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Westland Lynx versions (Navy)


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BTW I have a 44 photo walkround of a Lynx AH7 at RIAT this year, just trying to figure out the best way to submit them.

Have no fear I will get in touch.

Julien

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  • 2 weeks later...

Looking for some reference help here, guys. I have a long-term plan to build the Lynx HAS2 which lost its nose on the deck of HMS Broadsword on 25 May 1982 [see http://www.hmsbroadsword.co.uk/gallery/falklands82/damage/damage.htm]. (If you don't know the story, in the same series of raids that did for Coventry, a bomb bounced off the surface of the sea, went through the side of Broadsword and exited UPWARDS through the flight deck, taking off the nose of the cab (and narrowly missing a Mk44 at the same time, it seems from the pics), before exploding harmlessly over the side. When I served in her 7 years later, in certain light conditions you could still clearly see the patched hole - the flight deck had a distinct dent even after full repair.)

This subject has always interested me; I served in that war (though not in Broadsword), and was then Flight Cdr of Broadsword 7 years later, and even have that airframe in my log book; it was repaired and came back into service as a HAS3, then a 3S, and remarkably is still around as a HMA8.

I'll probably use the Airfix 1/48 kit as the basis, since there seems to be after market stuff to revert it to a Mk 2 - plus of course the nose isn't going to be an issue in this case, since it was pretty much shredded by the bomb.

Anyway, as the pictures at the link show, that airframe was fitted with the short-lived ASQ-81 towed MAD, and I am struggling to find details of the MAD fit on the Lynx. It wasn't a huge success, as I recall (it had already been removed from the Sea King when I started flying them in 1985, and was a distant memory by the time I got my hands on a Lynx in 1989. It looks a fairly Heath Robinson fit, just bolted onto the starboard sponson - and in the view of the stripped cab being load-lifted by the Sea King it looks as though it has just been unbolted, leaving the sponson as normal.

Anyone got any info, or better yet pictures of that MAD fit - particularly of the Lynx sponson? I have some pretty decent pics of one fitted to a Sea Sprite, and several of the bird being towed, but it's the details of the sponson that are so far eluding me. Any ideas? (I guess I could always talk to the FAA Museum).

Edited by Ex-FAAWAFU
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Looking for some reference help here, guys. I have a long-term plan to build the Lynx HAS2 which lost its nose on the deck of HMS Broadsword on 25 May 1982 [see http://www.hmsbroadsword.co.uk/gallery/falklands82/damage/damage.htm]. (If you don't know the story, in the same series of raids that did for Coventry, a bomb bounced off the surface of the sea, went through the side of Broadsword and exited UPWARDS through the flight deck, taking off the nose of the cab (and narrowly missing a Mk44 at the same time, it seems from the pics), before exploding harmlessly over the side. When I served in her 7 years later, in certain light conditions you could still clearly see the patched hole - the flight deck had a distinct dent even after full repair.)

This subject has always interested me; I served in that war (though not in Broadsword), and was then Flight Cdr of Broadsword 7 years later, and even have that airframe in my log book; it was repaired and came back into service as a HAS3, then a 3S, and remarkably is still around as a HMA8.

I'll probably use the Airfix 1/48 kit as the basis, since there seems to be after market stuff to revert it to a Mk 2 - plus of course the nose isn't going to be an issue in this case, since it was pretty much shredded by the bomb.

Anyway, as the pictures at the link show, that airframe was fitted with the short-lived ASQ-81 towed MAD, and I am struggling to find details of the MAD fit on the Lynx. It wasn't a huge success, as I recall (it had already been removed from the Sea King when I started flying them in 1985, and was a distant memory by the time I got my hands on a Lynx in 1989. It looks a fairly Heath Robinson fit, just bolted onto the starboard sponson - and in the view of the stripped cab being load-lifted by the Sea King it looks as though it has just been unbolted, leaving the sponson as normal.

Anyone got any info, or better yet pictures of that MAD fit - particularly of the Lynx sponson? I have some pretty decent pics of one fitted to a Sea Sprite, and several of the bird being towed, but it's the details of the sponson that are so far eluding me. Any ideas? (I guess I could always talk to the FAA Museum).

