On leadership Off the Beaten Path
By RADM Gary Jones, USN (Ret.)
T
his is a tale about a PEP (Personal Exchange Program) tour with the Royal Navy (RN). It’s 1982, and near the end of my time as an SH-2F FRS Instructor. The detailer is talking ship’s company for future orders. One day the XO queries me about a PEP opportunity, flying for the Queen as ship’s company. PEP sounds intriguing, so I jump on it. Senior officers whose opinion I respect share that PEP is not “career enhancing” and “off the beaten path.” The XO shares his thoughts, “at age 65, sitting in a rocking chair, what will you remember most about your time in the Navy?” Undecided, a bachelor, and not thinking about a career, I respond with “flying in the RN sounds memorable.” Told the billet is flying the Lynx (new, fast, and sexy looking), the orders state 829 Naval Air Squadron (NAS) in the Fleet Air Arm. I learn that 829 NAS fly the 1960s vintage Wasp, which I had never laid eyes on, hmm. I trust (??) the detailer, pack my belongings, and head off to fly the Lynx … so I think. Arriving in London, I check-in at the American Embassy and Naval Attache Office. No one there knows anything about a Lynx billet, and I’m told to report to 829 NAS at Royal Naval Air Station, Portland, England. Once in Portland, I head to the Air Station, and 829’s hangar for my first look at a Wasp. Caught off guard at the diminutive size of the airframe, I’m really astounded when looking inside the “cab” (Fleet Air Arm jargon). This particular Wasp must be awaiting mods / upgrades; there is no gyro, just an artificial horizon and a few steam gauges. The instruments resemble what I saw days earlier while touring the British War Museum in London – the cockpit of a “Battle of Britian” Spitfire. I compose myself and proceed to other cabs in the hangar. OMG – they’re the same. How in the name of Queen Elizabeth II do they fly this thing in the IFR skies over the British Isles? About then my 829 sponsor greets me with “we’ve been waiting to meet the silly Yank who volunteered to fly the Wasp.” There’s no escape: the honor of the U.S. Navy, the USA, plus the legitimacy of the Founding Fathers are at stake. I’m to fly the Wasp while representing the “Colonial Navy.”
Then LT Gary Jones, USN flying the Wasp.
Life in Portland includes driving on the wrong side, warm beer, and trying to understand cricket and football (not the NFL). The Fleet Air Arm means to provide me with an advanced degree in flying. Maneuvers that are prohibited in NATOPS, such as, full autos, wingovers, and torque turns are standard. I learn a torque turn allows an expeditious recovery at sea. At 100 ft, 90 kts, abeam the ship, you pitch 30 deg nose-up, bleed a/s to 40 kts, pull ~ 95 % torque with a little pedal to yaw 180 deg. and voila, short final. Maintenance check flights are stimulating, to include deliberately entering into retreating blade stall following a blade change to confirm proper installation. Learning the “zero a/s auto” however, is to be my thesis. The zero a/s auto starts at 500 ft AGL and 90 kts. To demo, my Instructor Pilot (IP) bottoms the collective, then back stick to zoom 200+ ft. At zero IAS and nose high, the IP has my full attention: level flight, to zero IAS, to a windscreen now full of English countryside rushing toward me. To add to my
The Wasp entered RN service in 1961 and is nicknamed “the flying dustbin” due to its shape. It earned a measure of respect during the 1982 Falklands War when it shot at, hit, and disabled an Argentinean sub, the first RN helicopter to do so. AS-12 Missile Shot
Rotor Review #163 Winter '24
14
