papasan,

That goes double for me. Without our support back at home base we would have been down more than up.

I remember Bob Taylor and his guys flying out parts to an LZ in any bird they had just so I could keep 851 in the air. Once it was a tail rotor, once main rotor blades to Dakto, and once a main fuel filter and "O" ring to a clearing where we had no support except ourselves. That one was a little tense sitting in the middle of no where but if push came to shove we would have cranked up and pulled pitch fuel leak or not. Just to give you an idea of severity of the leak the engine compartment floor was soaked and the entire tail boom was coated in JP-4. I could smell JP-4 while in flight at about 90 knots with the doors open. I thought it would be a good idea to find the source of the smell so I went out on the skid down the side to the inspection panel pushed it open to look and said *%#@*!. Went back in keyed my mike and told the AC to look for a place to land ASAP. The stupid part about my skid walking is that I always did it with out a monkey belt.

Once again, Without our support people we would have been screwed.

Tom Gator 851