Rotor Diameter: 36ft (11.02m)Fuselage Length: 33ft 4.5in. (10.17m)Overall Length: 42ft 1.5in. (12.84m)Powerplant: 1 x 870shp Hal-Built Turbomeca Artouste 111BMax Take-Off Weight: 4850lbs (2200kg)Max Seating: 7Max Cruise: 113ktsRange: 270nm (500km)Capt's Longhouse said...
,,,guess some of us would like to forget and forgive the past events that we all went through while in the service when times were indeed very hard plus losing many buddies killed in action !.
,,,in fact, i lost more than 20 pilots friends from the Airforce alone plus many many more from the Army and Police Field Force.,,,logged in my flying log book are 387 mercy flights alone if am not wrong if i can still remember correctly the numbers. The numbers of medevac/bodyvac/casevac are indeed frustrating to count or sad to recall cos. many were friends/buddies that i had made prior to their misadvanture while fighting against the god damn CTs, whereby nowadays there are people willing to bring back their killer leader Chin Peng back as an bloody hero !!
,,,guess, you can appreciate my inner feelings on this subject issue, i am willing to kill any of these guys on behalf of those that were killed back in those days.
,,,so why are we or people like me keeping to ourselves ?. We have served for King and Country i.e done our part, time is passing and theworld is changing. As such not much time to look at the past, its the present and limited future am living for. The business of life is to go forward..the world is advancing in the super fast lane-lah. Mana ada masa to go backwards my friend ??. ,,,Today's success may become tomorrow's ingredients for stagnation ..Yeop oii !!.
,,,we can't be trailing in the wake, otherwise we will be tools that have gone absolute, good only for the scrap yard.
Note ; in actual fact, i have many many stories of incidents/events that have yet to be penned down.
,,,Perhaps one of these days ? ....perhaps,,,,perhaps !!..but a lot of my past working records are still available and being utilized as protocols/standards etc presently,...plus also nowadays incorporated into Aviation Safety Management System and Global Logistics Management Systems software too. (ASMS & GLMS)
,,,GUESS, am just taking a short break right now on the island b4 (if ever ?) coming back to the main stream as an active player in the game of living life in the city. hahaha !!. But but island life and living is keeping me healthy and much much more than in the real world out there.....yooo !
November 2, 2009 9:23 PM
Capt's Longhouse said...
,,, buddies !!... yoo again,,,sharing another 'untold experience' of an young Alouette pilot from 3 Sqn. Butterworth - back in 1974!...Date/time to be reconfirmed, till I find my log book again-lah....Was on special detachment with the Special Branch Chief himself at Fort Gemala for 2 x weeks in the jungle base as stand-by Alouette recce chopper but nothing happened for the first week and was invited for some fishing trip by the orang asli/police field force officer. So off I went, stripped down just in my shorts plus T shirt on their wooden sampan for fish bombing !.
,,,wow !!.. the ikan kelah was struggling after the 1st underwater blow-up and I jumped into the river to bring the fishes back but the strong current swept me across the other end ! Upon taking a BIG fish in hand, I stopped at the river edge for some rest and noticed some movements in the jungle!. Holy SHIT !!..CTs were watching us and I immediately swam across to the orang asli guide plus we all made our way back to base camp safely!!. The special Ops. was immediately launched and within the next couple of weeks, the security forces managed to kill/capture a few of the 40 odd CTs at that area.
,,,Guess what ??. One of the captured CTs a Malay guy (he looks like Mej Kalid Ali no kidding !.... hahaha !) from Kelantan, told me that he had his gun sight at me while I was on the sampan but thought that I was an orang asli and if only he knew that was the chopper pilot (meself) he would had pulled the trigger !. We had a great laugh and apparently he is now serving in the SB too, probably retired by now !!.
,,,So its not too bad to be with curly hairs and dark skin too hehehe..saved my day that day too.Very very stupid of me going out fishing but that was the normal thing to do by the SB personnel plus orang asli guides at all the jungle forts that we used to fly in/out then. Kept this experience or rather incident a personal secret from the Sqn/Flt. Commander, too scared that they might stop me from flying alone into the jungle again in support of Ops. Bamboo etc hahaha....boy OOO boy !! .....that was one crazy experience kept in my heart for the last 35 odd years ...Geee !!....now its no more my secret anymore....hehehe !!....am glad its out now...yooo !
November 10, 2009 10:32 AM
