Great to see this thread and to hear from others of their experiences good and bad of the Whirlwinds various.
I don't think that the Whirlwind will ever engender the affection that the Wessex managed to do - it was just not such a nice and friendly beast.
Having to go out every so often in all weathers to start the engine of the SAR 7 to keep the oil temperature up so that we could engage if there was a scramble was frankly boring! The lack of power in the 7 when full of SAR gear and a diver and crewman was quite interesting on a warm calm day over a yacht. Ones nether regions clasping the buttocks together as you made the irreversible decision to continue the approach..................usually however SAR callouts were in poor weather with plenty of wind so no problem, apart from if the call was upwind of your base it took forever to get there.
EOLs were so simple - especially in the 9 - even with the full SAR fit on board. I used to EOL onto the spot in dispersal and the sight of the marshaller starting to retreat always amused us! Bent the hockey stick one day as the engineers had set the auto rrpm too low and I ran out of ideas a bit late in the day
As others have said, the 9s and 10s were a delight. Having taken nearly a ton of 750hp Leonides out and popped in 328lbs of Gnome with 1200hp and making the limit one could pull to a red mark on the fuel flow guage made for effortless flying, especially if one did not look at the fuel flow guage too often.
Fun it definitely was, even hot and high in the Fareast, but for me the Wessex holds my undying affection for it's ability to look after you when things went pearshaped and being such FUN to fly.
