Tramatoa

Well I suppose I should explain my absence......... When I started to get into the Flight Controls and Hydraulics it became obvious my memory wasn't up to the job any more I thought long and hard about how to progress this thread. Since I had my op I've been very much enjoying my return to modelling but so much has changed that it's blatantly obvious I need to do some serious re equipping before doing anything with the Fly Wessex. To continue or not, that is the question. It's all Wafu's fault really, if he hadn't suggested getting hold of the manuals I might have just resumed pottering in the garden and left Walter to gather dust on top of the bookcase for the next ten years. Perhaps it was the medication but once my over active imagination starts to work you never know where we will end up. This has all the makings of an Arthurian Grail Quest - it's a very, very tricky conundrum and it's of such limited interest to the wider world that it's verging on pointless but does that mean it's not worth doing? Bloody Navy. Picture me as Gawain, fill in the blanks for Arthur, Merlin, Lancelot. I saddled up my trusty steed and headed off into the unknown. Arriving at Bertilak's castle in Somerset I was shown much hospitality but there were a couple of problems. Firstly, I could be any random crank; I mean people must ask for a copy of AP101C-0102-1A all the time. Secondly, we live in a world where time is money. Totally get that. Thirdly, what on earth was the point? To be fair the Knight of the castle voiced none of these thoughts and made a more than generous offer that if I dropped in they would do everything they could to help, but even with my legendary wit and charm I would have a job convincing Morgan le Fey that we should turn left if we just happened to be passing. Hey Ho, back to the slate tablet. I wandered for some time. Through the barren wasteland that is the Wirral, into the lawless border lands of Flintshire where the locals never stop talking but never make sense.... (sorry Dai, couldn't resist). Then it occurred to me in a dream, the answer was to be found on the fog shrouded island of the Druids. And there in the stygian gloom of Barclodiad y Gawres by the light of my spluttering candle I once more came across the Oracle, bent by time but with the passion for Walter never quite extinguished by prolonged exposure to those nasty, uncouth, flashy five-bladed upstarts. To his eternal credit he didn't even blink when I asked for the Grail, any other mortal would have been unable to stop themselves; 'What in God's name do you want that for?'. But not the Hun, oh no. He had them in a drawer in the back bedroom. I'm not sure if you are familiar with Red Dwarf, but I feel like Holly did when his decrepit memory was restored to it's former glory. Station diagrams fill my thoughts, mod standards of winches flick in and out of my subconscious mind. I even know which way round the cabin seatbelts go! All we need now is for Lancellot to commit to building a 1/32 scale transmission platform................

Don’t undersell yourself, I’ve been lucky enough to work with some cracking mechanics over they years who have saved me from my own stupidity on many occasions. In fact it would be nice to have someone to prevent me doing stupid things like painting the front end of sidewinders in Revell’s recommended 10% black, 45% leather brown ,45% copper mix. Doh!

Blimey, where does the time go? Back on the bus heading to see the old dear who single handedly destroyed more aircraft in the seventies and eighties than the RAF managed over the same period. Granted she didn’t actually shoot down any Jaguars but, trust me, the one she dusted needed some serious rigging checks 🙄. This is the left hand forward corner of the Transmission Deck and as we noted previously the gearbox bracing strut goes under the cockpit rear bulkhead so the mounting bolt and it’s coathanger wire locking are not visible. Aft of this are a pair of hydraulic ground connectors but I thought we used the ones on the aft strut for the hydraulic cart so I’m not sure what these were for. This one doesn’t have a case drain connection and the caps don’t seem to have been disturbed very often but my memory is rubbish and Sod’s law applies so I will have got them the wrong way round. I recall an occasion when we had an aircraft repeatedly being snagged by the crews for a significant clunk when switching between primary and secondary systems. Eventually we set up with both hydraulic rigs in the hangar (a real assault on the senses in our otherwise sleepy hollow) and checked everything was in limits, at which point the duty pilot asked if he could try and replicate the problem on the ground. As we were wandering down the path from C Flight to the Hangar chatting there was a pop in the distance like a shotgun going off and we looked up to see a Hawk heading sharp down and left into the Inland Sea area, followed shortly afterwards by a large column of black smoke. The pop was the ejection seat firing. This was a Bruneian student having a control restriction on take off and deciding discretion was the better part of valour. We did a quick 180 and legged it for the first standby and off they went, only to be beaten to it by a SARTU cab on its way back from the harbour. Legend has it that Flight Sergeant Eckberg gave the budgie a robust slapping and told him there was bugger all wrong with him before taking him over to the Med Centre. Anyway I digress, can anyone out there remember which of these points the rig attached to or will I have to contact the Oracle on Ynys Mon? Pip pip, Tramatoa

