Good luck if you have a bonk on the head in a C type. It was nice to see pilots wearing something a bit more substantial that the DC cloth helmet or the leather and hardshell Campbell at Duxford recently.

No proof, only the bomber pilots joshing the fighter pilots that if it had been on the flight then as it was a twin, ‘the bomber boys’ would fly it.. as you could imagine the twin engine jet guys disagreed (Jag/Typh/Torn)!

You beat me to it.

I thought I spotted a 1-11 tail last year near the Royal flight end of Seeb, there was also a few decaying Skyvans hiding in a thicket near the taxi way.. happy childhood memories of BAC 1-11 trips to Salalah and Thumrait.

It was an attack against European Airwork employees who were employed to work on SOAF aircraft..

…and that’s how the AC-47 was born. ?. It’s possibly doable, but you’d have to be Houdini to get any sort of shot off in that space, and, where would the empty cases go? Much better to leg it down the back and rain down hellfire from the open cargo door.

I hope the pilot makes a fully recovery.

First, apologies if this is slightly OT. Secondly, what you wear when you go flying is a personal choice, just some personal musings below.

Just because these kinds of accidents are comparatively rare doesn’t mean aviators should disregard their own safety. The old aviation favourites “it will never happen to me” and ‘sods law’ still play a role in GA flying as much as they do in historic and military aviation. Dress to survive should be in everyone’s minds, wether you’re about to strap on a Spitfire or cross the channel in a microlight.

I’m not saying that all steely eyed 172 pilots should wear helmets, coveralls, long sleeve and leg under garments, gloves and stout boots, but there is nothing wrong in looking out for yourself, after all, no one will do it for you (unless you’re a military aviator). 😉

Warbird aircrew not wearing helmets? The majority of high performance Warbird pilots I have worked with or talked to wear either a historic looking modern hard shell helmet with goggles (Campbell), a commercial helmet (Alpha or MSA) or a WW2 leather original. There’s a reason why modern helmets are made of carbon fibre and not leather – our understanding of impact injuries and impact protection has improved greatly in the last 75 years. A glancing impact whilst wearing a hard shell helmet is infinitely safer than a bash on the noggin wearing a leather helmet or DC headset. Is it going to help you survive a high speed crash? Probably not, but for a nose over, bird strike, bail out, etc then I’d personally prefer to wear something that can absorb most of the impact for me.

Somebody mentioned flying coveralls earlier – no two are the same, if you wear one, make sure it’s made of Nomex or meta aramid. There are a few cheaper suits available, these won’t be made of fire resistant/retardant materials and will be as much use as a chocolate fire guard in a flash fire (the purpose of the suit is to give you a few extra seconds in which to escape). If you’re going to wear a coverall, wear cotton underwear as a base layer, I’d recommend cotton long johns/long sleeve t-shirts, from experience this can be ‘quite warm’ on the rare occasion the sun shines in the UK, but it’s better than the alternative. Also, consider foot ware and gloves suitable for aircraft type. Pilot flight equipment (or ppe for aviators) is out there and available, please pm me if you’d like to discuss.