Wessex Operational - c1961 film
Posted: Sat Mar 19, 2022 1:23 pm
A Westlands film about the introduction of the Wessex Mk1 into RN service by 815 Squadron which commissioned with the type on 1 July 1961. In hangar shots the Guinness harp is visible on the fuselage side, an association with that company sadly no longer exists in the present day 815 and their Wildcats. One airframe in the hangar has the name of a pilot on the fuselage side, the late Mike Tuson. Mike wrote a superb book on his experiences in the RN and afterwards as a mercenary in the Sultan of Oman's Airforce - published in 2001 the book is "A Mild Form of Insanity - Recollections of a Helicopter Pilot". His son is a current civvie helicopter pilot and the last I heard he was alternating between the Falklands and North Sea operations.