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Flying a council house from the upstairs loo


Tramatoa

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These two fine Wessii were at Woodford Airshow in the 90s. 2 FTS from Shawbury put on one of the best and most interesting displays I can remember from over 20 years of Woodford airshows.

 

IMG03521542119729.jpg

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4 hours ago, Tramatoa said:

the colours in this photo seem all wrong to me.

That's the colours I remember. Darker green on the floor and a Sky type green up the walls.

Typically having gone through many many boxes of slides I can't find the Wessex detail box.

Add that to the woes of my slide scanner software not working with Windows 10 and I may have to move this post to 'Grump'.

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I think the wetfit must have changed at some time then - that's definitely not early '80s wetfit in the photo.

 

More Manston, circa 1984:

 

1

 

2

 

3

 

5

 

6

 

7

 

9

 

10

 

11

 

And then these show-offs arrived one day: vulgar display!

 

8

 

Finally a bit random but we had P-51D G-HAEC grounded for a water leak/bank change, so in the hangar it went, as did Hurricane PZ865 another time. Promise I NEVER sat in either of them. Honest.

 

XR501 and G-HAEC (4)

 

Edited by Sabrejet
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20 hours ago, Selwyn said:

This picture must have been a year or two  before 88,  as the AEW Nimrods had been cancelled in 1986 and were all in store at Abingdon by 1987.

 

Selwyn

Hi Selwyn, I don't have a detailed record of when I took the picture , but from the slide number sequence I am pretty confident that it was early 88.  I was on SAR Wg mid 86 to mid 88.  As Phone Phixer says, XV263 was stored at Finningley at that time.

Regards

Tim

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6 hours ago, Sabrejet said:

I recall wetfit being battleship grey: sadly I don't have the material but I do have a few pairs of scissors that used to come with the repair kits!

 

That's my recollection also - either a very dark grey or a pale black.  I remember that quite vividly as it was easy to spot the crabs dashing about inside against the dark background. 

No, not that type of crab - the small ones with many legs ( a body bag had burst after the poor soul had been in the oggin for a few days and a bunch of sea-life who had taken up residence decided to make a dash for freedom)

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21 hours ago, Tramatoa said:

Does anyone know what the red pipes/cables are at the lower rear corner of the cabin door cut-out on the late 72 Sqn cab? I have always been fascinated by the extra lumps and bumps on the green versions. I had it in my mind that there was some kind of IR jammer that could be mounted there.

Was that the night sun fitting?

It was a long time ago when I last saw one.

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4 hours ago, TimB said:

Hi Selwyn, I don't have a detailed record of when I took the picture , but from the slide number sequence I am pretty confident that it was early 88.  I was on SAR Wg mid 86 to mid 88.  As Phone Phixer says, XV263 was stored at Finningley at that time.

Regards

Tim

I mentioned it  because I'm sure that all the AEW's were at Abingdon in store in 1987. I suppose it's possible one got moved subsequently to Finningley as a trainer as you say, it might have even been the last flight of  an AEW?

 

Selwyn

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If you search for Westland HU5 8805M / WA554 formerly XT772 on Air Britain you will find the Winching Trainer from the C Flight 22 Squadron / SARTU hangar at Valley. This lived in the rafters on the landward side of the hangar and to be honest I'd forgotten all about it. As you can see from the photo it was a bit neglected and had been given a liberal coat of yellow all over.  I recall being dispatched up there a couple of times for spares but you would usually find someone else had got there first! No idea what happened to it but I suspect it got the chop as the hangar and the area around it are being heavily redeveloped as the new home of the T6C from 20119 (I took my lad up there for a camping trip this summer and couldn't resist a stroll down Hunter's Beach).

Pete in Lincs, the Nite Sun was fitted forward of the door if I recall correctly. I seem to think I saw a 72 squadron Wessex with one of those Disco Light jammer thingies mounted on a bracket down the back once, but it's a very vague memory and I may have got my wires crossed. I'm sure one of the SH chaps will be able to enlighten us.

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On 11/12/2018 at 10:01 PM, Tramatoa said:

Does anyone know what the red pipes/cables are at the lower rear corner of the cabin door cut-out on the late 72 Sqn cab?

Possibly the fitting for the M130 flare dispenser which was rarely used ?

The disco fitting was on the other side and the nite sun was over the STB undercarriage.

 

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12 minutes ago, Tramatoa said:

there is a photo of a model with the jammer at this location.

I think he's wrong in placing it there.

I am open to correction as always but I thought the jammer was always on the port side?

I cannot find any photos of the flare dispenser fitted but will keep looking.

