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

[Shaggy Sheep Driver]

What is it about the Wessex that makes people so fond of it? I remember some time back an RAF helo flew into the Manchester Zone from North Wales with a casualty for Wythenshawe Hospital. As he was departing towards Crewe on his way home to Valley the the controller said "confirm you're a Sea King?"

Back came the reply, in a shocked 'you must be joking' voice, "negative, we're a Wessex!.

All helos look the same to me (well, almost:) ), so what's so special about this one?

SSD

[teeteringhead]

How long have you got SSD ?

Maybe you should ask on the Mil Forum, you might finish up with something as good as the Vulcan and Canberra threads......

[Oscar Duece]

Wessex special ?

Could be becuase it one of the few yank machines we bought and actually made better when we built then. (especially with the gnomes).

Got some great pics of a wessex at home at an airshow or something, coming in to land and taking out a brick wall with its tail. Plus some early wessex pics at sea, with one downing in the drink and the later recovery. Shame I don't have a scanner.

Further:
Having only had limited contact with them in the service (1991) I gather they regarded them as being a robust and capable machine (quite rare in our mil inventory), a bit like an SLR (FnFal) if anyone knows what I mean. You can use it in all conditions, throw it about, built a small bridge with them, march a troop across and it will still do the job witohut failing. With only a few weaknesses (recoil and no auto, plus limited mag, and later the ammo becoming non nato std(SLR)) or hot and high even with the gnome Wessex.

[Yozzer]

The affection for the Wessex is borne out of nostalgia. For in the RAF, it is the Wessex that was the first big multi engined helicopter that people learned to fly in. It smelled like an aeroplane should smell. It forgave bad manners from man with stick in hand. It served for a very long time, and although somewhat late in retiring, was faithful to the end. It looked like a military helicopter and especially so when landing with speed tail on the ground, gear still aloft. It did have vices though, and could and did roll over and shake itself to bits on occasion.

[soggyboxers]

I think that Yozzer is right - it was mostly nostalgia. In its day it was a good machine, with a good payload and single engine performance. It was reasonably robust and the fuel governing system was years ahead of its time when it entered service.
However, in its latter years as a civil machine it was showing definite signs of being past its sell-by date. There were problems with rotor blades, a very long lead time on some spares and it always had problems with icing.
In its heyday I loved it, but it was supplanted in my affections in later years by other machines like the Bell 212, and the Dauphin. But what do I know; I seem to be one of the few contributors to PPRuNe who loves the R22!:}

[WASALOADIE]

Spent almost 11 years on the old girl and of all the rotary types is the one I prefer. OK it was limited in performance but we didn't mind really. Nuts and bolts technology, quite forgiving, rugged, hardly ever let me down. Few modern aids to fly it. Westlands built a good-un. Used in a number of theatres worldwide in it's heyday. Crews really felt that they were learning to fly real SH at Shawbury.

[Lu Zuckerman]

To: Oscar Duece



quote:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Could be because it one of the few yank machines we bought and actually made better when we built them. (Especially with the gnomes).
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------




Before Westland was licensed to build the S-58, Sikorsky had already built the HSS-1 which had two T-58s driving into a combining gearbox. I believe Sikorsky did this on their own hook but the US Navy was not too interested. Perchance Westland copied the design but with British engines?


:E :E

[Nigel Osborn]

When one says Wessex, people normally refer to the twin engined variety known as the Wessex Mk5 in the Royal Navy. ( Can't really say what the RAF did! )
With a huge 350 hours under the belt, I had the pleasure of being at the tail end of the IFTU in 1963 or so. The Wessex was flown for 24 hours a day for weeks on end. If the weather was bad, we just hovered at 5 ft for hours. This got a lot of bugs ironed out. In 1964 848 Squadron flew the Wessex in both the Farnborough and Biggin Hill air shows with great success.

We then went to Aden and Kenya on HMS Albion and found the machine behaved well in hot high conditions. After that to the Far East to swap over with a Wessex Mk1 squadron. The Mk 5 had incredible single engine performance and a very reliable and capable auto pilot for that time. The transmission was limited to 3200 lbs of torque and 1 engine could put out up to 2950 lbs, so it had to be very hot and/or high to make much difference. Hence we had no cat A problems. On 1 occasion in Brunei, I had to pick up 9 paras with all their gear from out of a jungle clearing. Only 1 engine would start, so off we went hoping the other would start once airborne. It didn't, so we picked up all 9 with out any problems. On another occasion I had to pick up 22 rangers, no problem.

