I was a fast jet mud mover in my 17 years in the RAF flying world, and I really took little interest, or had much knowledge, of the rotary world. I find this kind of interview really interesting and maybe I should have spent more time with these guys.
Excellent interview and such a lovely chap. I'd never heard of a Patriot missile going sideways before. That was hilarious. Been in similar situations and as long as you're around to laugh about it afterwards, no harm done :)
I knew John Adair whilst at BA CitiExpress (BA's regional subsidiary at the time) in the early 2000s. He was the Base Manager at our Edinburgh Base. Really nice guy. Great to watch this interview:)
Superb. Thoroughly entertaining and to echo the other comments, what an insightful top chap John is. Thanks for continuing these - ‘must watch’ vids for aviation enthusiasts 👍🏼
Excellent interview and very interesting stories, the Patriot missile story has similar experience like myself when I served in Iraq on Op Telic in 2003, almost a blue on blue, I love rotary too, especially Seakings. Thanks again to you Mike and John, very much appreciated ☺
Aircrew Interview I completely agree with you on that, a good friend of mine stayed with 202Sqn at Lossiemouth and filmed them for around a year for a documentry back in the 80s called Rescue, it was when the Piper Alpha went up in flames, these guys are angels in disguise, they did a tremendous job and deserve more recognition most definitely.
Aircrew Interview awesome ! Look up Paul Berriff, he has done a number of documentaries, I worked with him for 10 years on Humber Rescue inshore Lifeboat on the Humber, Top guy
Excellent interview, I`m new on this channel, but it is a fantastic channel. And what I like, you don`t interrupt the interviewed person. Very good. Keep up the good work and thanks for it!
Great interview, very interesting career and solid fella. Loved the Heli detail he provided. Only have some time on an R22 myself but way prefer flying heli's to fixed wing. Still a life ambition to get a ride in a Huey, flying one would be awesome. Chickenhawk is a great book especially if you like the detail of flying helicopters as the writer walks you through the controls in every scenario. Thanks again aircrew :)
Actually wonder if I've flown with this guy as a passenger around February-March 1988. Did 9 months of my nation service in the RNo Army as a private solider with the Army Brig N Recce squadron at Skjold garrison at the time. Somehow someone in the cadre of my recce squadron had managed to arrange a sort interchange training session with this RN Squadron flying the Commando version of the Sea King. The arrangement being that we would meet up with 3-4 of their helicopters on the ice of a frozen river bed near our barracks. So out we went to this frozen river, sitting down in stick formation basically, to wait for the RN commando copters to arrive. And as I remember, we didn't have to wait for all that long before they showed up and landed near us with a most tremendous downwash from the rotors. One platoon mate from a different patrol than mine, was actually hit by a block of ice lying hidden underneath the sheet of snow on top of the ice, about the size a roof tile, as it was blown out straight at him by the powerful downwash from the nearest landing helicopter. And if he hadn't held his arm in front of his face, to protect his eyes from all the snow whirling up from the downwash, that block of ice would probably have knocked my platoon mate out cold. Cause he had a big bruise mark on his under arm from it :-). Well, that's one of the hazards of sitting near a big helicopter landing on a piece of snow covered frozen river or lake :-). After the choppers landed, they turned their engines off, and we had this rather basic instruction on the do's and don'ts of their entry and exit drills, from what I guess was the senior loadmaster or crew chief on their side. Like: "Ensure your rifle isn't loaded, and take the magazine off and put it inside your jacket. Cause if your weapon goes bang inside the helicopter and hits the engine above it, then we crash! No good! Right?" And: "Before we come in to land, take your headgear off! Cause, with the considerable downwash from the rotor of this helicopter, it will blow your headgear off and then suck it into the rotor on the backside. Then we crash! No good!" :-) Well, after that, they fired up their helicopters again and we loaded up, I think with 1-2 full sections at a time (8-16 men), and flew off on a rather exhilarating 10-15 minutes low level round trip, at rather lower level than 100 feet I think, cause we could se these treetops looking out the side of the door of the helicopter (which I think was in the open position btw, but I might be wrong there) :-), before we landed back on the iced riverbed again, from where we started, for drop off. All in all a quite interesting day. And hearing he would like to have flown in a Huey, the RNoAF UH-1 B / 204 B used to be one of our normal modes of transport at the time. And I must say that was a rather more sedate experience than hopping on a Westland Commando. The Huey certainly didn't have the feeling of utter power about it that the Sea King had. It was more of a dainty gently shaking thing, as it went whomp whomp with it's 2 blade rotor. On the other hand, the downwash from the Huey's rotor wasn't as brutal.
I remember John training as F/O at Manx on J41, then becoming Captain and converting to Emb 145, by which time the company had become BA citiexpress/ BA connect. I recall one foul night when the Emb 145 he was flying suffered a rather sudden engine failure en route from Edi to Bristol @ 2003, top bloke
I also used to be an air cadet, flew from former RAF Finningley, Leeming and Linton on Ouse many moons ago lol I usually opted for the acrobatics please Sir 😀 what a great guy.
Looks like a photo of Drunken Duncan Welham down at Bessbrook with the Happy Christmas Walter. Great days indeed, did 4 years on 72 in the early 80's and nothing else came close!
Yes first hover is ridiculous. I have fixed wing licenses. First helicopter solo was easy for me, as was airplane solo. Maybe because I had hundreds of skydives.
mic knows Westland Wessex, turbine engine model, Oakhampton Dartmoor, used 2 Wessex's together lots in basic training, 2nd last solider on board, Big open door, Great Fast flight, map of earth flights, around Moor, included NO PORT DOOR Entry. 51 now in age, ROTORY aviator, Nice story about anti-tank but It's false Wessex has no left door, every seen. I 2nd last soldier knows pilots. sheep no legs 100ft cows no legs200ft Q&C mod