'Giving the Ground Crew Grief' by Brian Mollan

Some Wessex from 845 Sqn were deployed ashore from Bulwark, to a dirt jungle strip in Malaya, around 1964.

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With another chopper, two of us were given a task away from the strip. For our return to the strip, I thought some kind of display was in order. I had ‘acquired’ a couple of smoke grenades and so before take-off for return to the strip, we wired each of these to the ends of poles about ten feet long. A cord loop was placed around the pole and the release handle of the grenade, with sufficient cord leading to the base of the pole to cause the grenade handle to release when the cord was pulled. The K.I.S.S. principle was both easy, and inevitable.

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The crewmen were briefed on the danger of the grenade handle flying off into the rotors, and the importance of the grenade and handle being kept horizontal.

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At two minutes from the strip, the safety pins were removed from the smoke grenades, with the release handle retained by the cord loop. At one minute from the strip, the crewmen extended the smoke grenades, on the poles, out and away from the cabin. On the order ‘Smoke’, the cords were pulled, the release handles flew off and away, and we were streaming beautiful smoke as we flew over the strip at a couple of hundred feet.

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On landing, the ground Crew Chief expressed his displeasure, saying that when he first saw smoke coming from the returning aircraft, he nearly suffered cardiac arrest, envisaging major mechanical problems such as engine changes, or worse, in the field., with all the attendant problems, inquiries and paperwork, which only goes to show, you can’t please all the people all the time.