I saw an ASR demonstration at Shawbury in the late 70’s. A wessex flew over a dinghy positioned on the airfield, down comes the ‘winchweight’ and goes back up almost immediately and the helicopter flies off. Two minutes later a pilot runs out of the crewroom and climbs in to the dinghy ‘ready to be rescued’.
A story a friend told me involved a vintage airshow where there was a raffle to win a flight in a Tiger moth. Late in the show it was announced that the flight had been won by a 96 year old WW1 veteran fighter pilot who had also been an instructor in WW11 flying tiggies. A the crowd gathered to watch the chap take his place in the aircraft they saw this old chap being manhandled roughly into the cockpit by groundcrew who then walked off. The pilot tried to call them back to remove the chocks but to no avail so he climbed out and dragged them to the side of the pan. As he turned his back on the plane however, it started to roll forward and picked up speed with the pilot running frantically behind. Just as it looked like the aircraft was going too hit trees it leapt into the air and out of control proceeded to barnstorm around the airfield before landing. Needless to say it was a hoax but I was in tears at the story, I wish I had seen it first hand.
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