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Flying a council house from the upstairs loo


Tramatoa

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Great info Andy though this was XR525 at Cosford so probably never going to see so much deft intricate attention again, more's the pity

 

Another I took whilst the front was opened upwes6.jpg

 

wes6.jpg

The electrical gubbinses that Hendie put into his 1/48 scale Walter didn't look very far away from the real gubbinses in 525

 

Got to love a Wessex

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Don't know if its me but apart from a thin line at the top, your photo is just grey Bill.

 

Obviously a few of us on here agree with your sentiments as do others in here 

 

https://www.pprune.org/rotorheads/123915-what-about-wessex-makes-people-so-fond.html

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I have tried re-adding that image but for some reason the image just comes out like that

 

wes6.jpg

 

How is it now, here?

 

Well I can see that myself, utter rubbish

But if I tap the image to open it in a different screen I get the full picture

 

Weird stuff happens...

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Here's a close up of the nite sun fitted to a 28 Sqn cab.

Note also the grey floor and white wet fit as previously mentioned by @hendie 

This photo was sent to me along with others by the late MALM 'Mick' Bush, a real character in the SAR world (and I'm sure also on the VC-10 before|)

 

b0f2f0c8-563a-4a7a-b41d-406c0be870a7.jpg

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This is great photo, lovely view of the heat guard ring'let' on the jet pipe and the wet lining walls are a revelation to me

 

All I'd seen before was the green liner, which was like the one inside the Whirlwind HAR10 I was invited to climb around at Leconfield back in the depths of time

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1 hour ago, Scimitar said:

a real character in the SAR world (and I'm sure also on the VC-10 before|)

Unusual he went that way, it was normal for helicopter crewmen to end up on plank trash especially the Vicky10 and Timmy fleet after years on helicopters, particularly for the SH boys.

 

Most of them had knackered knees.

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34 minutes ago, Wez said:

Unusual he went that way,

Aye.

He started on the VC-10 then went on to the Hercules,Andover,Whirlwind and Wessex.

I'll include this photo of him as a detail shot of what a well dressed Wessex winchman was wearing in the later seventies. 

39c9f26c-3dc5-4c0d-9fc4-bfe861da6942.jpg

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On SH our crewmen went away from that sort of harness in the 80's and went over to a deep waist belt

Edited by Wez
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31 minutes ago, Wez said:

went over to a deep waist belt

Was that the monkey harness from the beam in the roof ?

The one in the pic is the one he changed into before going out on the wire so I don't suppose the SH guys would normally use it.

Here's a more modern version on a Sea King/S-61N etc winchman. Note the earthing tail to discharge the static.

Can't remember ever using it on the Wessex.

6935405864_f7341026c9_b.jpg

 

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22 minutes ago, Scimitar said:

Was that the monkey harness

No, the Monkey Harness was IIRC, a five point harness and was the one we got rid of

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4 minutes ago, Wez said:

a five point harness and was the one we got rid of

I don't know that one then as I only ever used the deep waist belt inside and the one shown when on the wire.

It's amazing what memories come out and equally so what has been forgotten.

On that note Wez,do you know if the SH cabs fitted with the winch had the wet fit interior ? I can't remember it on any of the ones that visited but that may be my brain!

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3 hours ago, Scimitar said:

I think the white was a Far East fit.

@hendie will be along soon as that's one of his cabs.

 

My addled old brain is still telling me that the wet fits I was involved with were dark grey or black - but there's no proof at all that I am correct in thinking that. 

 

I can say that the 28 Sqn cab photo above is from a later time than me downing San Miguel on a regular basis as I can state definitely that in 82 - 84, our cabs did not have the flotation gear fitted and therefore, no need for the colgate ring of confidence around the exhaust

 

great photo though and it shows that I need to add an explosive device transfer to the winch - which I didn't include on my previous build

 

 

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Apologies for my absence, had a very tricky few days but in a better place now. Nice to see the thread still ticking over.

While mulling over the reason for the white outlines on the refuelling points I came across this little mod, which I seem to recall was the power plug for the pump used to refuel from drums. I never saw this done but I’m pretty sure there were a couple of fuel dumps  in the mountains. Does anyone know if this is correct?5d6a940f-d016-468f-bbca-6a2a4cd1873a.png

 

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8 hours ago, perdu said:

The white squaretangles on the above beauty, are they outlined fuel filling points?

Seems odd, the IFF outlined too?

 

All these pictures show how varied the dear old bird was.

 

Yes, though I don't ever remember using the rear one at all.  Ever.   

yes

 

agreed

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7 hours ago, Tramatoa said:

Does anyone know if this is correct

Yes.

Great wind up at Connel (before it became a proper airfield with bowsers etc) and Fort William (Corpach) was to have the new guy (that would be me then!) use a hand pump for the first drum and when they were totally knackered the regulars would plug in the electric pump.

Only once had to bin a barrel because of water contamination so the wee shelters obviously worked well.

I think the dumps were stopped when the Sea King came along as it had a better range so they became redundant.

Regarding the white outlined IFF aerial.

Probably an added aid to avoid scalping but I do wonder if anybody ever tried to open it for the fuel.

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resized_645f5ca8-a429-494f-a1ed-459b8e81

This brouht back some memories. I’m pretty sure that when we defuelled we took the fuel off by putting a cut down drum under the jettison hoses, selected the switches then sucked the fuel out with the standard nozzle. We spent a happy weekend in the tanks after one of the cabs ran out of fuel shortly after clearing the airfield boundary and a FOD blockage was the excuse of choice rather than poor fuel management. I don’t ever remember using the defuel coupling but this was most likely down to the bowsers we had.  

The jettison hoses received a gentle boot during the AF/BF servicing to make sure the hinge still articulated and nothing had fallen off but other than that were totally ignored. 

I have absolutely no idea whatsoever what the redundant bracket on the left hand side was for, but how typical that it should just be left there rather than removed and the holes plugged. Drag wasn’t a major consideration where Walter was concerned 🙄

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resized_bd2e08d3-c17c-4c03-afdf-39e64a99

Last post before Christmas and for those of you who have never seen one before this is the legendary ‘Jesus Nut’ which I came across in the garage earlier. I have actually got two, one is a clock which I was presented with when I left SARTU, and this one which I turned into an ashtray for my long departed mate Geordie who I used to stay with on a Wednesday night to break up my week when I first went contracting. A beautiful looking piece of machining on someone’s part, and only ever used once.

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