Working Together from page 93 You have only got to touch it with a rope, or something like that, and there is no problem.

Kennett: We just give them a flick as soon as they come down. That is good enough.

Cooper: The playful winchman coming down to an inflatable lifeboat who puts a boot on your head can cause a certain amount of amusement, or, as you say, a rather healthy shock! Now, Squadron Leader, take us through the horrors of static from Sea Kings.

Whatling: When we started operating Sea Kings some years ago, we operated them in exactly the same way so far as static is concerned as a Wessex. And our crew members came back having had shock, after shock, after shock and saying, 'This is nothing like a Wessex.

What's gone wrong?' We tried to find a solution, but it all came to a head when we really injured a crew member quite noticeably. The Royal Aircraft Establishment at Farnborough expended considerable effort on the problem and the RAF (though not, I think, the Navy) now puts static discharge wicks on all the blades. That has brought the shock down to that of a Wessex. So we have got round that one, I think.

Lethbridge: It is awfully hard not to help the winchman if you see him coming down, isn't it? I mean, when you are in the boat and you see a bloke is going to hit the rail or something like that, it's a hell of a job to stop yourself grabbing hold of him. Let's face it, you either get a shock or he might get injured.

Whatling: We still give our winchmen a piece of old winch wire which hooks on the winch hook and dangles about two feet below him, so that the whole lot is earthed before he touches ground— providing he hasn't had to fend off a fishing boat's mast, or something like that.

Cooper: I can assure you, from a lifeboat point of view, Sea King winchmen and wires and earthing wires are treated with the utmost respect, whereas it is not quite so bad with a Wessex.

Well, gentlemen, our time this morning is running out. What the future holds in store in terms of helicopter and lifeboat development, who can say. The RNLI intends to go on for ever and I am sure I speak for all our coxswains and crews when I say that I hope we never reach the day when we will not hear the friendly clatter of a helicopter's rotors overhead in training exercises, because I think we are all agreed that there are occasions when helicopters cannot operate when lifeboats can, and there are also occasions when the reverse is true. What is perhaps even more important, there are occasions when we neither of us could work successfully without the other. So, thank you all for coming.

Before we close our discussion and go our several ways, in recognition of all the support that the helicopters of both the Royal Naval and the Royal Air Force give us, and your ready cooperation in training, may I give you each an RNLI wall plaque which reads, 'With grateful thanks'; we hope, Commander, that you can display yours in a suitable place at Lee-on-Solent, and you, Squadron Leader, at Finningley..