The 5 was slow, about 90 to 100 kts, tough as hell, very reliable, forgiving of stupid pilots and simply a delight to fly. Yes there were some fatal accidents but in general most were due to finger trouble by either pilot or engineer. The other 7 twins I have flown still do not have that power to weight ratio.

A much loved helicopter that is virtually no more.:(

[EESDL]

Beating the 'faster' and younger helo types from field to field in NI was always a good way to stock up the beer stash!

[ambidextrous]

It's fondly remembered for the same reasons as the "Shackleton" was i.e. Grey & wrinkled on the outside and Black & smelly on the inside! Similar to an elephant's orifice I believe.

[sycamore]

Ambi, actually some had grey wrinklies on the inside, and it was green and smelly! (herbivore)

[Mr Toad]

For Nigel Osborne:

Still got any Borneo pics Nigel? Mine all went in a box to an ex a year or three ago.

By the way I object strongly to the guys who reckon it was a reliable machine; I've lost count of the number of engine changes we did in the field. The weak links were lubrication of the engine's number 5 bearing, failure of the freewheel unit between the engine and the coupling gearbox and a disconcerting habit of both engines to stop abrubtly as you lowered the lever. When we reported this to Rolls Royce they told us their engines never stop; our boss then demonstrated this to the rep at 10,000 feet over Sembawang. He didn't bother to relight them and the white faced man got the point. Mercifully this problem was then cured by the adoption of the ugly shovel nose.

Even so, I loved the Wessex. It forgave me so many unforgiveable sins and despite a multitude of engine failures never gave me a brown moment that wasn't of my own making.

But I was a bit shocked to see it still flying around in Hongkong in the late nineties but that really shows the inherent rightness of Sikorsky's and Westland's design.

[Nigel Osborn]

Toad

Shame on you for those derogatory remarks, I thought I had trained you better!!!
In 1035 hours on the Mk5, I only once had to shut an engine down due to surging, I never had an engine fail nor did anyone in our flight in Borneo that I can recall or in 707 Squadron where I spent my final year. The big noses came after my time.

Yes, I have plenty of photos and slides of Borneo, even our old grotty house in Sibu! You'll have to visit Oz to see them!:p

[Mr Toad]

Nigel.

We boring old farts will have to beg to differ on reliability; but I remember the thump under your feet and the sparks from the jetpipe beside you as clear as today. And ssssSO OFTEN!

I was Bar Officer 848, A Flight, Bario under Dick Steil, also in QLD now. You and I only ever flew twice together according to my little blue books. Incidentally if the Bar Officer's Whirlwind 7 at Bario had coughed even once we would never have had any beer from Labuan and you wouldn't have someone to argue with now.

Difference was the Wessex could afford to cough (and did!) and the Whirlwind during my time there could not.

Nuff said.

[[email protected]]

In nearly 3000 hrs of Wessex time I only had one engine run down on me and a spurious fire caption - other than that, the old girl just kept on going.
It was a top SH machine, hampered only by its lack of top speed and limited power due to the transmission layout. If you wanted to land a team of hooligans in some bad boys front garden at first light then the Wessex was the machine to do it in - that undercarriage saved my bacon (and embarrassment) on several occasions.
I think Lu is right, in that Westlands copied the combining gearbox so that the RR Gnome could be used (the same engines keeping me up in the air nowadays!).
Hot and high was a problem for the old girl - running out of TR authority at the top of Troodos was always entertaining.
A rattly, underpowered junk bucket by comparison to modern helos but in its day it truly was 'Queen of the Skies'.

[Lu Zuckerman]

I may be getting my aircraft mixed up but I remember a post by a former crewman on the Wessex. He indicated that an explosive cartridge started the engines and that the propellant in the cartridges was very unstable. This individual recounted the number of times he would have to sit in the open door with his feet dangling out while he was holding the cartridges ready to dump them overboard if something caused them to sputter.

I’ll bet those guys that performed this function do not recall the Wessex with any degree of fondness.

But then again Fondness is in the eye of the beholder.


:E :E

[Sailor Vee]

Lu,

That was the Wezzie 1, which had a cartridge initiated avpin starter, the problems were never the cartridges, it was the charge of avpin you carried if you were landing away and had to re-start :uhoh:.

