Flying a council house from the upstairs loo

[mackem01]

Excuse my ignorance, but this seems a safe place to ask. What would the major differences be between the HAS1 and the HC2?

Wondering if I can do anything with the Italeri kit. Sorry to divert the thread.

[perdu]

Not a hugely difficult task if the kit has the smaller cabin windows

The HAS1is a Gazelle engined machine but the HC2 is powered by two RR Gnome engines so the nose will need an added nose filter, the twin Gazelle pipes on each side removing and replacing with the two large Gnome outlets

These are very visible all over this thread ☺

 

First HC2 model I ever built was made from the, still very accurate in outline, Frog kit nearly forty years ago

 

Have fun and fill yer boots

[huvut76g7gbbui7]

2 hours ago, mackem01 said:

Wondering if I can do anything with the Italeri kit.

Aren't we all! 

1/72 or 1/48 one?

Early HAS1s had the small square windows but these soon changed to the bigger ones like on the HU5

Early exhausts were different too.

The major fault with the 1/72 kit is that it is too short and is awkward to fix. Fortunately Rotor Craft do a plug.

Their tail rotor is also the wrong way. It should spin clockwise.

Don't know much about the 1/48 one but I'm sure there are a few worthies of this parish who do!

[huvut76g7gbbui7]

I almost forgot about 18 Sqn!

Early and late.

 

[Tramatoa]

Blimey XT772 was the Green Parrot or Admirals Barge? How on earth did it end up in the rafters at SARTU? There must be an interesting tale behind that somewhere.

[Tramatoa]

Regarding 9G-AEL I didn't want to post these until I'd asked if it was ok, but now I've had the nod I can share them. 

It is my understanding that this aircraft was shipped to the Caribbean and remained there for some time. Things didn't work out and it returned to the UK. The specifics aren't really important in the context of this post. I just felt that there was an awful lot of very interesting detail on these photos I hadn't seen before and the detail of the crane lift and the protective cover are particularly noteworthy.

It's a real shame that this aircraft didn't get to return to it's intended role but perhaps now the Navy boys are close to getting one of theirs airborne again we may yet see a yellow one in the skies again? Fingers crossed.

[Tramatoa]

More detail of XV728 at Newark. Note the angle of the step is incorrect. I'm assuming the forked bracket you can see on the first photo is for the Nite Sun? The third photo shows the mounting bracket for the Immersion Gear (Nitrogen Generator?). 

Interestingly if you look at the picture of the crane lift you can see one of the gear arms lying on the floor and the shape of the tapered part which is inserted into the socket on the airframe is clear. 

[perdu]

We were chatting about the camouflage trials aircraft, I knew I'd had some on my hard drive

 

Regrettably I cannot credit the source of the pics, if anyone can advise me who to credit I would be happy to

 

Anyway the colours I have

 

Sky Blue

 

The Wessex looks especially handsome in  this one, not so much the next one

 

Matt Black with her tail warning placard askew and the last one I have Low Vis Light Grey

 

[Dave Swindell]

9 hours ago, perdu said:

 

 

A bit of silvering on the Royal Air Force decals there Bill!

[huvut76g7gbbui7]

XR528/T was a dirty olive drab colour Bill.

XR523/M was the black one,repainted from the grey/blue colours as obvious by the masked over markings still showing that colour.

X**** / I was also used and it was in an overall green.

Photos copyright of the PPrune forum I believe.

[Tramatoa]

Last couple from my half hour lightning visit to Newark this morning.

This is the Tail Wheel Locked indicator - no poo-poo Sherlock!

It was operated by a lever in the Flight Deck either locked or free to castor and the aircraft would shimmy slightly to make sure it was engaged at the end of his taxi, with the Winchie hanging out of the door to check the pin had gone in.

One day we were asked to go and have a look at an aircraft which the crew weren't happy with to find the lower part of the frame to which the front of the tailwheel fitting attaches to had failed, leaving this attached by one bolt and the strut. The whole thing was bent sideways at a very peculiar angle. The problem was the tail jack fitting is on the lower part of that frame and was pretty unstable. After a quick discussion we put a tail jack under it to support it and had the pilot just shut down and windmill to a stop without applying the rotor brake and it held. 

The aircraft was towed down to the hangar using the shackles on the MLG and with the tail held up by a crane with a crash strop. Steering was by jibbing left or right and the whole thing slowly processed down to the Shed. I know there were some photos of this but I haven't got one, which is a shame as it was quite comical.

