I'd have liked to have made it over for the retirement, but I was just coming to the end of a course.
Papa 242, that was a good post, it made me reminisce! I remember you guiding me (and the others) on our GP crewman course.
Bashing Jim Durkin on the head with the left wheel while we were practising underslung loads practice! Well the pilot couldn't see what was going on to his left! Jeez, if only they knew they were pawns in our little games! "Left 2, Left 1, Steady Steady, Fwd 1, (smack!)
Doing a border duty in Monaghan with Damien on his first duty after a 'grounding' for one of his exploits. He scared the life out of me nosing over from a 2000ft hover, the tail went over the top and we only had about 200ft left by the time we pulled out of the dive!
A couple of years later, being more experienced, guiding trainee pilots onto the top of Slieve League, on west coast of Donegal. Getting the "Clear to open" 200 yards out with 2000 odd feet of nothing between me and the Atlantic and just a small patch of grass to plonk the wheels onto!
One of the previous postings said they were proud of the SAR Crewmen and I can't agree more. Listening to their exploits when they'd return from a mission, having a cup of tea with John Keane when he suddenly realised he hadn't washed his hands after lifting a decaying body from the sea! well that made me laugh! SAR Crew were the real heroes of Heli Sqn!
The photos were great, Frank, as always. And it's always good to see the Air Corps in the forefront of modern Helicopter operations as the new machines show.