The Mk 3 had an air starter, much more civilised, and the Mk 5 was an all-electric affair on the 2 gnome donks ( a la Sea King).

Westlands may have copied the idea for the coupling gearbox, but came up with their own design, as the T58s were horizontal and the gnomes at the same angle as the main shaft from the coupling gearbox to the main box:ok:.

[Paracab]

Funnily enough I had a beer in a pub just this afternoon which has a Wessex slowly rotting in its back garden.

A shocking waste I've always thought (its been there some time )

Keep the stories coming, a potential sticky in the making here !!

:ok:

[sss]

for a wet wessex, if you dive go to stoney cove and they have a sunken one lurking in the depths.

[John Eacott]

Wessex photos: enjoy ;)

https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune.org-vbulletin/716x489/bristow_wessex_01_cef9b6119b84966b42f5e6e0e8877105cead8e58.j pg


https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune.org-vbulletin/720x508/bristow_wessex_02_691c6f4eac36315dcc1216acf43e2d77044aad4f.j pg


https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune.org-vbulletin/720x491/bristow_wessex_03_38ebcf5d72b58a615c137b8c7461d2d0590f1c16.j pg



https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune.org-vbulletin/561x712/wessex_3_dipping_44748a36940bc58bfef510dba3b3f6c156932818.jp g

[Thud_and_Blunder]

Smart selection of pics John, although I can't for the life of me work out what the techie(?) on the right of the first picture is doing.

When we Crabs on 72 were preening ourselves for having had the first mil Wessex to pass 5000 hours, Westlands sent a congratulatory/BZ which ended up in the linebook (whatever happened to that...?). It said all the usual pleasantries, noted that the highest-houred RN airframe had reached just over 4500 hours - oh, and Bristows fleet leader (newer aircraft than ours) had just passed 13,600...:ooh: )

[teeteringhead]

And 13,600 was a very significant figure for Wessex drivers........

Along with 2,700, 710 and 26,750....

Blimey, what still-surviving brain cell did they come out of!

[Geoffersincornwall]

For those who truly appreciate the wonders of the Wessex you had to have some time in on the Mk3.

This amazing machine had a cockpit full of gadgets and gizzmos to make the editors of "STUFF" magazine weep. In 1969 we had a fully coupled two-lane autopilot with 4 axis capability. Fully integrated nav-displays that make today's stuff look like Meccano. A fantastic platform for IFR and for those who chased submarines in the fog at 150 feet rad-alt it was the perfect chariot .......................... with some minor drawbacks .......... or not so minor ........ like it only had one engine. Not only that but the one engine was a Napier (later Rolls Royce) Gazelle turbine! Still we didn't know any better in those days and we just thought that having 2 engines meant there was twice as much chance of one failing!! It was also a bit short of fuel ............ 1 and a half hours at most. We thought that this meant you didn't have to worry about when you were next likely to be near a loo ..... then some ratbag invented IFR (in flight refueling) . In the case of the Wx3 this meant you had a refueling nozzle next to the entrance door to the cabin and instead of being allowed to go backto "mum" when you ran out of juice you had to stop by at your local friendly frigate, where, unable to land, you winched up the refueling rig and plugged in. To avoid restricting the frigate's freedom of movement they were allowed to weave around with you in your Wx being towed around like a dog on a lead...... which was not a lot of fun at night????

Still .... fond memories of this a real Wessex, properly painted Blue and Yellow and not disguised as a dog-turd (We loved you really).


Anyone got any Wx3 photos? John Eacott??

:ok:

[John Eacott]

Geoff,

Yes, last one in the run above ;) I'll find some more (after I resize this lot, they're all 800 x 600 and too big. Sorry!).

On top of all the wonderful gizmos on the HAS3, the rheostat control of the transition signals was a joy to behold, on a dark and gloomy night when it hadn't been used for a couple of weeks and had a touch of surface corrosion to spike the signal:rolleyes:

IFR? Wasn't fuel state Lamb about 20 minutes, and Chicken (IIRC) 12 minutes? To which Flyco would inevitably "Roger, remain in the port wait" :ok: How much faith did we have in those fuel gauges!!!!

