Merlins close escape – Illustrious

You must be in a minority of one then mate:D I’ve never known anyone in the forces to miss out on the chance of a bit of ribbing. At least my remarks don’t seem to have rubbed you up the wrong way. Would this be the mother who kicked you out when you left school and immediately moved house without telling you?:diablo: Oh sorry that’s the sort of thing my mum would have done with me except it never occurred to her.:)

For crying out loud, lighten up will you? It was a little bit of humour. I was long term army and it’s called interservice rivalry. The navy guys would make fun of the army or RAF for similar mistakes and both I and they know I meant no harm. This seems to be a common failing of modern society-everyone seems to have suffered a sense of humour removal sometime during their formative years. Oh sorry, I should have remembered from past experience. The Navy likes to dish it out but don’t like it coming back at them where micky taking is concerned.

Hmmmm! Nice rant mate, especially the last sentence, me I would never make fun of a crab or pongo, I love them like I love my own mother.

Aircraft was being moved from 3 spot to 1 spot (aft facing), what actually happened is under investigation (possible braking system on the AWD tractor). As the AWD went over the deck edge the shear pin in the towing arm snapped (exactly what it is designed to do) and the AWD went over the side of the ship. The driver did not go into the water as stated in a previous posting, he managed to jump into the catwalk. The brake number in the aircraft was a bit shaken up but otherwise unhurt. Aircraft obviously is damaged (radome, nosewheel) but is still airworthy.
Comments like this below, which I am sure was written in jest are not helpful.

Just goes to show – Fish heads shouldn’t be trusted with flyinng machines:D

Aviation at sea is a dangerous job, I know, I have been doing it for 25 years and still get a buzz everytime I step out onto the flight deck. Unlike our light blue friends (stand fast Harrier boys), we are dramatically restricted in our ability to move aircraft due to space, other aircraft ops, pitching and rolling deck etc etc. The men and women who do this are professionals in every sense of the word.

Standing by for some ill thought out comment!

Si J

For crying out loud, lighten up will you? It was a little bit of humour. I was long term army and it’s called interservice rivalry. The navy guys would make fun of the army or RAF for similar mistakes and both I and they know I meant no harm. This seems to be a common failing of modern society-everyone seems to have suffered a sense of humour removal sometime during their formative years. Oh sorry, I should have remembered from past experience. The Navy likes to dish it out but don’t like it coming back at them where micky taking is concerned.

Merlin HM1 sports a Blue Kestrel in a solid ventral radome providing 360 degree coverage. You are mixing the Merlin up with the Sea King ASaC.Mk7 which mounts a Searchwater 2000AEW in an inflatable radome.

Si

Just goes to show – Fish heads shouldn’t be trusted with flyinng machines

…and pingers, baggies and stovies have a better record of leaving their machines unbent? 🙂

Merlin Type Query

The radar casing appears to be quite solid. Is that a visiting Italian AEW Merlin? I had always been lead to believe that the ASW Merlin had an inflatable cover over it’s Searchwater(?).

Aircraft was being moved from 3 spot to 1 spot (aft facing), what actually happened is under investigation (possible braking system on the AWD tractor). As the AWD went over the deck edge the shear pin in the towing arm snapped (exactly what it is designed to do) and the AWD went over the side of the ship. The driver did not go into the water as stated in a previous posting, he managed to jump into the catwalk. The brake number in the aircraft was a bit shaken up but otherwise unhurt. Aircraft obviously is damaged (radome, nosewheel) but is still airworthy.
Comments like this below, which I am sure was written in jest are not helpful.

Just goes to show – Fish heads shouldn’t be trusted with flyinng machines:D

Aviation at sea is a dangerous job, I know, I have been doing it for 25 years and still get a buzz everytime I step out onto the flight deck. Unlike our light blue friends (stand fast Harrier boys), we are dramatically restricted in our ability to move aircraft due to space, other aircraft ops, pitching and rolling deck etc etc. The men and women who do this are professionals in every sense of the word.

Standing by for some ill thought out comment!

Si J

Today’s Hurriyet newspaper has given the details of the incident:

According to the report, the towing bar which was attached to the front landing gear of the helicopter was broken while it was being moved by a towing vehicle. When it broke, the vehicle, together with the driver fell overboard! The driver was immediately rescued from the sea, but the vehicle reached the bottom. The vehicle was retrieved 4 days later by a crane borrowed from the harbour administration, as well as the helicopter itself.

There were some photos of some crew of the Illustrious in Istanbul’s bars, most of which are in adult form. The newspaper cites those photos and says “while the crew was having wild fun in Istanbul’s bars, their shipmates nearly lost a 270 million YTL helicopter”

Just goes to show – Fish heads shouldn’t be trusted with flyinng machines:D

Today’s Hurriyet newspaper has given the details of the incident:

According to the report, the towing bar which was attached to the front landing gear of the helicopter was broken while it was being moved by a towing vehicle. When it broke, the vehicle, together with the driver fell overboard! The driver was immediately rescued from the sea, but the vehicle reached the bottom. The vehicle was retrieved 4 days later by a crane borrowed from the harbour administration, as well as the helicopter itself.

There were some photos of some crew of the Illustrious in Istanbul’s bars, most of which are in adult form. The newspaper cites those photos and says “while the crew was having wild fun in Istanbul’s bars, their shipmates nearly lost a 270 million YTL helicopter”

I don’t exactly how the helicopter came that close, but I know that the ship requested a bigger crane from the harbour administration since her own vehicles could not manage to lift it from the position. On Friday they tried to lift it with the borrowed crane but yesterday around 0630 local time, there was no change and the crane was not there either. Today I checked her out but the ship had gone…

Yes, it does make you wonder what happened ? 😮

What happened to the tug that was on the other end of the nose-wheel towbar?

And to its driver?

More pics here:

http://kr.blog.yahoo.com/shinecommerce/