hendie Posted February 15, 2017 Share Posted February 15, 2017 (edited) 1 hour ago, Ex-FAAWAFU said: ohhhhh nice...... I look forward to seeing that detail added. There's no point in half heartedly building from this point forward now is there ? nice work on the PE though - you're a better man than I Edited February 15, 2017 by hendie 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ex-FAAWAFU Posted February 15, 2017 Author Share Posted February 15, 2017 (edited) Hoorah! I have been trying to find these pictures for months, and have finally tracked them down. I mentioned this incident on this site a while ago - probably somewhere earlier in this build, but I can't be bothered to go back and find it. Anyway, on our way home from Oz in 1988 there was an unfortunate incident involving a Sea King landing on top of a Sea Harrier. I have never seen these photos published anywhere, but what a superb diorama.... What happened was that the ship was trying out some new darkened ship flying ops, where we operated with the absolute minimum lighting. You need a really worked up crew and squadrons to pull this off, but even so things can go amiss. A Chock-Head was detailed to park a Shar on 7-and-a-half spot, thus leaving plenty of room for flying to 5 Spot - the standard Sea King spot that leaves the runway free. Unfortunately he misjudged it and parked the jet on 7 spot by mistake. and then went off watch. [My guess is that he saw the wrong dotted line and thought he was at the back of 7 spot, rather than the front.] So when 820's Boss - and thank God it was the Boss, cos no-one was going to disbelieve him - came back in the pitch black and moved across the deck from starboard, there was an almighty noise like a chainsaw and he started to lose yaw control. He slammed it down onto the deck. As you can see, he was actually about a foot or two too far forward - that line that runs athwartships should be immediately under his bum. If he'd been the same distance too far aft, his tail rotor might have hit the Shar's tail and they'd have had a tail rotor failure at c.80' over the sea at night - probably unsurvivable. As it was, though a section of the tail rotor blade was found on the ramp, hundreds of feet away, by some miracle no-one was hurt. Not only that, but both aircraft flew ashore a few weeks later, none the worse. I cannot remember, but I assume that must have involved a new gear box and TR drive shaft after that shock loading - plus obviously a new tail rotor. The pylon doesn't look all that happy in places, either. This second shot shows the damage to both Shar wing and Sea King tail rotor. Oops! Crisp {Sad puppy that I am, that final picture is probably the best shot I have yet found of the rivet patterns on the top of a Sea King horizontal stabiliser, plus an excellent view of the static discharge wicks!] Edited February 16, 2017 by Ex-FAAWAFU 13 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Martian Posted February 15, 2017 Share Posted February 15, 2017 That looks like one expensive cockup! Martian 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
perdu Posted February 15, 2017 Share Posted February 15, 2017 Ouch (it might be ((IS)) sad but I have just bunged that in my Sea King folder too) 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jessica Posted February 16, 2017 Share Posted February 16, 2017 What a waste of a perfectly good tail rotor. I presume that the consequences of getting a parking instruction wrong were explained to the chock-head in question? Likely at high volume and accompanied by many colourful adjectives, the kind which are generally frowned upon in polite company? 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brandy Posted February 16, 2017 Share Posted February 16, 2017 To quote one of the Polish pilots in "Piece of Cake"......"ees cock up!" Ian 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ex-FAAWAFU Posted February 16, 2017 Author Share Posted February 16, 2017 3 hours ago, Jessica said: What a waste of a perfectly good tail rotor. I presume that the consequences of getting a parking instruction wrong were explained to the chock-head in question? Likely at high volume and accompanied by many colourful adjectives, the kind which are generally frowned upon in polite company? Sadly, I have no recollection of what happened to said Chock-Head, though I suspect he wasn't offered coffee during the subsequent interview. Though he would have been in the doo-doo, the Captain of the Flight Deck and/or FDO on watch that evening will have been a lot worse off, as will (in particular) the marshaller for that landing; it was their responsibility to check. As for the pilot, there but for the grace of God; when you come into the hover alongside and there is a jet tail immediately to the left of you, it always appears mighty close even when things are exactly right, and with darkened ops they might not even have known it was there until they touched; you are concentrating on finding and hitting the bum line (and the photo shows he was pretty close to that even after slamming onto the deck with no tail rotor), and you simply have to trust that the tolerances, which are carefully measured and worked out, have been implemented properly. None the less, the P2 was a junior first tourist, so it was good for all sorts of confidence / morale reasons that the flying pilot turned out to be the CO. It could have been - and very nearly was - so much worse. