WG30
I flew about four hours on the Westland 30 back in the 80's- BAH had two or three of them. I was told, although I never had it confirmed, that as a throwback to the naval Lynx, the W30 had a collective input on cyclic so that when you pulled full power for a takeoff from the back of the frigate it made a rear cyclic input to ensure the aircraft didn't hit the frigate hangar. This input was evident throughout the speed range so that trying to get it to fly at the cruise speed for the day, typically 115 knots, meant endless trimming.
The engines had individual speed levers in the ceiling and, instead of a collective mounted beeper trim, a torque balancing control between them. Pulling to the hover almost always produced a large torque split which required taking your left hand from the collective, twisting the balance lever toward, as I remember it, the high engine, before grabbing the collective again. The SAS was a bag of nails involving 'half-lane switches' for each control axis which had to be activated in the event of a control malfunction. The height hold could not be used below 400 ft. Range with full pax was about 32nm.
On the plus side it had an enormous power reserve, an excellent gear box and a cabin section second, in those days, to none. The half dozen or so regular pilots swore by it and it performed very well operating the Penzance- Scillies service for a while.
Finally, I can remember a colleague converting unwillingly from the S61 to the first Puma's the company bought. "B-----y" thing, he said. "One day you pull collective and the nose goes up, the next day, you pull and it goes down!!"
Last edited by Boslandew; 4th December 2007 at 12:45.