I have a shot of I think it was MAD 1 at pompy & a Dutch Lynx At Greenham Common PM me will look out photos also of this aircraft at Fleetlands after rebuild with photo of aircraft after bomb have ripped its nose off next to it. Regards Len

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Looking at those BW pics again, there's something I have never noticed before. In the RH pic on the second row, it looks as though they have just started to strip the cab down; the MAD bird has gone, and it looks as though they've started to cut away some of the cable looms / snakes' wedding - yet the torpedo is still on the starboard weapons carrier, with the hoist still fitted but apparently lashed with nylon lashings to keep securely it in place. Initially I thought that pic was taken in the hangar after they moved it, but you can see the harpoon grid beneath the aircraft, and anyway the blades are still spread, so it must still be spotted (-ish; the force of the bomb shifted the nose a fair way sideways).

I don't get why they'd leave a warshot loaded for any longer than strictly necessary, and there doesn't appear to be any damage that would preclude taking the bloody thing off sharpish. I guess there must have been.

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I think this could have been trails for the MAD Bird, there are not too many pics of it available as Grizzly say the only other pics are it fitter to a Dutch cab. Thanks for the link to the Broadsword pics, very interesting and a lucky escape for all concerned. Don't quite know how you are going to model the 'snakes wedding'!

Colin

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I've already done some test runs on that - wire, plasticard, lead foil etc. Once painted, I think it will look pretty good; after all, it just has to look convincingly trashed! I have lots of material about (and can just about remember) how it looked pre-bomb, and it ought to be do-able, if challenging. The (untrashed) nose bay is actually pretty clean - not much more there then than the Sea Spray aerial.

I am much more worried about how I am going to model the distorted airframe and shattered windscreen; the windscreen on the Lynx is part of the structure (i.e. load-bearing), and you can see in the pics that the Looker's windscreen has detached and shifted through at least 20 degrees. In other shots that I have, the Pilot's side one can also be seen to be smashed, as it the lower RH door.

I won't be starting this for a few weeks; I am just coming back to modelling after a long gap, so am building an intact Lynx at the moment to get my hand back in.

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Good to hear you are going with a 'complete' Lynx to start off with. You'll like the new Airfix kit, it's a dream to build with minimal cleaning up, just watch the former/brace behind the cockpit it needs trimming on the top corners to allow the two fus halves to come together. Similarly the aft top corners of the cabin deed chamfering.

You get plenty of help here on BM, Lynx 7 is our 'go to man' (rugby terminology for the man going forward or to give the ball too!!!!) for tricky bits. If you're building a HAS 2, I take it you have my ROTORcraft conversion kit, if so you shouldn't have any problems with it.

Colin

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Think I have solved the problem of no Observer's instruments in the Revell HAS3 kit - though only by chance. The complete Lynx with which i am gradually feelign my way back into model-making after a long gap (and I'd forgotten how much fun it is!) is the Revell Mk88 - I am building the German pinger version, just because it's there.

Anyway, I have pretty much done the interior bar the sonar (which is quite complex in itself, so will have to wait until next week) - and lo and behold, sitting on the sprue is... another instrument panel, which has a Sea Spray screen. It isn't 100% RN Mk3, but it won't take that much work to alter it - not half as much as it was going to revising a two pilot panel, anyway.

Happy - but lucky!

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  • 2 weeks later...

With the new kits for the Lynx (hoorah!), there have been a number of reviews in the various mags - and I have noticed a very common error; almost all of them are modelled with the main wheels fore-and-aft, and for a Navy aircraft in any kind of flight mode they should be toed out. The brakes on a Navy Lynx are either on or off - there is no differential / progressive braking like, say, on a Sea King. The reason is simple; the aircraft was designed from the outset to operate from a ship's deck, and it is NEVER ground taxied.

