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What is it about the Wessex that makes people so fond of it?

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What is it about the Wessex that makes people so fond of it?

Old 2nd May 2008, 23:30
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Never saw that bit of the map, must be well south of Bessbrook. I'll ask someone who went there one night if he recognises it ......
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Old 3rd May 2008, 15:40
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Whatever happened to the Wessex Nose Design Department at Westland?

From their prodigious output over the years, I can only imagine hundreds of design engineers, supported by hundreds of prototyping technicians developing the products that were produced by further hundreds of classically trained artisans.

Each novel development further guaranteed never ending production due to the astonishing self-destructive powers of magnesium!

They were a great machine though.
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Old 3rd May 2008, 17:54
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I have only just discovered this site! Why did we love the Wessex 5? I flew it for 21 years or so off and on and it never ceased to amaze me how much abuse it could take. EOLs even possible without using any collective, engine failures that you did not notice unless you were looking at the time.(Ask many students!) Bouncing off trees and the ground at speed and best of all if you ran out of official power in a tight corner, just keep pulling and tell the engineers when you got back! Not many people know that a WX 5 also became probably the first helicopter to down a jet fighter. In 1982, post Falklands there I was thumb in bum on a Friday lunchtime, yes, I know that is a stupid time to fly when the Guinesss is calling, at 2000 feet in cloud when we hit a Sea Harrier. He had to return to Yeovilton damaged, and we landed at the Fox and Hounds in Charlton Adam to have a celebratory pint or two. Tough old bird? Oh yes!
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Old 5th May 2008, 10:48
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bast0n. Is my memory correct in that your tail wheel hit his tail and neither of you knew what had happened until later when you got back to VL.
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Old 5th May 2008, 12:26
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Wessex 5

Very true! There was a HUGE bang, violent yaw to the left, amazing nose dive and subsequent regain of control. Refused quicky GCA back to VL as suspected major mechanical failure, broke cloud at 200ft and landed at the Fox and Hounds, borrowed a fiver from the barmaid and drank it! The Harrier pilot, an american on exchange, knew what had happened as his windscreen filled with Wessex! We broke that frame that holds the pylon on by the fold hinge and took the top off the Harrier fin. It sounded better the first time though!! Tough old bird or what?
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Old 5th May 2008, 17:04
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bastOn

Delighted to see you are still full of bulls**t. Your pre QHI course Whirlwind 9 acquaint taught me so much of how not to do it I remain eternally grateful. I have to agree the Wessex was a tough old bird but the only variant worth considering was the Wessex 3. Never been an autopilot to match it before or since.
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Old 5th May 2008, 17:43
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Wessex 5

Autopilot?
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Old 6th May 2008, 08:56
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Originally Posted by snarlie
I have to agree the Wessex was a tough old bird but the only variant worth considering was the Wessex 3. Never been an autopilot to match it before or since.
Unless there was corrosion on the wiper coil, with a lovely voltage spike to wake you up on a dark & stormy night

Fun days: LS Edge, he of climbing up the outside and knocking on the pilot's window while in a 30' autohover at night
Tying the non flying pilot's shoelaces together, behind the cyclic. "You have control"
Fuel state chicken: 12 minutes "Roger, remain in the port wait"

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Old 6th May 2008, 13:10
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I think you may be confusing the Mk 3 with the Mk1 - the autohover height was 40`and when did you ever have a voltage spike that wasn`t beefer induced?

Last time I saw Leading Edge was as HLO on a North Sea helideck although that was a few years ago.
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Old 6th May 2008, 14:04
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Did any of you Wessex drivers work with 772 at Portland? Anybody remember the tame Bootneck grabbing left seat time whenever he could, vintage 1974?

A belated thank you to those who helped him on his way.
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Old 6th May 2008, 15:02
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good dit BastOn, all we now need is a very very well decorated MAOT RNR in the thread to fill in the missing bits: "dinky-di.........marvellous piece of flesh happy days......"
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Old 6th May 2008, 15:16
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Wessex 5

Do you think I should drop Brad in it? Cato was less dangerous. Pip Pip old chum!