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wyverns4 Posted February 16, 2017 Share Posted February 16, 2017 11 hours ago, Ex-FAAWAFU said: For those of a Kirk-esque persuasion who don't understand helicopters... those are my wings! More tomorrow Crisp Wings??? It says Blades!! Confuzzed lot these fish 'eds! Great build. It is really bringing home the old adage of attention to detail in a most inspirational manner. On-On! Christian, exiled to a land without the mighty eggbeater 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ex-FAAWAFU Posted February 16, 2017 Author Share Posted February 16, 2017 Reinstating the tie-down points with circles of fishing wire: Then adding the white metal FlightPath bases for the (under nose) sonobuoy homing aerials: Mr Muppet here missed the hover floods out - they should have been installed before gluing the boat hull. No matter; I have glued them now and will sand them flush: I've also glued the 5 inserts to the blade roots, ready for a bit of a SandFest to give them the right shape. Ever closer to that first coat of primer. Crisp 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
heloman1 Posted February 16, 2017 Share Posted February 16, 2017 Hi Crisp, just found your build, where could I have been not to have seen it??? so the SHAR guys parked the cab in th ewrong place again!! bet they never told anyone too... Going to go back over your build, mega popcorn supply needed... Colin 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dancona Posted February 16, 2017 Share Posted February 16, 2017 That incident with the tail rotor, that wouldnt by any chance be related to a certain mangled Seaking tail roor blade that my younger brother still has in his garage ? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ex-FAAWAFU Posted February 16, 2017 Author Share Posted February 16, 2017 11 minutes ago, Dave Ancona said: That incident with the tail rotor, that wouldnt by any chance be related to a certain mangled Seaking tail roor blade that my younger brother still has in his garage ? He was in the back seat, yes! 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ex-FAAWAFU Posted February 16, 2017 Author Share Posted February 16, 2017 Gradually working my way towards depicting this: ...namely the bottom of the sonar body and the surrounding snub ring to protect it and the aircraft during recovery of the sonar. So far, I have got as far as this: ...plus painting the inside of the sonar well NATO black. More later C 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
perdu Posted February 16, 2017 Share Posted February 16, 2017 Gablimey Crisp, that ringythingy is identical to those fitted in Walter I had mega fun with that in seventy littled scale Not Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
heloman1 Posted February 16, 2017 Share Posted February 16, 2017 Hi Crisp, I've spent the best part of an hour catching up with your build, here are my constructive coments, re some parts of the build. 1, Nice abreviated decription of the blade fold sequence. ( the Merlin, thankfully is much simpler or maybe Westlands just ran out of piping?). 2. The guitar string/spring wire looks good news, must try to sourse soeme. 3.The droop stops, spot on. 4. Trying to explain the vaguries of the theory of a helicopter flight to non helicopter people/person is very difficult but to us that have been there, it's pure logic. 5. Rivets, deffinitely I thought until I went deeper into your build would have been the rivet tool as I used on my recent Wessex build. However the HMG rivets have certainly done the job. Just hinking I may have to break the bank for my Comando Sea King... 6. Love the CAD drawings, wish I had the same skill, sadly it's paper and pencil fo me... 7. Post on Oct 26 th, Re helo tow on the minesweeper. The devise fitted to the Whirlwind was an experimental fit for MAD (?) towing looks like an arrstor hook on an expended pole. hardly enough strength in a Whirlwind airframe to tow a sweeper? 8. Wessex HAS 3 in flight refuel was adopted so the cabs could refule at the nearest ship to it's position with in the flotilla. All the ships were fitted with AV TUR tanks for this reason. 9. Post 31 Oct, excellent rivet work, I need to visit this method. 10. I see by the time the Sea King went to sea, the FDC were all wearing cranial helmets. Something we Junglies on Wessex were sadly missing, despite there being a DC loop on the flight deck. 11. Post Nov. 29 The cockpit, I do like the seats most convincing, excellent work. The jump seat too. 12. Pee tube, sorry you mean the 'Donkey Plonker'? Something for some reason the aircrew felt they didn't have to empty!! 13. Post 30 Nov. re the rivets, well worth the effort Crisp, otherwise I think, just like kissing your sister,2nd prize... 