The difference between involvement and commitment is like ham and eggs. The chicken is involved; the pig is committed.

There was also a series of ‘Gimlet’ books set in WW2 which were in my Dad’s fairly limited collection of books which didn’t relate to marine engines. Think Biggles joins the French resistance. Worth digging up.

Why am I looking through the Joint Service Designations for Aircraft Windscreen De-icing fluid at eleven o’cLock at night? A plague on fairies of all oddball trades and persuasions. Actually it’s AL-11, close but no cigar 🙄.

Back on the boneshaker, previous caveats still apply regarding quality of grammar, spelling, etc (here’s looking at you Wez). The primary reason for the second image is that it captures the wording on the viewing window. It seems to be “WINDSCREEN SERVICE, FILL LEVEL, NATO CODE, S-737” although the first word is slightly obscured. The flash has also allowed us to see the top of the mixer unit where the flying controls come up through the transmission tunnel. While I've been off I have made some efforts to get hold of a set of course notes or Description and Operation chapters from the AP but I’ve drawn a blank so far (I have a flat spot on my forehead as a result of contact with the proverbial brick wall). Sadly my Q Course notes went west about twenty years ago. If anyone can come up with a graphic of this area it would be greatly appreciated. Having set your homework for the week I’m going to make my excuses and enjoy Lord Street in the sunshine. Pip pip, Tramatoa

Weell, I’m not quite sure how this will end up as I’m on a bus heading to see my mother and it’s a bit like sitting on top of the spin dryer when we were kids. Thirteen days left before I can get behind the wheel (chuff chart being filled in daily, ‘Days to do are getting few’ and all that) so Im afraid you will have to live with any minor typos or autocorrections for the time being. Firstly I need to apologise for the picture quality, they were taken in a hurry on my iPhone and I was somewhat concerned I might be told to get down by the museum H&S Police. The ambient light on the left side and my phone somehow getting into ‘live mode’ resulted in quite a lot of glare. Second attempt with flash: The most obvious points of interest are the MRGB filler point with it’s Jubilee clips and the tank for the Windscreen De-icing fluid. This is shown as NATO spec S-737, which according to the Aeroshell book translates to Aeroshell Compound 06A, fully miscible with Ethyl Alcohol. I honestly only have the dimmest memories of ever topping this up and I’m damned if I can remember if it had another code applied. These were the pre-COSH days when you just chucked fluids around with no real comprehension of what they could do to you! Ride nearly over, to be continued later.......

Comedy is all about the timing..........

Wonderful photos, thanks for taking the time to post them. What a shame about the Shackleton, I always hope it had escaped its fate. I can remember climbing over the wing spar up to the cockpit and lying on the leather cushion in the back end during my first ATC camp. As I said previously there was nothing left by 1986. The Vulcan is quite a bit more intact at this point in time, the whole forward fuselage had gone in my time. Always upsets me to see an old warrior hacked to bits. When I was a kid there were the burnt out remains of two Meteors at RAF Woodvale on the Liverpool to Southport train and we would always be looking out for them, although you would be past in the blink of an eye.

40!?! Either you love the Phantom as much as I love Walter or your wife is very, very bad at dusting..........