[SASless]

Was the BarAlt Hold on the Wessex autopilot rigged the same as on the American H-34 piston powered version....like vented into the cabin...so that when the crewman opened the cabin door in flight....!!! Amazing how quickly the manifold pressure could change when you had your eyes shut!

[Floppy Link]

the linebook (whatever happened to that...?).

72 is now a Tucano Sqn at Linton on Ouse, all the stuff went there, here's an email I got recently...

Hi mate,
Yes, we struck up the old colours about 12 months ago. I left the RAF in Jan. They
re-badged the Linton sqns like they did with Valley, who have 208 and 74.
208 being basic Hawk and 74 Tac Weapons. Funnily enough, :mad: was the
old Linton 1 Sqn boss, :mad: was 2ic, and there were a few other
ex-72 mates(myself included) who were kicking around the bazaar at the
time(Don't know if you know them). Because 72 had only folded about 12
months previously, all the sqn history, books, paraphernalia was intact and
in one piece. :mad: was the outgoing boss so it was fairly seamless.
Some minor royal pitched up to Linton, there was a whole load of flag-waving
and blighters marching around with guns, and hey presto, FOLA lives! The
creamies took to the FOLA thing like ducks to water, I re-instated FLAG and
the bar was trashed. Some things never change.

In stark contrast was the old Linton 2 Sqn who became 207(I think)Sqn.
Somebody found a small cardboard box at Admiralty House with their
memorabilia, consisting of a couple of old piccys and a rubber duck. No
history, ergo no savoir faire, as the Frogs would have it. You should see
all the stuff they have on 72. Diaries, the lot. Even Exercise Green Blade.
Lots of stuff from our era in NI in the photo albums which I didn't know
existed.

FL
1000hrs MTV

[MOSTAFA]

Was'nt it because it was full of Scout bits!!:ok:

[Vfrpilotpb]

Never flown in one or even sat in one, but will carry to my grave the wonderful sight of a 72 Sqdn Wsx flying at about 45ft down the avenue at Stonyhurst College in Lancashire jinking slightly sideways to get away from the rugby posts and then doing a serene climb and such a delicate wingover type move with the big side door open and loads of legs and arms waving like mad, and then doing it all again, how in gods name that big bird stayed in the air when it seemed that I could see every rotor blade as they turned was beyond me, I eventually traked down the driver and wrote to him, and in reply I had a most wonderful letter of explanation as to how and why he had carried out those manouvers on that day, a very lasting memory of what sounds like a truly good helicopter!
Vfr

[Mr Toad]

Thanks everyone for brilliant posts on our beloved machine. Why can't the other threads on Rotorheads be conducted with such knowledge and good humour?

[Arkroyal]

Ahhhh the Wessex!:O

I suppose time dulls the memory, only leaving the good bits, but I loved the thing. All the frights were self induced, (one JFR induced!) except the time I extended a training sortie at Merryfield so as to return to VL with 300lbs MLA fuel, only to have both engines flame out as I taxied onto stand. So much for the gauges!

For Lu Z, I beleive the Gnome was a license built T58 anyway, so we even pinched that from the septics. I was always amazed that the US services stuck to the pistons for so long.

Delivered a few to Lee-on-Solent at the end of their lives, and see one now and again (XT770) in a paint ball park a couple of miles from here. A paint ball park indeed, and repainted in pseudo camouflage. Yuk.

[965Bedstead]

As a maintainer, Wessex Vs were the only aircraft which brought on sickness during flight. I was so glad of autostab in the Seakings. On a flight from VL to Valley I sat with my back to the door, opposite the crewy who was sat on the breadboard. I coughed up my lunch onto his map. He pushed my head out of the door and shut it on my neck where I continued to plaster the side of the cab. I remained outside for about half an hour in a February slip stream. I couldn't get back in because I thought the crewy had his foot on my neck. In fact my ear defenders had got cought. I could have come back in anytime.

Spent many an hour asleep on the flotbag, or if not asleep, shouting "Up Pole!".



http://hometown.aol.com/junglie846/images/81%20pre%20air%20day%20002.jpg

1981 Air Day rehersal at Points West VL. I count 18 WX



http://hometown.aol.com/junglie846/images/81%20pre%20air%20day%20003.jpg

A couple of Wessy Flares. A number of Seaking IV TRs were written off during the conversion



http://hometown.aol.com/junglie846/images/norway%2081.jpg

Norway Winter 1981. Splendid cam. Even when the a/c had departed the puddles of OM15 were a dead give away. (and in summer the piles of pink poo paper next to 4 foot silver birch stumps)

965

[Arkroyal]

Spent today thinking of another Wessex trip some while back.

