Visual differences between Sea King AEW.2 and ASaC7

[DaveJL]

Hello all,

 

Could anyone tell me if there are any visual differences between the Sea King AEW.2 and ASaC7?

 

Is the Hasegawa kit suitable for any conversion?

 

Cheers and stay safe

 

Dave

[Muzz]

The ASaC7 doesn't have the dorsal radome behind the rotar head. You'd also need the square style intake filters. Not sure if the Hasegawa kit provide the filters, hopefully just a case of leaving off the dorsal radome. Not sure about any other lump, bumps or antenna.

[Truro Model Builder]

The winch was not fitted to the Mk.7 either.

[DaveJL]

11 hours ago, Muzz said:

The ASaC7 doesn't have the dorsal radome behind the rotar head. You'd also need the square style intake filters. Not sure if the Hasegawa kit provide the filters, hopefully just a case of leaving off the dorsal radome. Not sure about any other lump, bulbs or antenna.

Cheers Muzz! Looks like only a few boxings of the kit have the 'sand box' filter. Airwaves used to do a resin one from what I can tell and Flightpath do one in etch as part of their HC.4 conversion set.

 

Looks like I'll have to ask about for one!

 

1 minute ago, Truro Model Builder said:

The winch was not fitted to the Mk.7 either.

Thanks mate. I was just looking online and it looked like the winch was fitted?

 

 

 

Thanks all

 

Dave

[Truro Model Builder]

1 minute ago, DaveJL said:

 

Thanks mate. I was just looking online and it looked like the winch was fitted?

 

 

Ah, perhaps it was for deployment. Certainly they never carried them while tootling around over Cornwall.

[DaveJL]

Just now, Truro Model Builder said:

 

Ah, perhaps it was for deployment. Certainly they never carried them while tootling around over Cornwall.

Happy days, cheers!

[Des]

5 minutes ago, Truro Model Builder said:

Ah, perhaps it was for deployment. Certainly they never carried them while tootling around over Cornwall.

 

Possibly SOP when deployed for SAR of last resort and wasn't the winch also used for pulling up the hose when any variant of RN Sea King hot refuelled in the hover over the back of Frigates and the like although maybe not too common an occurrence in the sandy places as seen above.

 

Recall one of a Sea King crew mentioning this when an 819 NAS HAS.5 visited the local museum to see if their old Whirlwind was safe to be moved for restoration for a squadron anniversary (it wasn't !!).    It did not seem to be a procedure that was particularly popular , apparently could get a bit messy and like a Jaguar needing to go into afterburner in some situations to maintain position while involved in AAR the Sea King likewise could end up burning off more fuel than was being taken on board to maintain the hover.

[Evalman]

Just had a trawl through my ASaC7 photos and the winch was fitted more often than not when flying around Cornwall: 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited March 20, 2021 by Evalman

[DaveJL]

Great pictures, thanks for posting!

[torqueofthedevil]

On 3/20/2021 at 12:26 PM, Des said:

 

Possibly SOP when deployed for SAR of last resort and wasn't the winch also used for pulling up the hose when any variant of RN Sea King hot refuelled in the hover over the back of Frigates and the like although maybe not too common an occurrence in the sandy places as seen above.

 

I don't think that the winch was fitted during the Afghanistan years due to any serious intention of using it - the aircraft was too precious and probably wouldn't have the performance anyway in those conditions. I suspect the airframe(s) just happened to have a winch fitted when sent out to theatre.

 

The hot refuel technique you mention is called HIFR (Helicopter In-Flight Refuelling) and the winch does indeed have a key role in that. From my limited knowledge of it, the fuel flow vs burn rate was usually a concern, with pump pressure varying from ship to ship, and the best way round it was to keep hover height to a minimum. On many occasions, the same wind which makes the sea too rough for a landing also helped reduce the power required to hover - but then wind drops much quicker than sea state! 

[junglierating]

On 3/20/2021 at 12:01 PM, Truro Model Builder said:

The winch was not fitted to the Mk.7 

Apart from Afghan....cant say for other deployments.Useful for winching people out of minefields....for example....still a muggle pinger

Edited April 1, 2021 by junglierating

[junglierating]

On 3/20/2021 at 12:26 PM, Des said:

 

Possibly SOP when deployed for SAR of last resort and wasn't the winch also used for pulling up the hose when any variant of RN Sea King hot refuelled in the hover over the back of Frigates and the like although maybe not too common an occurrence in the sandy places as seen above.

 

Recall one of a Sea King crew mentioning this when an 819 NAS HAS.5 visited the local museum to see if their old Whirlwind was safe to be moved for restoration for a squadron anniversary (it wasn't !!).    It did not seem to be a procedure that was particularly popular , apparently could get a bit messy and like a Jaguar needing to go into afterburner in some situations to maintain position while involved in AAR the Sea King likewise could end up burning off more fuel than was being taken on board to maintain the hover.

HIFR ....Helicopter inflight refuelling....lots of fun just dont try to pull the helicopter down.....you will lose😆

[junglierating]

I must learn to read threads fully before responding duh 🙄 

[Ex-FAAWAFU]

On 3/30/2021 at 1:22 PM, torqueofthedevil said:

I don't think that the winch was fitted during the Afghanistan years due to any serious intention of using it - the aircraft was too precious and probably wouldn't have the performance anyway in those conditions. I suspect the airframe(s) just happened to have a winch fitted when sent out to theatre.

 

The hot refuel technique you mention is called HIFR (Helicopter In-Flight Refuelling) and the winch does indeed have a key role in that. From my limited knowledge of it, the fuel flow vs burn rate was usually a concern, with pump pressure varying from ship to ship, and the best way round it was to keep hover height to a minimum. On many occasions, the same wind which makes the sea too rough for a landing also helped reduce the power required to hover - but then wind drops much quicker than sea state! 

 
HIFR flow rates were generally fine if taking a suck from a Lynx ship (i.e. proper fuel pumps but deck too small for a Sea King), especially if you kept the hover height low so you got some ground effect.  Older ships or ships without a deck, less so; I once HIFR’d (luckily only to exercise the ship’s company) from a Belgian Weilingen class frigate and the fuel was still going down even when they were pumping at full power!

 

Having said all of that, most of my HIFR experience was in the North Atlantic; I imagine hot & high Gulf or similar might be very different, especially wih low winds.  @Chewbacca might have more knowledge on that?