[Tramatoa]

Interesting autocorrection, I am tempted to experiment with some other expletives but...........

Last one is of the Tail Pylon locking mechanism. 

Ratchet mechanism was used to withdraw the locking pin, pull the forward pin on the stowage forward against a spring to release. The upwards pointing pin was rotated 180 degrees to reverse the ratchet. As the pins withdrew the red unlocked indicator would deploy outwards. 

The Nitrogen charging point was for the NLG strut and had a short length of retaining chain, a bit like a sink plug. Also note that as I remember on a Yellow Wessex all the Camlock panel fasteners down the back had locked orientation marks hand painted in black.

Edited November 16, 2018 by Tramatoa
Incorrect part description

[Sabrejet]

On 16/11/2018 at 22:45, Tramatoa said:

Interesting autocorrection, I am tempted to experiment with some other expletives but...........

 

Last one is of the Tail Rotor locking mechanism. 

Ratchet mechanism was used to withdraw the locking pin, pull the forward pin on the stowage forward against a spring to release. The upwards pointing pin was rotated 180 degrees to reverse the ratchet. As the pins withdrew the red unlocked indicator would deploy outwards. 

The Nitrogen charging point was for the NLG strut and had a short length of retaining chain, a bit like a sink plug. Also note that as I remember on a Yellow Wessex all the Camlock panel fasteners down the back had locked orientation marks hand painted in black.

And those tail hinges were usually left unpainted for Ardrox NDT visual every (25 hours?)

 

EDIT: Puzzling: every photo shows them painted! I'm sure we left them stripped - or was that a temporary thing?

[Tramatoa]

Can’t remember them  being stripped but maybe they were modded up at some point and the requirement went away?

 

[Pete in Lincs]

7 hours ago, Tramatoa said:

Last one is of the Tail Rotor

Er, Pylon, old chap.

Various bits of aircraft have been stripped for NDT inspection in my times on Military Aircraft.

Most were recovered after inspection with grease/PX-7 or similar.

A couple did get repainted though.

Brilliant thread. It's amazing how the details come trickling back to me after seeing the pictures.

Mind, I left Wessexville in about 1981. The last thing I remember doing on one was replacing 

Main Rotor blade tape on an OCU cab whilst balanced on top of a Land Rover after he flew through heavy rain.

 

Health and safety edit. We had SWB 'para' Land Rovers with a ladder on the side up to a servicing platform (Non slip paint on it too!) 

Although, I was on my own (weekend?). No safety railings. Using MEK to activate the tape glue. Rush job so possibly no paperwork.

Those were the days!

[Sabrejet]

On 11/11/2018 at 10:10, Scimitar said:

I think XV720 must be the most photographed of the SAR cabs!

Here she is when 22 had just re-equipped from the Whirlwind. Quite different.

 

 

 

Aha! Top aft hinge on the port side unpainted for NDT: it's barely visible on a few of my Manston shots too. Nice to know that the memory isn't completely shot - amazing too the way things come drifting back!

[junglierating]

On 11/13/2018 at 5:11 PM, Sabrejet said:

Show offs

How very dare you🤣🤣🤣🤣

[Pete in Lincs]

Me too. I have a vague memory that the hinge on a 72 Sqn cab cracked when unfolding the pylon.

Or maybe I saw it mentioned on one of the builds on here. One of @hendie's builds?

[Tramatoa]

I stand corrected; glad that someone out there is actually reading my ramblings. 

 

I should say I have had a look at Hendie's Crab Cab thread and really enjoyed it so far, an inspirational build. 

 

 

[hendie]

23 minutes ago, Tramatoa said:

I should say I have had a look at Hendie's Crab Cab thread and really enjoyed it so far, an inspirational build. 

 

The current one or the old one?

 

 

2 hours ago, Pete in Lincs said:

Or maybe I saw it mentioned on one of the builds on here. One of @hendie's builds?

 

I did hear of a 25 hour and a 75 hour being carried out at the same time by two different riggers. On the 25 hour you opened the tail pylon for some reason, and on the 75 hour, you removed the hinge pins on t'other side (for some other reason now lost to the mists of time).  No prizes for guessing what happened.

That may well have been urban myth shared over a game of uckers but worth a laugh anyway.

 

3 hours ago, Pete in Lincs said:

We had SWB 'para' Land Rovers with a ladder on the side up to a servicing platform

 

That's a bit posh innit?  We had to drag those bloomin' safety raisers out of the hangar and all the way across the pans and jack the damn thing up to change the sacrificial tape.  It got a bit old during monsoon season

[perdu]

But, but, but...

