1962 Whirlwind 10 ......................................


My first and, thus far, only helicopter flight. It could hardly have been a better flight for a once only.

I was a test flight of an aircraft assembled by 390 Maintenance Unit. Dave Hardy and I sat in the doorway with our legs dangling. We were suitably harnessed and strapped. A glorious sunny day and the Whirlybird lifted off. Sat there in the downdraft of the rotor and drifting over Singapore island's villages and trees and blue waters - pure magic. Seeing the world from a very different viewpoint. It's all a happy, long-ago blur now. We did an auto-rotate where power is cut to simulate an engine failure, we survived that. The rotor pitch is reversed I think and the helicopter does its version of a glide. In time we landed. All those years ago now but still I think of it as my most memorable flight. The picture shows a Whirlwind 1o with its door, "our" door, wide open. It was the only one I could find in the paint scheme I remember. (We didn't carry the slung load of course)

1962 The Devon .............................

Another test flight but this time I'd worked extensively on the aircraft, on the fuel tanks. The picture shows a Devon C2 although no doubt 'mine' was a Mk.1. Lovely aircraft (being de Havilland, it would be) this one was an Air Attache's aircraft (perhaps from Bangkok?). They came to the M.U. at Seletar for overhaul. The flight was a little different from usual. Prop feathering and a stall and doubtless other good stuff. We flew, I think, across the water and over a bit of Malaya's jungle. The Devon was the Air Force version of the very successful Dove. Ah, days of yore!