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

[HomerJ_757]

On 05/08/2017 at 00:07, AlexN said:

Not surprising - very nasty stuff, especially when snorted up. Spelling of formaldehyde very nearly right

 

Yours,

Serial Pest

Even worse than that, it was Bromochlorodifluoromethane! 🙂 Banned by the Montreal Protocol in the 80's as a CFC, for most items it was replaced by halons but still allowed in aircraft fire bottles.

Edited August 6, 2017 by HomerJ_757
Remembered more stuff!

[hairystick]

On 8/5/2017 at 10:57 AM, bzn20 said:

The front end of that tug looks like either a  59 Buick LeSabre  or a heavy metal Dame Edna. both with some imagination !

I can't get the look of a Land Rover out of my head seeing it.

It gives the appearance that someone has removed the LR engine and put a seat there instead.

 

 

The weathering is looking rather splendid on it too!

[71chally]

5 hours ago, massimo said:

I Was wondering about this. I know for sure that on tractors actually in  use in the Italian A.F.there's a system to select the 2 or 4 turbina wheels option .Do you know of on this tractor there'a a similar system?

Anyway due to the reduced space on board a Carrier, the 4 turning wheels option looks the most likely.

Hood point!

I've only ever seen these four wheel steer, even had a quick go with the one in my pictures and didn't notice two wheel selection.

Talking to an old deck hand friend of mine , his memory of these is all four wheel steer only.

They don't have a big steering action lock to lock, think the four wheel steer came in handy for tight turning and precise movement of aircraft.

 

The wheels are on full lock in this shot, sorry about the driver face!

Vickers deck tractor by James Thomas, on Flickr

 

I wonder if that 'extinguisher' at front left side is actually charge air for the main firefighting tank?

Vickers deck tractor by James Thomas, on Flickr

 

 

 

BTW there is a reason why deck tractors have number plates!

Sea King being moved from Predannack to CU passing through Cross Lanes Jan 1981, Paul Yockney

[Ex-FAAWAFU]

20 hours ago, bzn20 said:

Odds are good that the Navy didn't have our (RAF) habits!

I'd be astonished if we didn't; the imagination of all military engineers (regardless, of service) in improving / adapting official material is unsurpassed, and FAA engineers definitely did it a lot.  Rocky Sharp, my Lynx Pinky (radar etc) maintainer came up with a superb local mod to record Orange Crop signals on a sneaky-beaky surveillance trip to Northern Parts; this involved splicing a heavily re-worked Walkman (of which I think only the pre-amp section would have been recognised by Sony) into the cab's electrical system.  Worked like a dream, robust, simple, WAFU-proof... genius.  An official version would have taken months, if not years, to develop, and cost thousands. Our's cost one knackered Walkman, the recording head from an even older tape recorder, a lot of tiny soldering work, plus Rocky's ingenuity.

 

Occasionally a local mod was so good that it became official - the Lynx track & vibro system was one of those; bodged together by the Maintenance Test Pilot's team at Portland, but so good that it was then adopted by the whole fleet.  My SMR (senior maintenance rating - Lynx flights on DD / FF don't have an engineer officer) was one of the team that designed it, and he was justly proud of the metal "Bodge Navy" badge that the boss had made for all of them in recognition.

Edited August 6, 2017 by Ex-FAAWAFU

[Ex-FAAWAFU]

21 minutes ago, 71chally said:

Talking to an old deck hand friend of mine , his memory of these is all four wheel steer only.

 

BTW there is a reason why deck tractors have number plates!

Sea King being moved from Predannack to CU passing through Cross Lanes Jan 1981, Paul Yockney

The Wheel at Cross Lanes!  Played many a gig there in my younger days.  Lots of lovely details in that picture - I love the L plate, the matelot safely perched on the engine bay door (Health & what?..), and the fact that they've rigged Forth Road Bridge AND tip socks  just in case!  Don't think I've ever seen the side number repeated on the rear of the sponson, either.

 

There's something very odd about that tail rotor; was that the problem that led to recovery by road?

 

i think you're right about the charge canister, front left.  I do have shots with an extinguisher there (local mod? See above!), but I think I'm leaning more towards leaving it off.  I note that this iteration of the tractor has no front boxes at all...

 

I only recall them being 4-wheel steer, too, which would certainly make sense on a busy deck.  The Chock-Heads could be amazingly precise with them, which can't be easy when towing 10 tons of Sea King on a moving deck.

 

P.S. Note the highly-trained specialist technicians walking alongside the aircraft, each carrying a single chock!  Presumably someone also got the cushy number, sitting in the right hand seat as brakeman for what just be about 8 miles by riad...

Edited August 6, 2017 by Ex-FAAWAFU

[71chally]

7 minutes ago, Ex-FAAWAFU said:

Don't think I've ever seen the side number repeated on the rear of the sponson, either.

You see it on the 'white numbered' blue cabs (HAS.1s 2s etc), but think it had gone by time they went to black markings.

 

Least we manged to get the topic back to Sea Kings!

[Ex-FAAWAFU]

Hmm.  You could make a great diorama out of that.  I wonder whether I could scratch build a 1/48 Cornish pub?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Not this build, anyway!

[keefr22]

32 minutes ago, 71chally said:

Sea King being moved from Predannack to CU passing through Cross Lanes Jan 1981, Paul Yockney

 

So they were used ashore then?! Love the L plate - & I'm thinking of the diorama possibilities too (but in the one true scale!)

 

I'm guessing that's a yellow one?

