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Gazelle HT.2 XX410


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Gazelle HT.2 XX410

Westland Helicopters Ltd, Yeovil, October 1975

 

 

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The Gazelle is a tiny thing in 1/72, but the impact it had on my life was anything but tiny. I joined Westland in July 1975 as a Flight Test Engineer. At the time Gazelles were flowing off the production line - mostly Army AH.1s, but amongst them a few Royal Navy HT.2s (the RAF HT.3s had already been delivered by then). I learned about flight testing on these little sportscars of the helicopter world. XX410 was the first HT.2 that was my responsibility to manage through its production flight test schedule.

 

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 We flew in the co-pilot’s seat on the left (the pilot has the right hand seat in a helicopter). FTEs were encouraged to take the controls from time to time, which is where the HT.2 scored over the AH.1 as it was fitted with SAS (Stability Augmentation System) which made controlling the little blighters just about possible – as opposed to almost impossible on the AH.1. I just remember the whole thing as great fun and I could hardly believe I was being paid to do this. Anyway, here’s a scan from my flying logbook which shows some of the other things we also got to fly in:

 

Logbook scan - XX410

 

 

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The model was built many years ago. Long before airbrushes – deep in the Modeldecal era. My guess is 1978. It’s been in the attic for a long time (in fact in 3 different attics over the years) and it was great to see it again for a photoshoot.

 

 

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So now you’ve moved on in life, try the 1/50 scale kit. You can add so much more to it and would compliment this one nicely.

 

Steve.

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8 minutes ago, speedy said:

So now you’ve moved on in life, try the 1/50 scale kit. You can add so much more to it and would compliment this one nicely.

 

Steve.

Yes, there's a 1/50th kit in the attic along with lots of photos of AH.1 XZ339 - black & green scheme with lots of Army mods when I get round to it

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Hello CT,

 

I recognise a few names in that logbook, one of them (JT) was kind enough to let me fly a Gazelle around two circuits at Yeovil in the early 90s, what a delightful experience that was. I must have done reasonably well because he let me hover for a few minutes and then land. It was either the blue or brown comms Gazelle, I can't remember which. Unlike your job mine was desk bound and didn't involve flying but the occasional jolly was had.

 

I too made an Airfix Gazelle in the late 70s before I worked at Westland, I took a rather poor photo of it then which I will try and post if I can work out how. It might even have been decorated with Modeldecals. I had an airbrush at the time but didn't use it until later when I had saved up for a compressor. It was obviously a while before I learned how to mask a neat line, no Tamiya tape then, probably sellotape!

 

A Gannet in your logbook, bloody hell, I never knew that!

 

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Pete.

Edited by Pete_A
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Love your Gazelle, great work of a beautiful looking helicopter!

 

I think I recognise one of those names in there, NW, goes to the same flying club as me - we spoke quite a bit about his flight test days at Westlands. How I'd love to get into flight testing, I work at Westlands under their new name :)

 

Ben

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