I was teamed up for a rush job to take the RUC's boss from NI to somewhere sneaky, and wound up in a crab Wessex2. On way home we spotted a Nuke submarine cruising southwards between Isle of Man and NI.

I talked the Captain (and if you knew the late Roy C, you'll know it wasn't hard) in to wiring it most regally. Several close and low flybys later with many a wing over and torque turn thrown in, we continued to Aldergrove whereupon he's dragged off for a boll*cking.

Should only do that sort of thing in a pusser's Mk5. Even Fishheads have the nouse to hate crabs:}

Thanks for the pics 965. I'm flying one of those! Talking of autostab, the wessex had one too.

I always used to wonder, if the Mk5 was equipped with the Mk 19 autopilot, what utter sh1te mks 1 to 18 must have been:= :=

[Sandy Toad]

Ark Royal seem to remember XT770 was one of our Green Parrots at the VIP Flight 781 Sqdn Lee on Solent in Mid 70's. Will check logbook tomo. What a sad end. :sad:

[forget]

Someone will be along in a moment to tell the story. :hmm:

http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b270/cumpas/trfailure-1.jpg

http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b270/cumpas/wessex2.jpg

[inputshaft]

In my mind a series of photographs we had in 72 Sqn's scrapbook, said more about the Wessex than any words could:

First photo had Walter flying the Queens Own into the Narrow Water ambush site
Second had the much larger second IRA bomb going off, obscuring the Wessex in dust, bricks and other debris
The third has the old girl, still in the hover, shaking off the blast like a dog just out of the water.

The cynical would probably say that the explosion wasn't that close, but that's what the Wessex was like, you felt it would always look after you.
Between two 72 Sqn tours in the 90s I was fortunate enought to fly the HH60J. Nothing like as fun and satisfying as the Wessex, a Ford Escort with a fancy stereo, compared to Westland's wonderful old Bentley.

[Spudley]

Big wheeled undercarriage, tailwheel especially.
Although not particularly powerfull, it had plenty of power in reserve if you neede to overtorque it.
Great handling - it gave you plenty of advance warning if you were overcooking it.
and somehow its limitations meant that you really had to do your pilots stuff to get the best out of it.
All in all a truly enjoyable way to fly.

[ShyTorque]

First photo had Walter flying the Queens Own into the Narrow Water ambush site
Second had the much larger second IRA bomb going off, obscuring the Wessex in dust, bricks and other debris
The third has the old girl, still in the hover, shaking off the blast like a dog just out of the water.

The cynical would probably say that the explosion wasn't that close, but that's what the Wessex was like, you felt it would always look after you.


I think it was close enough to have its windows blown in. The Captain, an ex-colleague of mine, once told me that he is certain that if he had been flying anything else that day he would not be alive. He got an AFC for his part in the aftermath and is still flying today.

[[email protected]]

Similar thing happened in 85 at Crossmaglen where the mortars came in over the fence as the Wessex was in the hover - the crewman saw one coming and shouted a warning. The captain grabbed a handful of lever and as it climbed one of the bombs rolled under the aircraft and went off blowing the windows in. Walter still flew away, much to the chagrin of the boyos who must have thought they really had one that day.

[jellycopter]

The Wessex.....such fond memories.

And some not so fond.......like 5 engine failures in 18 months (500 hours). And electro-hydraulic windscreen wipers that smeared hydraulic fluid on the outside of the screen giving the opposite effect to that desired.

Best bits were the huge mainwheels and brick ****house undercarriage. Once got caught out one very dark night in S. Armagh with a fog bank rolling in. 12 troops needed picking up but it was obvious that if I did it in 2 runs, as per the flypro, 6 would have been left behind for a miserable soggy night out. Road moves were out at that time. Had too much fuel to lift all 12 troops so thought a MAUM running take-off at night from an unrecce'd field was a good idea! The old girl did the business and those huge mainwheels skipped over the ruts and bumps until translational lift kicked in. Great machine.

I wonder if the Puma will be remembered as fondly? Into RAF service only 6 (?) years after the Wessex and still going strong - and forecast to 2020 I believe (?). Had I been flying a Puma that night in S. Armagh, we'd have stuck 12 on board and not had any concerns about whether we'd have enough power to get airborne.

