Interview with John Adair on the Sea King
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- Опубликовано: 24 фев 2018
- John Adair chats about his time flying the Gazelle, Wessex and Sea King with the RAF and Royal Navy.
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I was a fast jet mud mover in my 17 years in the RAF flying world, and I really took little interest, or had much knowledge, of the rotary world. I find this kind of interview really interesting and maybe I should have spent more time with these guys.
Ha ha I was one of those squeaky air cadets in the Chipmunk at Church Fenton! 😂 Wonderful interview. Thank you so much!
Excellent interview and such a lovely chap. I'd never heard of a Patriot missile going sideways before. That was hilarious. Been in similar situations and as long as you're around to laugh about it afterwards, no harm done :)
Cheers Mike.
I knew John Adair whilst at BA CitiExpress (BA's regional subsidiary at the time) in the early 2000s. He was the Base Manager at our Edinburgh Base. Really nice guy. Great to watch this interview:)
Hello Phil, hope you're well, long time since those days. Rgds Pete ( CWL base)
I don’t know the mark of the gazelle in the background but out of the small helicopters I have a soft heart for the gazelle.
brilliant interview, such a nice guy.
Great video……I flew the H3 for 15 years….USN pilot…..loved the bird and the mission ASW/SAR…. still dream about flying the H3 at eighty years old👨✈️😎
That great interview positively took me out of a youtube scrolling lethargy!
Very good. My dad was a QFI on the JP at Church Fenton from 1985-89.
"Hotbed of the irate"
Gotta remember that one. 😀
Thank you Mike & John, fantastic interview. Top chap!! :)
Cheers Mike. John is a top chap.
Coming from Northern Ireland & a love for the Wessex helicopter, I found this interview very interesting
Excellent interview, I`m new on this channel, but it is a fantastic channel. And what I like, you don`t interrupt the interviewed person. Very good. Keep up the good work and thanks for it!
Thanks very much and glad you found us.
Well done, John, I really enjoyed that !
What a fantastic guy. Great smile, especially funny after a dry comment about crashing onto something... Great stuff
He was such a pleasure to interview. Really nice chap.
A packed interview - completely engaging. When someone coined the phrase "A full life" they were thinking of John Adair!
Great to hear you enjoyed it, Alan!
These interviews are fantastic. Keep up the good work. 👊🏻
Thanks Ross!
Superb. Thoroughly entertaining and to echo the other comments, what an insightful top chap John is. Thanks for continuing these - ‘must watch’ vids for aviation enthusiasts 👍🏼
Cheers James!
I remember John training as F/O at Manx on J41, then becoming Captain and converting to Emb 145, by which time the company had become BA citiexpress/ BA connect.
I recall one foul night when the Emb 145 he was flying suffered a rather sudden engine failure en route from Edi to Bristol @ 2003, top bloke
Informative interview. Thank you for your service.
I read Chickehawk too ! Borrowed from an Viet Nam vet... Great stuff... Great interview, thanks !
Glad you enjoyed it.
Excellent interview and very interesting stories, the Patriot missile story has similar experience like myself when I served in Iraq on Op Telic in 2003, almost a blue on blue, I love rotary too, especially Seakings. Thanks again to you Mike and John, very much appreciated ☺
Thanks Mike! I am certainly getting into my helicopters more these days as these guys don’t get enough credit.
Aircrew Interview I completely agree with you on that, a good friend of mine stayed with 202Sqn at Lossiemouth and filmed them for around a year for a documentry back in the 80s called Rescue, it was when the Piper Alpha went up in flames, these guys are angels in disguise, they did a tremendous job and deserve more recognition most definitely.
Mike J F nice one, I will have a look for it and give it a watch. I will certainly be doing more helo interviews that’s for sure.
Aircrew Interview awesome ! Look up Paul Berriff, he has done a number of documentaries, I worked with him for 10 years on Humber Rescue inshore Lifeboat on the Humber, Top guy
Will do.
Thank You for that, What a great fella, and the kind of man you want in the front. Cheers...
Cheers :)
Another cracking interview. What a nice guy.
Thanks Colin.
Great interview, very interesting career and solid fella. Loved the Heli detail he provided. Only have some time on an R22 myself but way prefer flying heli's to fixed wing. Still a life ambition to get a ride in a Huey, flying one would be awesome. Chickenhawk is a great book especially if you like the detail of flying helicopters as the writer walks you through the controls in every scenario. Thanks again aircrew :)
Amazing interview thank you :)
Cheers
very nice and interesting interview, thanks !
Thanks Thomas.
Actually wonder if I've flown with this guy as a passenger around February-March 1988. Did 9 months of my nation service in the RNo Army as a private solider with the Army Brig N Recce squadron at Skjold garrison at the time. Somehow someone in the cadre of my recce squadron had managed to arrange a sort interchange training session with this RN Squadron flying the Commando version of the Sea King. The arrangement being that we would meet up with 3-4 of their helicopters on the ice of a frozen river bed near our barracks.
