Dave B, concur with everything you said; unfortunately the `Bevelgear` was designed to carry torpedoes for the Navy, hence the `mantis` like u/c and attitude on the ground. So, it was given to the AirForce to operate in the tropics and the sandy places of the ME, with all the problems of dust, erosion, torrential rain, etc, and as said this led to a lot of problems, which in the fullness of time and tireless `enthusiasm` from the engineers, built up experience and serviceability, so in its latter days 66 Sqdn had a whole Sqdn flypast (somewhere on tube). One aircraft was lost in Borneo in `63 or 64, due, I think to the cables coming off the runners in the fuselage, and it went sideways. The PFCUs were all at the front, so cables/pushrods from there to the front/rear gearbox/rotors.
One aircraft had a synch shaft failure, possibly on airiest at Seletar in about `67, but landed ok. The rotors didn't have the same overlap as a Chinny, also had more vertical separation, and each engine drove each rotor, as long as the throttles were matched. A great aircraft, once it was `going`, like a train, but slowing down was best done in a turn (my experience of a few trips as an itinerant co-pilot..), and you also had to be careful to keep the yaw to a minimum as shown by the `OMD`(OLD MAID`S Delight) ..the bit that sticks out the front..
SAS, didn`t know Grandad had gone to Bevs? (JT, anyone over 30 was `old`, anyone over 40 was ancient to anyone who was 20 or so...)
Last edited by Senior Pilot; 13th Mar 2014 at 02:22.
Reason: Add 66 Sqn video