The Historic Army Aircraft Flight (HAAF) brings the history of Army flying to life by preserving and flying our unique collection of historic Army aircraft. We serve as a ‘living museum’ for veterans commemorative and memorial purposes, as an aid to recruiting and to make the public aware of historical Army Aviation.
Went up in a Sioux the first week at MW like flying in a gold fish bowl, getting them on to their wheels was fun needed a sturdy grip otherwise the bar would fly off.
Odiham was my first posting after completing my fire training at Caterick fire school on days off used to go up on jollies with 72/303 sqn in the Wessex/puma choppers in 1971 does anyone remember SWO Jack Holt he was a pain in the ass to us enlisted airmen billet /bed pack full inspections after14months got posted to a propper air station RAFScampton with the Vulcans loved that camp and the craic with the lads on the fire station good days long gone but will never be forgotten
Wonderful. Thanks for this. It's been a while since I was at Odiham. I was surprised to see that for such a chunky looking aircraft on the outside, the Beaver looks very 'cozy' on the inside! Very tight for two across the front and looked even tighter on the back seats. I used to see them flying in and out of RAF Thorney Island as a child when I used to sail from there with my father. Happy days!😊
Very neat, wonderful to see another take to the air - although not of GB origins, GB heritage aviation often seems forgotten, by tptb, eroded as it has been since 1945. Hasn't Henry Cole, the TV presenter, got one of these now too, I believe it's airworthy, based near to Brize? Reminds me that there was an airworthy Canberra at Kemble, two sat there rotting away now😕 Heartwarming seeing the work you guys are doing, in memory of those who served Great Britain.
Really interesting video that. I was lucky enough to fly into MW a couple of times with my dad. I also had friends stationed there. I was also lucky - circa 1998 - to "fly" and have a ride in a Scout (ex Hong Kong 660 Squadron if I recall). Always hankered after learning to fly one properly (I built a lot of models of military helicopters as a kid, loved the Gazelle, Sea King, Wessex, Westland et al too). Ive also had a few flights in an Auster (and a bit of hands and feet on, stick and rudder, time too). Again if I recall, theres a very similar, side by side machine in the excellent museum at Old Sarum too. Thanks for sharing and the subtitles/audio👍💜✌️👍
These Beavers used to fly very low over my house in West Belfast during the Troubles, in the late 70s early 80s. Same colour and Army Air Corp I think. I thought they'd been scrapped, when the Gazelles showed up.
We did tgt recces on Op Banner in Scouts, later Gazelles. The Scout was also used for Eagle patrols (tgt pursuit). The Gazelle couldn’t do that role. For patrol insertion in rural areas the Lynx became the stalwart. (We used RAF Wessex then Puma). But AAC were a bit special. I was infantry. There was an AAC WO2. I remember his surname but shalln’t mention it. On the back of his helmet he’d Dymotaped “Don’t call me Sir”. He would sometimes fly his Lynx wearing a monstrous witch’s nose. It was a superb make-up job. Had us in absolute stitches. One day after being picked to return to BBK (The Mill) the Lynx was re-tasked to intercept or ‘buzz’ an unauthorised Cessna flight. I was the ‘brick’ commander so in comms with the pilot. He explained the detour. He’d quickly come alongside the plane and was so close that the pilot could see his witch’s nose. He seemed momentarily mesmerised by this sudden apparition! No disrespect intended to the RAF but AAC pilots often attended O groups and would without fail orient the Lynx at the drop off precisely as dictated by the patrol orders. An RAF Puma once dropped my patrol in the Republic! He was 1 km out of reckoning. We cursed him as we had to tab at full tilt back across the border. That could have turned very ugly. 😂
WHY???? Why are they flag tracking??? There is so much great equipment out there that does fantastic work of showing the track of the blades and are faster and safer and can be used in the air. Besides that, track is no longer used as the method to smooth the rotor from imbalance of lift forces. The blades can each be creating different amounts of lift though tracking in the same tip path.
Seeing this brought back memories of a night flying exercise in Germany in the 60s. The pilot called RAF Gutersloh for clearance through their overhead and was told no conflicting traffic. Seconds later we were underflown by a pair of starfighters in burner. When the piot mentioned it to Gutersloh the reply was Oh dear the Luftwaffe are playing and not talking to anyone.
I wouldn't be standing anywhere near that pilot while he's operating a helicopter. He has that confused look and slow reaction response time that my old father and Joe Biden have. I've been flying for decades and have seen countless pilots age out who acted exactly like this guy. It's subtle to spot, but he's definitely not as sharp as he used to be.
For me, the Scout / Wasp was a better helicopter than the Alouette III in terms of all key performance metrics, yet was never as popular and was retired far sooner. I have often wondered why.
@@pimuceI’ve never seen this technique, but they are testing to see if the blades are all flying in the same plane. You adjust eh trim tabs on the blades to make it fly higher or lower. You want them all flying as close to the same “level” as possible. I’m guessing they have some chalk or something on the ends to make the cloth so they know which blade is which. The way I’ve done this is with a strobe light and you mount numbers on the ends of the blades. This means you can check blade track in flight too.
If each blade does not follow the same path deep sh!t this checks the blades flight path to see what's going where you can adjust this flight path on each blade using the trim tabs on the ends of each blade by bending it a extremely very very very small amount you can change the path of each blade tail rotors way more scary to do
I'm an ex Ac Tech in the Army. I've never done this but I have used the Chadwick Helmuth machine for this. But I have done hundreds of startup checks on Scout, Gazelle and Lynx. However, I have recently been sacked from Amazon for being too near to an HGV truck with the driver in his seat with his keys and the engine NOT running. This is considered extremely dangerous and I could've been run over. 🤨 Several vehicle "specialists" agreed with this fantasy, so, I lost my appeal for unfair dismissal. I pointed out my history of being under the disc of helicopters at full flight idle but this was deemed irrelevant.🤔