So out we went to this frozen river, sitting down in stick formation basically, to wait for the RN commando copters to arrive. And as I remember, we didn't have to wait for all that long before they showed up and landed near us with a most tremendous downwash from the rotors.
One platoon mate from a different patrol than mine, was actually hit by a block of ice lying hidden underneath the sheet of snow on top of the ice, about the size a roof tile, as it was blown out straight at him by the powerful downwash from the nearest landing helicopter. And if he hadn't held his arm in front of his face, to protect his eyes from all the snow whirling up from the downwash, that block of ice would probably have knocked my platoon mate out cold. Cause he had a big bruise mark on his under arm from it :-). Well, that's one of the hazards of sitting near a big helicopter landing on a piece of snow covered frozen river or lake :-).
After the choppers landed, they turned their engines off, and we had this rather basic instruction on the do's and don'ts of their entry and exit drills, from what I guess was the senior loadmaster or crew chief on their side. Like: "Ensure your rifle isn't loaded, and take the magazine off and put it inside your jacket. Cause if your weapon goes bang inside the helicopter and hits the engine above it, then we crash! No good! Right?" And: "Before we come in to land, take your headgear off! Cause, with the considerable downwash from the rotor of this helicopter, it will blow your headgear off and then suck it into the rotor on the backside. Then we crash! No good!" :-)
Well, after that, they fired up their helicopters again and we loaded up, I think with 1-2 full sections at a time (8-16 men), and flew off on a rather exhilarating 10-15 minutes low level round trip, at rather lower level than 100 feet I think, cause we could se these treetops looking out the side of the door of the helicopter (which I think was in the open position btw, but I might be wrong there) :-), before we landed back on the iced riverbed again, from where we started, for drop off. All in all a quite interesting day.
And hearing he would like to have flown in a Huey, the RNoAF UH-1 B / 204 B used to be one of our normal modes of transport at the time. And I must say that was a rather more sedate experience than hopping on a Westland Commando. The Huey certainly didn't have the feeling of utter power about it that the Sea King had. It was more of a dainty gently shaking thing, as it went whomp whomp with it's 2 blade rotor. On the other hand, the downwash from the Huey's rotor wasn't as brutal.
Thanks for that - a great read!
Quality guy !
Quality work Mike,thanks
Simon Richardson cheers Simon.
Nice interview, jumped off many a sea king in XMG, always a great service :)
Glad you enjoyed it.
hi there fellow dcs'er
Looks like a photo of Drunken Duncan Welham down at Bessbrook with the Happy Christmas Walter. Great days indeed, did 4 years on 72 in the early 80's and nothing else came close!
I've probably flown that Gazelle he is standing next too. Loved the "whistling chicken" leg!!
I also used to be an air cadet, flew from former RAF Finningley, Leeming and Linton on Ouse many moons ago lol I usually opted for the acrobatics please Sir 😀 what a great guy.
me too but in the 1970s
Good one mate!
Cheers!
i bet it must of been an honor to fly these golden craft
My preference has always been rotary so this was very very impressive for me.
I hope you enjoy it David.
More helicopter interviews pls 😍
They are in the works :)
What a Gent 👍
Highly enjoyable interview.
Where was the interview held?
Thanks. It was held in a museum called NELSAM in the NE of England.
the pedals on a helicopter are not "rudders", but "pedals" for anti torque ;-)
18:01 panel near the exhaust opens up suddenly.
The First Gulf War for the British Armed Forces was called *Operation Granby* - NOT "Desert Storm"!
Yes first hover is ridiculous. I have fixed wing licenses. First helicopter solo was easy for me, as was airplane solo. Maybe because I had hundreds of skydives.
I love to hear from helicopter and transport pilots
is this Sunderland Air Museum?
One wheel on the frigatet refueling...oh man if you know anything about helo flying that is most impressive.
Mike, your volume is low.
If this guy was flying air cadets around 1990 then I'm sorry for throwing up in the back of the plane !
I hope you cleaned it up after ;)
Ships not being where they should be and not talking to people.....sounds very familiar!😁 (ex commando crewman)
Brits are first rate.
mic knows Westland Wessex, turbine engine model,
Oakhampton Dartmoor, used 2 Wessex's together lots in basic training, 2nd last solider on board, Big open door, Great Fast flight, map of earth flights, around Moor, included NO PORT DOOR Entry. 51 now in age,
ROTORY aviator, Nice story about anti-tank but It's false Wessex has no left door, every seen. I
2nd last soldier knows pilots. sheep no legs 100ft cows no legs200ft Q&C mod
Hey pretend your singing an american song.. Your english is understandable then.. js..