Looks like Airfix is the obvious choice, perfect timing 😉

I remember this one well, we were on shift that day. Our Comms guy was in the Ops Room watching the radios (Fairy speak for reading the paper) when a PLB started to ping on the speaker. He picked up the phone and rang the Tower assuming it was yet another budgie getting out of his Hawk and forgetting to disconnect only to be told to look out the window because the Nav was still drifting gently back to earth. Obviously we would occasionally remind him about it........ The aircraft blew a tyre and slewed off the runway adjacent to the old tower (RAF Regiment building), the Nav must have thought bugger this for a game of soldiers and exited, whereas the steely eyed killer in the front was with very brave or very slow. I seem to recall the aircraft was towed off within a couple of hours and don’t recall it being stuck at Valley for any great time. Happy memories 👍

That’s it, just as I remember it. You can even see the hole in the right intake on some of the photos. Such a shame it ended up on the burning pan but it seems that my pocketing of the radio frequency card was quite minor. There seem to be bits of her all over the country! It was odd on that bit of the airfield over on the Rhosneigr side, not somewhere you went very often. There was the main wing and centre section of a Vulcan with the nose and vertical stab hacked off and the shell of a Harrier if my memory is correct, a sad sight. Great for bondu bashing in the Air Portable at weekends though 👍. A couple of related stories...... When I first went to Valley in about 1980 there was a Shackleton parked up which was headed for the same grisly end but I believe someone started a campaign to ‘save the Shack and burn Valley’ which must have worked because I don’t recall seeing any evidence of it when I was actually posted there. I was given a guided tour but sadly those were the days when photos meant cameras which were verboten. Regarding the Vulcan I was told it was parked up some time in the early eighties prior to the build up to the South Atlantic kicking off. A team was dispatched to assess the Avionics on board and rob anything useful only to find an enterprising ‘Chief’ had got there first and had been flogging bits of it off for months, leaving it past salvation. Nice to think it was true but you know how these stories are. While I have the attention of the Phantom crowd, can you recommend a kit in 1/72 as a base for this aircraft? Thanks, Tramatoa

Sorry must have been autocorrect and I missed it. Sticks out like a dog’s hind leg when you re-reid it.............

Can anyone help with identifying the Phantom left behind at STCAAME RAF Valley sometime around 1991? I recall visiting it in the small STCAAME hangar but can't recall why (we very rarely went round there) and then subsequently had a wander round what was left of it on the burning pan during a weekend guard stint. My memory has it that a missile motor exploded just after firing which badly damaged the right intake and the decision was made to leave it where it was rather than repair it and fly it out as it was going to be scrapped anyway. I thought it was a F4J(UK) but none seems to have ended its days on Ynys Mon according to t'internet. I have the frequency card off the combing somewhere and I'm sure I scribbled the reg on the back but lord alone knows when it will turn up. Thanks, Tramatoa

The accident happened in August 1987 so I think you are looking at the introduction of the interruptor blade over the winter of 87/88 on UK SAR aircraft, overseas aircraft almost certainly later than that.

I think I’m correct in saying that the yellow (termed ‘interruptor’) blade was introduced on 22 Sqn after a parachutist was killed hitting a helicopter rotor at Andover in 1987. This date would certainly tie in with my recollection of the introduction of this mod. The blades were as described, matt yellow on the upper surface only and faded quite quickly in service. I would be surprised if this was introduced to 84 Sqn In 1987 but you never do know. If we were trying to get a set to work together it complicated things quite a bit having to include a yellow one (they were set based on their flying hours (which would result in the blade ‘untwisting’ over time) and weight, we weren’t allowed to adjust the balance weights under the tip cap). As a result of this I seem to remember a couple of occasions when we had to operate with four standard blades and a Deferred Defect until a different yellow blade turned up from HQSARW. Some blades just didn’t want to play and were termed ‘rogue’ which would be noted on the F731.

