found in the back of an old chest of drawers about 5 years ago in Hawick, Scotland. The Radfan Mountains are located 60 miles north of Aden. In 1964 the new republican government ...

Well ,the ever growing helo photo thread is hardly growing so maybe I can drip feed one or two photos from yesteryear. Having been retired for 16 years I'm afraid I don't have anything modern to post and being all scanned they won't be of a brilliant quality. I took this photo of Jimmy Savile being ...

When I joined the RN in 1963 my dear old Granny gave me a shoe horn that had belonged to her husband - who died before I was born - and it's still in use every day. It lasted longer than the trilby my Dad thought was becoming of a future Naval Officer - that went out of the train window on the way t...

Thanks for that Tony! Felt the tension just like I did listening to it live in a grotty B&B in Plymouth all those years ago.

There was an excellent programme on Channel 4 in the UK tonight which followed the day's events at Goodwood in which 34 Spitfires, 6 Hurricanes and a Blenheim took part in flypasts over southern England. BoB pilot Wing Cdr Tom Neill, age 95, who had 14 kills during WW2, flew in the formation in the ...

Brymon and their Dash 7s.Used to love flying in and out of Plymouth in one of them to and from LHR. Airways International Cymru and their two 1-11s. Even before Brymon, Plymouth was a destination of the short lived Westward Airways and if memory serves me correctly they started operations routing N...

I was a great Dusty Springfield fan in the 60's but it was years before I found out that this: You don't have to say you love me Just because you can was really: You don't have to say you love me Just be close at hand ....at about 55 seconds https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GBwSN0Yw5l0

Whilst the Americans make great use of duct tape, we Brits use Araldite. Mend any bits of an aeroplane with araldite you can. Stick loose turbine blades to their hubs, radar antennas to their mountings, first officers in their seats. The only other necessity for fixing aeroplanes in the bush is fen...

Some confusion here methinks - I posted a video of a four ship RAN Wessex 31B formation in a post I started - "Queen of the skies - Australian version" - in this 'Rotary' section and asked Wessex if he could identify the location as he flew the type in Oz for many years and may possibly ha...

500N wrote:You don't have natural threats like we do but you have something far worse - Glaswegians

Now I'm going to have to make sure Mrs C16 doesn't see the above!! I'm from south of the border but she hails from Glasgow!

Here in Scotland we don't have all the threats that nature can throw at you guys - although out on the heather moors you can get a nasty nip from roaming haggis . It's not cheap but I bought a reasonably sized Lenser LED9405R P5R.2 Pro Torch (117mm x 26 mm) from the River People, £62 at the moment -...

A man walked out to the street and caught a taxi just going by. He got into the taxi, and said, "Perfect timing. You're just like Andrew" Cabbie: "Who?" Passenger: "Andrew Sullivan. He's a guy who did everything right all the time. Like your coming along when I needed a cab,...

I foiled the Grim Reaper on 14 August 1985 when he really ought to have had me in his clutches in a helicopter accident (due to mechanical failure, not me!). Every day has been a bonus since then so I don't think about it other than having made the usual documentary provisions for those left behind ...