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Fly Away

Flight Sergeant Esther Russell had the privilege to fly with 33 squadron for a day, here is her account: 

30th January 2007 

I arrived at 33 squadron, RAF Benson at 08:30am.There I was taken on a tour around a Puma, a safety brief and introduced to the crew I would be flying with that day. 

09:00. I was fitted with a helmet and harness then went up to crew room where I waited to be briefed on the flight. 

09:30. The captain, navigator, Sgt Aircrew and I started the brief. The brief consisted of the route we were taking, the weather conditions, the duties we were on that day and timings. I was in formed in the brief that we were flying over to the Royal School of Artillery (RSA) at Larkhill. We were flying over to be met by the troops who would be abseiling out of the side of the Helicopter. 

09:50.I finished off any final preparations that needed to be completed. 1010hours we walked out the Puma where we finally took of at 

10:30.On the way there I sat in the jump seat, between the pilot and navigator and learnt how they navigate their way through the sky, also along route we did some low level flying.

11:00. We arrived at RSA Larkhill, where we were met by the troops from the training support division which included the Lieutenant Colonel. Four members at a time climb on board the helicopter and abseiled out from a height of 150ft. We did 6 lifts before we transited of to RAF Boscembe Down to refuel and have lunch. 

1:30pm.We arrived back at Larkhill to complete the abseil. 

2:30. We left Larkhill and travelled back to RAF Benson along the way the crew did some confined area landings of which one I assisted in guiding in the aircraft in to the confined space with the help of the Sgt Aircrew. We arrived back at RAF Benson for 3:30.