Well hip, hip hooray I have returned! Bit of an odd experience really but well on the mend now and the arthritis pain has vanished, replaced by a dull ache which is steadily fading away. I did a couple of miles on the crutches today which would have caused me serious bother a month ago so although I'm not in any rush to repeat the experience if you are hobbling around in agony I can say its a Ten from Len. The good thing about being laid up for a couple of months is that I've finally had the opportunity to return to modelling after about ten years out. For starters I decided on a Revell Tornado GR1 which I bought for my son about five years ago, my last (failed) attempt to get him interested in the hobby I loved as a boy. It was a bit of an eye opener, the worst part being my stupid insistence on following the colours given in the instructions...... Armed with a list of numbers I popped into my local model shop on the morning prior to the Op to be told that they didn't have half of them but could match me up with the equivalent from a different manufacturer - resulting in a full day with a can of Mr Muscle Oven Cleaner with my leg elevated in the sunshine. Lesson learned and we move on! To be honest the rust scales are falling away and I'm pretty happy with it so far except for the radome which is a known issue. Anyway, I digress. Over the last couple of weeks I've been trying to sort out the piles of digital detritus piled up on my computer and discovered the picture I had previously referred to of XV724 at Pferdsfeldt in Germany. I'm the grumpy looking bloke on the right. The Phantoms were photo recce jobs with cameras in the nose if I recall correctly and the Germans were a bit twitchy about us dumping our ageing yellow crate in the middle of their carefully camouflaged HAS site. How time flies. Its back to the left side of the Transmission platform next, I promise. Pip Pip, Tramatoa

From a yellow Wessex perspective these are the blanked off weapons stub fittings: So no cut-outs or riveted patches at this location. Alan, the photo shows the four panels which seem to be common to all HC2/HAR2 which are under the cabin door lower rail, one in each of the frame bays, provided in the Fly kit (PE-B26) as the aft four parts. These do not run in a straight line fore and aft but rather rise progressively up the airframe as they get further aft, something that the kit instructions are unclear about (they show the forward one high and the other three in a straight line). In my opinion if you are building an SH HC2 you should only use the aft four, a Mk 60 shouldn’t have any (and is also missing the stub pylon fittings) and one of Madge’s HCC4’s also shouldn’t have any. A real yellow Wessex should have all eight. Now this throws up another question. What are these boy racer accessories, and do they fit into a standard stub pylon fitting?

And had the powers that be not decided to put XR525 on a silly plinth ten feet off the floor we would probably never seen this: So only the rear four are present here, it seems there is quite a lot of randomness in this hole cutting which definitely places the Avionic Trade Groups in the frame......... and before anyone comments I’m not suggesting they actually cut a hole in anything 🙄.

Whatever they were for TQF didn’t need them.

This photo from NABE3 of XT604 shows the area pretty well. Again be aware that a SAR Wessex wouldn’t have the cabin step fitted unless it was going on a specific tasking where it was required. Looking at the panels they must be riveted on, if they were screws there would only be one row surely? They don’t look like they were intended to be there from the outset, and I would suggest that they may have been cut for a wiring mod, then fixed in place with blind fasteners. If it was a fuel related mod would not the HU5 have needed similar treatment? Bag tanks generally were either laced in or held in with odd little studs which pushed from inside the tank. I don’t think you would need external access, they would be fitted through the manholes in the floor.

For or those of you who don’t have the kit in question this is what Alan is referring to. To be honest other than carrying out functional checks on the SACRU I didn’t spend much time underneath in contemplation of access panel locations. It’s a shame we don’t have anyone from one of the Major teams involved as they may be able to provide some background info. My money would be on access to wiring, as far as I know the fuel systems on the HU5 and HC2 were the same.

The thing that I really like about this forum, and in turn this thread, is that so many people are happy to contribute and when my grey matter lets me down they will prod me in the right direction without being patronising. I tried writing a few years ago and it is terrifying because every fact needs to stand scrutiny which means you have to cross check everything or risk loosing credibility. I take my hat off to people who can do it (particularly Mike O’Connor who was a gentleman and an inspiration) but it doesn’t work at four o’clock in the morning when you’re having a well deserved cuppa. Pip pip, Tramatoa