Many of the walk round shots you see are (obviously) at air shows or in museums, where the aircraft was wheeled into its current position by a ground crew - for this operation they take the brakes off and toe the main wheels into the fore-and-aft position. But if it flew there, or is going flying, the wheels will be toed out. This is true even operating ashore; you can still do a running (single engine) landing with the wheels out (provided the brakes are off, of course - otherwise you burst the tyres) - though you do get a certain amount of smoke. Indeed, having the wheels toed out for a running landing effectively gives you a crude means of slowing the aircraft down once on the runway! It'd be no fun doing a running landing without brakes and then just waiting for the cab to grind to a halt - especially on a runway as short as the one at Portland (where they were all based throughout my Lynx time).

The nose wheel can be castored through 90 degrees by the pilot so that the aircraft can swivel into a better relative wind on deck without the ship needing to turn so far (or even at all). This, plus the ability to go into negative pitch (i.e. use the rotor disk to push the aircraft down onto the deck), and the "harpoon" deck lock, is key to the aircraft's superb suitability for a DD/FF deck.

The other thing about a Lynx that people often model wrong is the fact that the rotor blade barely droop at all because of the semi-rigid head. Too many of them show the blades dropping towards the tips like most other helos, but that looks wrong for a Lynx.

Wheels out, guys; it's the way ahead!

Edited by Ex-FAAWAFU
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At present, no. The Mk110 has the T800 engines (as with the AH9A and Wildcat) so you would require to fabricate the intakes, engine decking and exhaust areas. Apart from instrument panel amendments, the fuselage and most of the other bits are common to the Mk88A (Revell). Hopefully in the not to distant future, the T800 engine area will be released ;-)

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At present, no. The Mk110 has the T800 engines (as with the AH9A and Wildcat) so you would require to fabricate the intakes, engine decking and exhaust areas. Apart from instrument panel amendments, the fuselage and most of the other bits are common to the Mk88A (Revell). Hopefully in the not to distant future, the T800 engine area will be released ;-)

Thanks for that info. I guess I will wait & see if somebody comes out with the version I need.

Larry

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Just for information Brazilian Navy Lynxes are fitted with FLIR Starsafire III:

DSC05944.jpg

sea_skua-580x414.jpg

And the IP is slightly different from the British Mk.3, the radar display is bigger (Seaspray 3000 360) and an radar interface keyboard, flight instruments are fitted on LHS as well. Weapons panel can be fitted as required (torpedos or missiles).

painel.jpg

7545628574_32777f79dd_z.jpg

Edited by LT Motta
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Good spot!

Yes, it's a Type 22.

I guess the LHS pilot would land that time. (as all Brazilian Lynxes are "dual" - two cyclics and two collective levers) :winkgrin:

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Good spot!

Yes, it's a Type 22.

I guess the LHS pilot would land that time. (as all Brazilian Lynxes are "dual" - two cyclics and two collective levers) :winkgrin:

We sometimes flew with cabs in that configuration - it was known as the "Quasi" mode, because the poor old Observer ended up with a hunchback like Quasimodo when trying to handle the radar or use his map board (high tech - not!) without knocking the cyclic all the time.

My flight borrowed on HQ aircraft in that configuration once, when our own aircraft was in pieces at Portland and we had to embark just for one day (calibrating the ship's radars, or something like that). We didn't tell the FDO that it wasn't our normal cab, and I flew it from the left seat just for a bit of a change, but landed from port in the normal RN way. You should have seen the deck crew's faces as they thought the Observer was doing the deck landing - suddenly the FDO was standing there on his own as everyone else scattered to the front of the hangar!

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The Black Cats certainly flew with Mark 3s in their early days, but I don't recall the HAS3s ever having a special livery - they were whichever two standard 702 NAS aircraft were available on the day in question.

So for painting purposes, if you want the funky cat pictures, you're probably in HMA8 / ugly nose / Sea Owl etc territory.

UNless someone knows differently...?

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Here you go:

1465AAE9393D4107B43C5C4E45F32B23.jpg?w=5

XZ250 Was Refinished in Blackcats scheme 02/07/07 for the display season suffered a complete electrical failure the following year returned from Fleetlands & used as ground display with the Caravan said to have passed into the Wildcat donor programme.

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Complete electrical failure - hmm, that sounds fun. Not.

Still, look on the bright side; at least it wasn't total hydraulics...

Yep, same here! I know what I'd rather have given the err choice. No hyds = passenger very quickly......

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