JJ

[MightyGem]

much to the chagrin of the boyos who must have thought they really had one that day.
Their luck had obviously improved when they managed to blow the tail off a Lynx in later years. :eek:

[LZCUTTER]

My first flight in a helicopter was Brecon, Derring Lines, 1970, from the football field, a young Para in them days. Think it was a Mk 5, but I was to green to know! Could that pilot be out there somewhere? We lifted to Exercise and was droped by forestry block D !
How the hell do I remember that ?:8

[Hummingfrog]

My first attempt at posting a photo!

It is taken just after the second bomb went off near Waterford - you can just make out Walter in the dust/smoke. I was further north at the time and Walter did very well with bits of clods of earth etc rattling down on it.

HF

http://i277.photobucket.com/albums/kk68/squadron72/WaterfordBombingrectangle.jpg

[LZCUTTER]

I was at Ballykinler that day, some days are best forgotten !

[fudpucker]

Maybe everybody is so fond of the Wessex because they (the crews) were all so much younger at the time;)

[diginagain]

Overheard on Dungannon's frequency one evening;

"Can I get 400lbs of fuel for this Wessex, please?"

To which a transitting Lynx driver replied;

"Sounds like a fair swap."

[inputshaft]

Actually, when I contributed to this thread, I was thinking exactly that.

I seem to be at that wistful stage in life where I remember that an hour's early morning tasking in the pouring rain around Y453, before heading back to Aldergrove for breakfast, was one of the best things I have ever done. Whatever the truth in that, good times with good people.

[[email protected]]

First light inserts of ops in S.Armargh, selectively blatting at 50' (honest) over the houses flying a tricolour - ahhhh the good old days;)

[Boslandew]

I used to fly the S58T on the southern North Sea while Bristow were operating Wessex (60's I think) from North Denes at Yarmouth. The 58 T was pretty limited on power, just about meeting Perf A standards but I seem to remember that the Wessex had a genuine OEI hover performance out of ground effect which meant it could carry out single-engine rig landings should the need arise. Nothing I flew could do that although I believe that is possible on some Pumas??

[GreenZeroOneZero]

I used to be able to get right next to the helipad in the field they used at Enniskillen UDR base before it became 'Grosvenor Barracks' - i loved watching those beasts come in to land :8:8 :ok::ok:

[RUCAWO]

Many interesting flights in the back of Wessex mainly from Carrickmore but a couple of very interesting ones doing EagleVCPs in West Belfast (landing on the green in Twinbrook and getting bricks and bottles thrown at the helicopter) here are a few pics taken over the years.

Carrickmore 83/84
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v331/sniperUK/UAS%2007/72a.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v331/sniperUK/UAS%2007/72.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v331/sniperUK/UAS%2007/72c.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v331/sniperUK/UAS%2007/72b.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v331/sniperUK/UAS%2007/we34.jpg

Exercise Beaufort Dyke ,Bangor
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v331/sniperUK/UAS%2007/72j.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v331/sniperUK/UAS%2007/72bd.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v331/sniperUK/UAS%2007/72a6.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v331/sniperUK/UAS%2007/72a4.jpg

Newtownards Airshow
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v331/sniperUK/UAS%2007/72a3-1.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v331/sniperUK/UAS%2007/72l-1.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v331/sniperUK/UAS%2007/72m.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v331/sniperUK/UAS%2007/we15-1.jpg

[RUCAWO]

And three I have just finished.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v331/sniperUK/UAS%2007/IMG_0014-3.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v331/sniperUK/UAS%2007/IMG_0002-3.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v331/sniperUK/UAS%2007/IMG_0009-3.jpg

[heli1]

Have I missed a reply to the Wessezx 60 pix on 18th....obviously a tail boom blade strike and probably in Indonesia but which cab ??

[forget]

Tail rotor drive shaft failure. In the hover with underslung fuel drums . PK-HBV. Djambi Sumatra. 73. Ex RBMR aircraft. More here -

http://www.pprune.org/forums/showpost.php?p=3483491&postcount=92

[steve_oc]

A det to NI in 1979 with a Wessex 3 (the blue and yellow one). We arrange to have it resprayed green so as not to stand out too like a sore thumb. Then the beancounters (even then) decreed it would be too expensive and we would just have to have it distempered (water based). On the subsequent paint flight test, of course, it rained and I had to fly back with the door wide open because the windscreen was green !

