ZE419, a Sea King HAS5 that (temporarily) forgot how to fly

[Pete in Lincs]

Well, while we're telling tales...

An ex Albert driver of my acquaintance in Saudi

once related how he had a nap on a long flight,

and awoke to find everyone else on the flight deck

sound asleep too!

No one mentioned it to the grunts flying in goat class.

 

Personally, I remember eating my sarnies while flying

a bit of nap of the earth in a Puma over Germany, on

the way to a Tonka crash site. At one point we were

canted over at least 75 degrees around some pylons.

[Ex-FAAWAFU]

All these dits are all very well (and remind me to tell you about the French Navy "bag-rat" which consisted of a tray of peaches and a bottle of Bordeaux sometime...), but there is a model sitting somewhere at the root of it all.  HGW rivets have had a big impact on this build, but for a short period I have been using some of their more prominent Archer rivals to depict a few rivets that are (even by Sea King standards) a tad more agricultural / prominent on the underside of the airframe.  

 

One of the excellent things about Archer rivets is how amenable they are to Microsol - apply them and give a good dose of Microsol, wait 5 minutes and they can be bent into all sorts of shapes... such as straight rivet lines ending up surrounding the sonar well:

 

Less bendy, but also quite prominent, are the blooming' great bolts that seem to hold the main Doppler aerial and forward anti-collision light in place:

 

I have also added the base plates for the two "Jezebel" blade aerials (sonobuoy reception) under the tail near the sonobuoy chute:

 

These are just plastic card filed into a suitable wedge shape so that the aerials will be vertical in due course.  The aerials will stay off for a while - at least until she sits on her undercarriage - partly to facilitate painting (they are black and the baseplates blue) and partly prevent them being pinged off at every opportunity when I rest the aircraft on its belly.

 

Singing at a wedding tomorrow, so no time at the bench for a bit - but more soon.

 

Crisp

 

[Pete in Lincs]

11 hours ago, Ex-FAAWAFU said:

when I rest the aircraft on its belly.

Alternatively some scraps of plastic card

could be used to make a pair of stands?

Something similar to ship model stands?

Could be worth the effort!

 

(BTW, congrats on sneaking over the 40 page limit)

(Don't tell the mods) (Shtum!)

[Martian]

Looks good Crisp.

 

Martian

[hairystick]

On 12/16/2016 at 5:58 AM, Miggers said:

"Zoombag wearers",that's ace,never heard members of the twin winged elite called that before.

 

I also like how the naughty filter has changed  the "B" word for "fartherless children"

One was quite proud of the fact that when severely hung-over, he could put socks, skiddies and zoombag on and be presentably "ready for action" in a remarkably short period of time... How "functioning" he would have been is anyone's guess.

 

I wrote that phrase as a preemptive strike on the filter. No electrons were confused during the process of posting.

 

The scary part of that deployment was the voyage back home. Same aircraft and crew involved and they had been whipped into submission by then.

We load up, everything gets calculated for C of G, etc, etc and then mutterings commence from the "front office with all the knobs and switches" to the effect that "we are overweight". PAX eyes go to the provisions of brown paper bagged Michelin-Star cuisine and any hint of the crew moving towards them would have amounted to a slaughter.

Luckily they decided to come up with the reassuring solution of informing everyone that "we'll be off-loading fuel" to sort the problem, which it most certainly did.

 

NOT the most reassuring pre-flight announcement though, when intending to be flying over water for a few hours.

 

 

 

 

Learnt a few things on that trip. What the sports & social can do with an IV drip is really quite useful...

 

[Jessica]

On 2016-12-15 at 2:49 PM, Ascoteer said:

 

Firstly,  any fule can be uncomfortable and live in a hole in the ground. Jealous types maybe should have worked harder at school

 

Secondly, the bog on Albert can in no way, shape or form, be described as 'posh'!

 

 

Whereas we of the Naval persuasion took our galley and our beds with us when we travelled. Discomfort? Of course that's for the Soldiers and the Air Force. Meanwhile, we'll be in the Wardroom having a whet.

[stevehnz]

10 hours ago, Ex-FAAWAFU said:

but there is a model sitting somewhere at the root of it all. 