 

Keith

[71chally]

10 minutes ago, Ex-FAAWAFU said:

Hmm.  You could make a great diorama out of that.  I wonder whether I could scratch build a 1/48 Cornish pub?

...if anyone can!

 

 

Keith, as Crisp said earlier, they were used at Culdrose on the dummy deck which is probably where that one came from.

Unsure about other establishments, there were some gathered at VL recently for demob reasons.

It would be yellow, green came in mid to late '80s.

Edited August 6, 2017 by 71chally

[Ex-FAAWAFU]

5 minutes ago, keefr22 said:

 

So they were used ashore then?! Love the L plate - & I'm thinking of the diorama possibilities too (but in the one true scale!)

 

I'm guessing that's a yellow one?

 

Keith

They'll have borrowed it from the Dummy Deck (Flight Deck Training Unit) at CU

[keefr22]

3 minutes ago, Ex-FAAWAFU said:

They'll have borrowed it from the Dummy Deck (Flight Deck Training Unit) at CU

Thanks Crisp, I do remember you mentioning that, I was being a bit tongue in cheek!

 

Keith

[keefr22]

Few more pics here, if you fancy scratchbuilding trees rather than the pub!

 

http://cornishmemory.com/item/YOCN_4_007

 

http://cornishmemory.com/item/YOCN_4_008

 

http://cornishmemory.com/item/YOC_1_84

 

This is interesting too, probably an exciting few minutes for the crews...!!

 

http://cornishmemory.com/item/YOCN_6_315

 

More nice Sea King pics on the site, ignoring the many mis-identifications of Wessex as being S.K.'s....!!

 

Keith

 

 

 

 

[bzn20]

1 hour ago, Ex-FAAWAFU said:

P.S

 

None,two (and one) boxes on the front....Now what ?

Edited August 6, 2017 by bzn20

[bzn20]

9 minutes ago, keefr22 said:

the pub!

Just popping down the local to do some pics for the  walk 'round section.. won't be long !

[keefr22]

And another later machine on a road trip;

 

http://cornishmemory.com/item/YOC_2_088

 

I'll shut up now!

 

K

[Ex-FAAWAFU]

706, not 806, definitely!  

[Ex-FAAWAFU]

Looking at my trusty "Fleet Air Arm Helicopters Since 1943" book (indispensible for any Wobblehead), ZA135, the cab being towed from PD to CU, was brand new at the time. Issued to 820 (015 / N) July 81 as new-build HAS5.  Nothing to say why it had to be recovered by road in early 82.  It could have been something very mundane like a chip detector light - you wouldn't want to do an engine change in the open air at Predannack when you could tow it home in an hour.

 

ZA135 flew in the South Atlantic as an 820 cab (so it can't have been anything too serious).  Transferred to 810 January 83.  Gearbox failure at Portland in Feb 85 (no damage, so I guess on the ground), then landed "momentarily" with wheels up during a display (oops), damaging the anti-coll light.  

 

I flew it several times when I was on 810 for my OFT in 1986.  Thereafter, apart from a brief period on 849 HQ (presumably as their GFP/IFP "hack", since it was never converted to AEW), it was a steady ASW workhorse, before ending up as an SAR cab on 819 & then 771.  Still around somewhere.

 

 

Looking through the Sea King section of that book, a surprising number of them made a similar journey from PD to CU over the years; I found at least 3 others.

[71chally]

That Cornish Memory site is very good for local aviation interest pictures, think I would prefer a pub diorama to a tree one!

[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

[bzn20]

Whats the story what happened to that SK.. Great links. BTW, don't "shut up" K !

 

http://cornishmemory.com/item/YOCN_6_315 Whats that, on or off the blade tip ? Looks like it hit something. The other one flown with help !

 

The headline was up the top and out of my view.. Blade tip collision !

Edited August 6, 2017 by bzn20

[71chally]

10 minutes ago, andyf117 said:

 

 

Seems a little odd that they used a deck tractor, though, rather than a 'normal' land-based one;

Knowing the hills, narrow roads and tight corners, I think I would prefer the control and power of the deck tractor rather than the standard shore ones.

[71chally]

These are the tractor shots I was looking for, two of the dummy deck Sea Vixens and Gannet XG831 being moved to the Aeropark

 

 

..and just for @keefr22

http://cornishmemory.com/item/YOCN_4_601

 

[Ex-FAAWAFU]

1 hour ago, andyf117 said:

ZA135 015/N of 820 NAS was recorded as being seen aboard Invincible at Portsmouth on 21 Jan '82, so despite whatever caused the missing two tail rotor blades, the aircraft was back in service within 12 days......

 

Seems a little odd that they used a deck tractor, though, rather than a 'normal' land-based one...

I agree that they'd want the manoeuvrability of the deck tractor.

 

As for the TR blades, my guess is that they were deliberately removed to lower the max height of the aircraft, rather than the cause of the road trip; if they were damaged, why bother to take them off before you get home?  I'm trying to remember whether there are any bridges on that route, but I think the bloke balancing on the servicing platform is so that his head is at the right height to judge clearance; if you look at the first of the pictures in the trees, that seems to be what he's doing.

[71chally]

and possibly to push overhead cables out the way, I had to do that with a Shackleton move once!

[Ex-FAAWAFU]

3 hours ago, Ex-FAAWAFU said:

They'll have borrowed it from the Dummy Deck (Flight Deck Training Unit) at CU

Just occurred to me (sharp as a beach ball), having noted the L plate appear again on that Gannet move, that the Dummy Deck tractors might well have an L plate!

Edited August 6, 2017 by Ex-FAAWAFU