 

Gave you a damnded good reason to make one for us though didn't it

 

Won't catch me complaining 

[Tramatoa]

Well having completed my guided photo tour of the right hand side of Newark’s ex-72 Sqn SH cab yesterday it’s time for episode 2..........

After being frustrated in my initial efforts to wangle a visit to XT604 at EMA while picking up Thing 1 from Uni I felt there might be a remote possibility of catching it on the return journey. However, the restricted opening hours made this impossible so it was back to the drawing board. A quick search on t’internet revealed a couple of ex-Navy Wessii at Doncaster, and I thought it might be pleasant to revisit Finningley with the Sprog (who has a passing interest in aviation which, conceivably, I may have encouraged 😉). Imagine my surprise when the Sat Nav took us well off the beaten track to South Yorkshire Aircraft Museum which was pretty much empty other than the staff, who were enthusiastic and well up to speed on their exhibits. I hadn’t really done my homework at all and was very pleased to find a really good collection of aircraft in a relaxed atmosphere comparable to the old hangar at Brooklands. There is an incredible variety of interesting exhibits piled up in such a way you keep bumping into stuff at every twist and turn. I can thoroughly recommend it to you if you are passing and have a couple of hours spare. 

In the main hangar there are a number of interesting helicopters and the one we are here to see is, as expected, trapped in a corner surrounded by ‘stuff’, in this case a bunch of Falklands exhibits. Again the right hand side of the aircraft is accessible, while the cockpit and the left hand side remain tantalisingly out of reach. This is XS481, a ‘jungly’ HU5 which is essentially an HC2 with an autopilot and a weapons carrier on the right hand side. 

 

  

Tucked in a corner, the fate of many a Wessex it seems......

 

There are also several bits of Walter randomly dotted around, including a Gnome and a MRGB in their respective stands. Happy days.

[Selwyn]

On 18/11/2018 at 00:07, Tramatoa said:

Well having completed my guided photo tour of the right hand side of Newark’s ex-72 Sqn SH cab yesterday it’s time for episode 2..........

After being frustrated in my initial efforts to wangle a visit to XT604 at EMA while picking up Thing 1 from Uni I felt there might be a remote possibility of catching it on the return journey. However, the restricted opening hours made this impossible so it was back to the drawing board. A quick search on t’internet revealed a couple of ex-Navy Wessii at Doncaster, and I thought it might be pleasant to revisit Finningley with the Sprog (who has a passing interest in aviation which, conceivably, I may have encouraged 😉). Imagine my surprise when the Sat Nav took us well off the beaten track to South Yorkshire Aircraft Museum which was pretty much empty other than the staff, who were enthusiastic and well up to speed on their exhibits. I hadn’t really done my homework at all and was very pleased to find a really good collection of aircraft in a relaxed atmosphere comparable to the old hangar at Brooklands. There is an incredible variety of interesting exhibits piled up in such a way you keep bumping into stuff at every twist and turn. I can thoroughly recommend it to you if you are passing and have a couple of hours spare. 

In the main hangar there are a number of interesting helicopters and the one we are here to see is, as expected, trapped in a corner surrounded by ‘stuff’, in this case a bunch of Falklands exhibits. Again the right hand side of the aircraft is accessible, while the cockpit and the left hand side remain tantalisingly out of reach. This is XS481, a ‘jungly’ HU5 which is essentially an HC2 with an autopilot and a weapons carrier on the right hand side. 

 

  

Tucked in a corner, the fate of many a Wessex it seems......

 

There are also several bits of Walter randomly dotted around, including a Gnome and a MRGB in their respective stands. Happy days.

Err.......That's a Whirlwind, Not a Wessex!

 

Selwyn 

(Polishing his glasses)

[Tramatoa]

Oh dear, top right hand corner of the picture. Walter never gets centre stage nowadays. 🙄

[Tramatoa]

 

Contiuing our look at the landing gear, here are close-ups of the right hand Flotation Gear Nitrogen Generator and the salt water activated switch. In my recollection the switch was mounted in a slightly different location to this, not sure of the official view on this.

On one famous occasion our Leckie set this off in the hangar causing a massive bang followed by two large orange Space Hoppers appearing as if by magic in a cloud of French Chalk. 

If I recall correctly there was an arming switch, a double gang sort(?) behind the pilot’s head with red and white stripes(?) if anyone has a pic of this I’d appreciate your posting.

Pip pip

Tramatoa