Crisp

 

Riiiiiight, I'd forgotten that bit. OK, be boring for a bit but keep it short please.

Steve.

[Col.]

On 15/12/2016 at 10:49 PM, Ascoteer said:

 

Firstly,  any fule can be uncomfortable and live in a hole in the ground. Jealous types maybe should have worked harder at school

 

Secondly, the bog on Albert can in no way, shape or form, be described as 'posh'!

 

Well the jealousy I'll freely admit to but alas in my experience it was less about sticking in at school and more about which school you'd been stuck in. I tried for the RAF a few times (Royal Navy told me point blank they weren't recruiting aircrew at that time) and with 8 O-grades, a Standard, 4 Highers I'd like to think I was no fool but after being told by one recruiting officer, "I don't recommend lads from the north-east for Cranwell" decided my youthful energies were better directed elsewhere. Fast forward about a year and there I am in a hole in the ground, or more typically elbows-deep in a Landy some other clown had broken and loving it. Alas I don't have sufficient co-ordination to stop a helicopter from digging holes in the ground so Army wasn't interested in my services as a pilot for some strange reason  

Sure you've all seen some amazing sights at height but like @perdu and @wyverns4 I've been and seen some things too that I'd have otherwise missed. Earlier this year I was talking to a friend's son who was thinking about joining up and found myself telling him to go for it without reservation or hesitation. There were certainly some bad times but there were also a lot more of the good times to out-weigh them and isn't that the same in any life?

 

Ah, on the subject of things I wasn't allowed to fly, nice work on the Sea King belly bits Crisp  

 

[Col.]

14 hours ago, Pete in Lincs said:

Well, while we're telling tales...

Personally, I remember eating my sarnies while flying

a bit of nap of the earth in a Puma over Germany, on

the way to a Tonka crash site. At one point we were

canted over at least 75 degrees around some pylons.

I'm still convinced the undercarriage retracted on Pumas so they could fly lower. Been looking up at overhead pylon cables a few times  

[Ex-FAAWAFU]

4 hours ago, Jessica said:

 

Whereas we of the Naval persuasion took our galley and our beds with us when we travelled.

 

And the bar; never forget the bar.

 

I can still recall the look of sheer joy on the face of the US exchange officer (indeed, the very man who was flying with me when I ditched the subject of this build) the first time we embarked in Ark Royal after he joined the squadron.  He was a highly experienced aviator with 3 tours in assorted US carriers, but of course had never seen a ship with a bar before.  I thought for a while he was going to sleep in there, he loved the idea so much.

[Jessica]

6 hours ago, Ex-FAAWAFU said:

 

And the bar; never forget the bar.

 

I can still recall the look of sheer joy on the face of the US exchange officer (indeed, the very man who was flying with me when I ditched the subject of this build) the first time we embarked in Ark Royal after he joined the squadron.  He was a highly experienced aviator with 3 tours in assorted US carriers, but of course had never seen a ship with a bar before.  I thought for a while he was going to sleep in there, he loved the idea so much.

This so much. I loved taking USN officers into the Wardroom as my guest. They're so appreciative ;)

[andyf117]

Content withdrawn - I will NOT be threatened by a moderator, simply because I queried the actions of another...

Edited June 27, 2020 by andyf117

[Ex-FAAWAFU]

Keeping the US Navy dry following prohibition is one of those odd quirks of history that makes little sense.  They do carry alcohol - they're allowed a drink after 100 days continuously at sea, or something like that - but for some odd reason almost never use it.  As a result their sailors get into all sorts of bother ashore when they over-correct when out of the habit.  

 

Jack always liked a beer or six, but in my experience the number of times when it affected performance when it actually mattered could be counted on the fingers of one hand (not bad in 20 years' service), whereas the positive contribution to morale was incalculable.  On the "12 hours from bottle to throttle" rule, I seldom drank at sea anyway (only when the cab was very seriously broken with no prospect of the boys fixing it within 24 hours!), so I have never got why the world's second best Navy is so utterly puritanical about it.

[wasacop]

On 15/12/2016 at 10:49 PM, Ascoteer said:

 

Firstly,  any fule can be uncomfortable and live in a hole in the ground. Jealous types maybe should have worked harder at school

 

Secondly, the bog on Albert can in no way, shape or form, be described as 'posh'!