PS anyone know how to put photos in these posts? I seem to be missing the attachments button that is alledgedly at the bottom of the page.
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Old 6th May 2008, 15:42
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Originally Posted by bast0n
PS anyone know how to put photos in these posts? I seem to be missing the attachments button that is alledgedly at the bottom of the page.
bast0n,

Follow this link for easy instructions on how to post images. The icon that you're looking for is this one:


HTH
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Old 6th May 2008, 16:32
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BastOn: certainly not; he's one of the most capable blokes any of us every served with. They broke the mold when he was born.........thank god !!!
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Old 6th May 2008, 16:51
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Wessex 5

PP - I agree - but it's fun to tease him now and again! Did you mean "Mold"? Quite appropriate somehow.
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Old 6th May 2008, 22:06
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Originally Posted by Snarlie
I think you may be confusing the Mk 3 with the Mk1 - the autohover height was 40`and when did you ever have a voltage spike that wasn`t beefer induced?
Probably oldtimer's: but thought the WxIII was 150ft transit/30ft hover, and the SK upped those figures to 200'/40'. As the first victim for night winching on 700S, even 40' was too bl**dy low

706's WxIII's nearly always had voltage spikes when moving to the ASW phase of AFT. Surface corrosion would often set in in the 6 weeks that the system wasn't used was the excuse.
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Old 7th May 2008, 04:18
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Wx 31B (RAN) was 125ft/30ft. I was under the impression that the W3 FCS was a duplex system and so reliable that, when fitted to the SK50, was made simplex. Certainly in my time on RAN SK's I cannot recall an FCS failure - went like it was on rails from 200ft to 70ft and back - all this in the South China Sea.
GAGS
E86
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Old 7th May 2008, 07:36
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My Wx III groundschool notes are still in the attic if not already recycled by the mice into a nest !!!!, is it worth a trip to qualify the debate chums ???
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Old 7th May 2008, 20:25
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Wessex 5

Look all you Pingers. As I understand it, no AS helicopter, in spite of all the millions of dollars/pounds spent on them has ever successfully used their sonars/autopilots/LS Edge to find and sink a submarine. All the while, all over the world since the parting of the Suez Canal, the Junglies have been doing an effective job in all sorts of areas, combining the operational effectiveness of old and underfunded aircraft with a joie de vivre unmatched by Pingers or Stovies.Will all you silent Junglies please stand up and tell us your stories? (Runaway ups and downs - stalling inlet guide vanes - being sick whilst drunk on the top of Snowden etc).I am bored to death with the minutiae of autopilots. Most of us managed perfectly well with an ASE. For goodness sake, you know you are too low when you hit what is beneath you. AS helicopters are as effective as throwing rolled up newspaper out of train windows to keep elephants off the line. I do it all the time, and it works. Have you ever seen an elephant on the line? No. No replies from the Indian subincontinent please. Oh god - I wish I had chosen my moniker more carefully! Some of you may have guessed who I am - be gentle.
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Old 8th May 2008, 16:09
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My Wx III groundschool notes are still in the attic if not already recycled by the mice into a nest
Reminds me of a tale - not apochryphal - from an ex-45 commando, ex BHL then ex- Brunei Shell for 11 years, pilot. On discovering that at 56 he was actually going to have to continue working - something to do with the Shell paying for the kids to go through Gordonstoun, and the not working anymore not, bit, he dutifully accepted his obligation to return to the BHL fold and return to Nigeria. On searching through several cases of junk in his garage in Aberdeen (well somewhere close) he found several boxes of shredded papebacks and other documents, that had served the mice well in his 11 year absence.

In amidst the paper pulp was a mint condition, untouched, Nigerian licence, circa 1979, all set for renewal! Praise the Lord !! (obviously Scottish mice have more sense than you might imagine

Anyway, back to the Wessex.....
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