14. Post Dec 20th. The underside work great but maybe only you will remember/see it? 15. Re Keefer22 and the colours. In 70-73 I worked in the 'Dope Shop' at Lee and helped the guys from Fleetlands, Gosport re-spray a couple of Wessex fuselages. The primer was yellow chromate, an 'etch' primer to bight into the magnesium/duralamin skinning. This being pale might well have effected the overall olive drab colour? Sadly I didn't take too much notice!!! Re the early Lynx's, yes to Oxford Blue, aparently it was a standard colour for the garage doors Westlands used to make. Maybe just a case of lets get rid of an over order of Oxford Blue... 16. It's just a pity Haswaga seemed to think the cabin door should be moulded closed, why? What an opportunity to expose the cabin interior... 17. Post Thusday (today) the beast sitting on it's temporary legs looking really good. 18, Todays pics, the fus, is looking particularly scabby as it should... Thanks for the journey so far, I'll deffinitely stay tuned. Colin 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ex-FAAWAFU Posted February 16, 2017 Author Share Posted February 16, 2017 29 minutes ago, perdu said: Gablimey Crisp, that ringythingy is identical to those fitted in Walter I had mega fun with that in seventy littled scale Not Assuming you're talking about the Wessie 3, it's the same sonar body, so it makes sense that it would be the same system. Pusser never re-builds if he can re-use. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ex-FAAWAFU Posted February 16, 2017 Author Share Posted February 16, 2017 Quite hard to photograph effectively, but main rotor blade before & after: The changes at the root are fairly obvious; the tip maybe more subtle. FlightPath, bless them, provide 5 tiny static wicks for the tips, so no excuses! 8 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Martian Posted February 16, 2017 Share Posted February 16, 2017 Good luck with the snub ring Crisp. I remember much effing and jeffing when I had to build one for my SH-34 build. Martian Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hendie Posted February 16, 2017 Share Posted February 16, 2017 1 hour ago, Ex-FAAWAFU said: FlightPath, bless them, provide 5 tiny static wicks for the tips, so no excuses! heh. I knew it made sense ! personally, I think I'd try and microdrill the end caps then insert some small diameter wire to try and get some strength in the joint. Any PE attached by the normal method is just going to go pee-eye-en-gee waaaaay before you get the last piece fitted. You might want to look into E6000 as an adhesive for PE. I've come to love the stuff during my train build. The only downside is that it's a really high viscosity (think "marshmallow"!) and I haven't got around to trying to thin it yet (and whether that would affect the cure). the upside is that it cleans up really easily. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ex-FAAWAFU Posted February 16, 2017 Author Share Posted February 16, 2017 (edited) To be fair to FlightPath, they do give you a bit of a run at it - there might be enough to give some strength with drilling. I had never heard of E6000, but might yet be tempted. As for the snub ring, I have a cunning plan (so you're right: expect molto swearing!) Edited February 16, 2017 by Ex-FAAWAFU Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ex-FAAWAFU Posted February 16, 2017 Author Share Posted February 16, 2017 It will need some tidying up once everything is dry / cured (sounds like a side of bacon) - but I think the Cunning Plan is going to work. Drilled three holes in the side of the sonar well, CA glued in three rods, and Bob's yer Uncle. Painted black you won't be able to see them (and this is underneath anyway!) 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete in Lincs Posted February 16, 2017 Share Posted February 16, 2017 Looking bang on to me! Static wicks, brush bristle & superglue. Built up with a dab of matt black they are flexible enough to not go off ping if touched! 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ex-FAAWAFU Posted February 16, 2017 Author Share Posted February 16, 2017 A return to rivets, briefly - this time Archers. The underside of the stub wings has some particularly brutal rivet action; even allowing for the extreme close-up,we are not talking sanded flush here... So I want something less refined than the HGWs, which takes me straight to Archers. That will be all this evening. N.B. also the snub ring is now glued in place. More tomorrow possibly, and over the weekend definitely. Crisp 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Covjets13 Posted February 16, 2017 Share Posted February 16, 2017 What an epic build, I'm hooked👍 Si 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hendie Posted February 16, 2017 Share Posted February 16, 2017 4 hours ago, Ex-FAAWAFU said: I had never heard of E6000, but might yet be tempted. here you go...amazon uk it's intended for the jewellery market but I'm finding a multitude of uses for it 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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