 

Ah the old " if you'd tried harder at school" chestnut!

I remember a snotty nav on 27 saying that to me whilst I was strapping him in a Tornado once! He wasn't expecting the reply of " suppose so but if you'd tried harder at Biggin Hill you'd be sat in the front wouldn't you!!" 

Made the rest of the day bearable that did!

Got to agree about the sanitary provisions on hercs tho!

[Ex-FAAWAFU]

Gradual belly quilting progress, with which I am very happy:

[Wafu]

On 13 December 2016 at 9:44 PM, Ex-FAAWAFU said:

So, holes in the bottom of the aircraft were not only used for the disposal of aircrew movements while airborne; they also had a war-like purpose, namely the dispensing of sonobuoys.  Unlike Merlins and Nimrods, which have sophis-tim-a-cated rotary dispenser things that the crew dial up, the faithful Sea King 5 had a simple hole in the floor, through which the aircrewman or non-flying pilot (who'd unstrap and come back aft if things were busy) would chuck a prepped buoy.  

 

The real thing looks like this:

 

 

Or better known as the puke shoot by 820 engineers. 

 

4 cab Transit back from Roterdam via Manston on our way back to Culdrose, been on the p*ss that night so the engineers were not on top form, the pinkey in the back of my cab asked up front if he could open the cabin door for some 'air', they said no, so the dope asked them again, still no. 

Net result of a 10hrs session, dressed in a goon bag, in the back of a pinger, with the heating on (mid winter) and 10 stinking matlots was inevitable at some point.

PO aircrewman pointed to the sonar buoy hatch and the pinky set about depositing the nights refreshment out of his mouth. 

All was well as we laughed out loud but on landing at RAF Manston I discovered the tail wheel had taken the brunt of my mates vent. The crab refueler didn't seem to impressed.

 

 

 

[Wafu]

On 15 December 2016 at 10:49 PM, Ascoteer said:

 

 

Secondly, the bog on Albert can in no way, shape or form, be described as 'posh'!

 

 

I'll second that, especially when you have the trots and are facing 6 WRAC nurses on a 12 sector. Scared for life.

[perdu]

SCARED?

 

yessss

 

 I can see that    

[andyf117]

Content withdrawn - I will NOT be threatened by a moderator, simply because I queried the actions of another...

Edited June 27, 2020 by andyf117

[Wafu]

May well have been Andy, my focus was else where though👍

[bzn20]

2 hours ago, Ex-FAAWAFU said:

 

Oh, him.  Famous for what happened after he was shot down.  As celebrity Navigators go, I think I prefer Vasco da Gama.

 

Vasco de Gama by Yves Saint Laurent ? Swmbo wants some, says she's worth it !

[Jamie @ Sovereign Hobbies]

The rivet work looks incredible, and I'm doing mental gymnastics trying to convince myself that in 1/72 I'll get away without them as the very length of this thread highlights that I simply wouldn't see it through to completion.

 

Yours, however, is going to be absolutely stunning.

 

061 (although I failed IOT to be honest so shall not pretend to have done anything useful for the UK!)

[andyf117]

Content withdrawn - I will NOT be threatened by a moderator, simply because I queried the actions of another...

Edited June 27, 2020 by andyf117

[moaning dolphin]

38 minutes ago, andyf117 said:

Now I think about it, don't think I've ever even seen a Navy nurse. Certainly never visited a RN hospital....

 

QARNNS, always smartly dressed in nursey type uniforms and looked after you (that goes for the blokes as well!)

[Wafu]

2 hours ago, andyf117 said:

 

Guessing they were probably wearing combats at the time, so difficult to tell from just looking....

 

Now I think about it, don't think I've ever even seen a Navy nurse. Certainly never visited a RN hospital....

 

QRNNS a real treat to the eye in comparison to the average scab lifter MA.

 

Yes the females in the back of the herc had full combats on, just funny cap badges. 12 hours in the back of that thing from Stanley to Assension climbing on and of the porta potty with a flappy shower curtain, crab luxury indeed. I only really finished getting rid of my body fluids 10 hours in to that flight.