Nite sun fitted to a 72 cab. Is that a cable running from the fitting you query?

xr506-72-sqn-hls-co-armagh-uk-northern-i1464920-large.jpg

 

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On 13/11/2018 at 06:37, 71chally said:

Some of the last RAF Wessex det, St Mawgan March 2002,

Wessex HC.2 XV721 H by James Thomas, on Flickr

 

Westland Wessex HC.2 XR525 G 72 Sqn by James Thomas, on Flickr

 

Westland Wessex HC.2 XR525 G 72 Sqn by James Thomas, on Flickr

 

Have a load more but fresh house move has buried them

No, that’s not what I was looking at, look at the rear mount point for the cabin step, there are a bunch of red cables or hoses.

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32 minutes ago, Tramatoa said:

look at the rear mount point for the cabin step, there are a bunch of red cables or hoses.

The cylinder shaped thing is not the step mount (that's in front of it)

It is a pylon mounting point and the cables are obviously for its power supply.

Looking at the previously mentioned nite sun fitting,some photos show a cable from the unit back to this point.

The fitting is identical on the other side (to which the disco jammer is fitted on photos)

I don't know when it was fitted as there are many photos of HC2s without it.

I wonder if it is one long pole right through the airframe?

The M130 flare dispenser may have been fitted on the stb side for operations with SHFNI but I have only seen one brief reference to it (PPrune forum) and have never seen a photo.

Decent pics of the GPMG fit are not easy to find either!

 

This thread has been a great help to me  as it has been a very good diversion from current health issues so I hope you don't mind me 'hogging' your thread.

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This may be of some use:

WESSEX HC2  

Serial Numbers (Con. Nos) 

XR497-XR511 (WA122-136)
XR515-XR529 (WA138-151)
XR588 (WA121)
XS674-XS679 (WA193-198)
XT601-XT607 (WA528-534)
XT668-XT681 (WA536-549)
XV719-XV731 (WA614-626)

Operators.

18,22,28,60,72,78,84 and 103 Squadrons.
HOCF,RAE,SARTU,SRCU,WIFTU,WOCF(C flt/72) 240 OVC,2 FTS, CFS.                                                                                                                                                         SOAF.  ( 4 x 72 Sqn cabs { XR511,XR525,XS678 and XT675} with Omani roundels)
Uruguay Air Force
Uruguay Navy

Limited civilian use in Ghana,New Zealand and the UK.

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And the area slightly aft of the exhaust including on the right mid part of the access panel for the Coupling Gearbox Oil Tank sightglass with butterfly type Camlock fasteners (only one visible) and the three couplings for one of the Hydraulic System Ground Cart. These would normally be wire locked in pairs upper to mid, mid to lower. I can't remember if they were referred to as Right and Left Systems or No 1 and No 2. Assume the first. I can remember you needed both running to rig the MRH and the noise was considerable. Also the rigs would occasionally need a running refuel!! As you can see  the non-slip paint applied to the step areas would faded down to shades of grey over time.

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resized_ad015804-3bfd-4691-9ab2-3265b516

And below this the forward refuel point with spill trap and drain hose and earth point 

The Landing Gear lower leg has a tapered end and was inserted on a bayonet fitting and rotated down to lock it in. Grease nipple at the top . You can also see the hydraulic pipe for the brakes with a peeling ident label, which was common. The black tape is referred to as 'bodge tape' or 'tank tape' and is a common consumable used to stop the clamps chafing. 

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resized_2fc7b58f-457b-4d6b-b694-bcb08cc8

Last post for the morning is the area aft of the Nose Door showing the 28V DC Ground Power socket cover which butterfly Camlock and aft of it the Earth Stud with Butterfly nut. This was the usual place the aircraft was earthed. The four small drains have rubber grommets installed and the nav light cover has a small screw aft of the lens for bulb replacement (not that I would have been allowed to touch this as it would be the preserve of the Lamp Tramp who could do his bit of the AF/BF from the Ops Room with binoculars). 

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Great info floating around in the air on this thread

 

I wondered if the weapons mounting pylon was a pass-through from the other side too but whilst researching my HAS3 build it became apparent that the pole type fitting was removed on those to allow the bolted on curved upwards fitting for the torpedo gear

 

A mystery, next time I get down to Weston I will have some searching questions to ask

 

Great thread guys, love it!

 

 

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For completeness,here's a couple of the civvies. 

The NZ operation was stopped after their CAA revoked the certificates.

I don't think the three Ghana registered ones ever left the UK.

It also appears that the UK CAA has cancelled G-BYRC too.

F1020010.JPG

 

13196562324_e2c34a59b7_b.jpg

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