I wish to signify my appreciation of the honour of being asked to address the Members of The Helicopter Association of Great Britain and their guests I would also like to thank the Chairman for his introduction, and to pay tribute to the notable work being done by the first two speakers Both are test pilots of exceptional skill and experience, and congratulations are due to them on the papers they have delivered this evening My paper deals with the development flying on a new British type of helicopter from a civil operator's point of view and, quite frankly, I find it a most difficult task, not because the subject matter is difficult, but because to date we have only flown 120 hours on this new type in 15 months The slow rate of progress was due mainly to the many teething troubles associated with prototype aircraft