[Bootneck]

Many moons ago a flight of Wessex were due in to pick us up from the bush. A bunch of journalists were watching and filming. As we heard the sound of Wessii approaching we told them to hunker down, and do what we did. No, journos will be journos. How many rocks does it take to smash a Nikon lens? :)

The junglys were a wonderful sight when you were cold and wet. They were even better at endex. I once saw a very scared crewman at the end of a cold exercise in the med the wessex were lifting bloody artillery guns onto Bulwark all morning while we sat in the freezing cold,.When we eventually got loaded on there was mutiny in the air. The crewie handed out cigarettes, didn't smoke did I!!!

When loading it was advisable to drop your bergen by the door last. It then got loaded first, all the others went on top. My boss was curled up laughing during a night lift as from 3000' the top bergen sailed out of the door to brighten some shepherd's morning. It was only after much whispering and threats when we were dropped off that he realised it was his kit. He had a very cool time of things for a few days, "Share my kit boss? F**k off!".

Turkey 1972/3.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v77/Robiz/WessexTurkey.jpg

Same trip, warmer day. :) Rusty 'B' HMS Bulwark.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v77/Robiz/OaM/Image-16.jpg

[Tail-take-off]

heli1
it was serial number WA/563

Ex: AMDB-106,VR-BEA,PK-HBV,G-BAWJ,9M-ASW,5N-AJN,N251HL,A-064

[Ioan]

This is one I came across at the museum in Bournemouth a few years back. Was doing groundschool there at the time; was my little piece of helicopter history to have a sit in and remind me what I was doing there when things got stressful!
Not the best pics in the world. I remember being very impressed that sitting in it there was a lot more elbow room than in an R22 :cool:

http://i212.photobucket.com/albums/cc194/crazyclimber85/2006_0826cherokee_flight0070.jpg

http://i212.photobucket.com/albums/cc194/crazyclimber85/2006_0826cherokee_flight0071.jpg

http://i212.photobucket.com/albums/cc194/crazyclimber85/2006_0826cherokee_flight0072.jpg

http://i212.photobucket.com/albums/cc194/crazyclimber85/2006_0826cherokee_flight0073.jpg

http://i212.photobucket.com/albums/cc194/crazyclimber85/2006_0826cherokee_flight0074.jpg

http://i212.photobucket.com/albums/cc194/crazyclimber85/2006_0826cherokee_flight0076.jpg

LZCUTTER - I was in Brecon the other day (I live just outside) trying to get some work done... difficult with a bunch of green Sea Kings going in and out all day. Kinda distracting!
Some things don't change!

[LZCUTTER]

How is Brecon these days? I have not been there since 84, I keep saying im going back to walk the Pen-Y-Fan or the Fan-dance as we used to call it!( although i dont think i will be dancing over it these days!)

[Overdrive]

RUCAWO... nice models.

[Floppy Link]

Y453

http://i216.photobucket.com/albums/cc264/Boecopter/XV728Y453.jpg
(apologies for the dust on the scanned slide)

[cats_five]

There's a complete different set of people with 'Wessex' nostalgia - the people picked up from various mountains & so on by the SAR machines. Think there is also a rather nice print of one in the lounge bar in the Nevis Bank in Fort William, from the Mountain Rescue connection I presume.

Thankfully I've managed to avoid needing SAR so far, long may it continue.

[cyclic gal]

Ahhh the Wezzie 5 (Faces have been changed to protect the innocent)

http://i300.photobucket.com/albums/nn14/Cyclic_Gal/WezzieV.jpg

[peterperfect]

They are even a feature on an underwater theme park:

http://www.ndac.co.uk/attractions.htm

I flew the one pictured under button 6 and flew in the one used for BDA under button 12, albeit the index is the wrong way round !

[soggyboxers]

A Agincourt,

You don't mean the one on HMS Bulwark in 1968 off Cyprus do you? We were re-embarking the Commando and I was about 3 aircraft behind Dave Dixon, both of us with 105mm pack howitzers underslung. Dave had one engine runaway up and the overspeed trip governor shut it down, just as he was coming to the hover over the deck. He managed to jettison the howitzer and land forward of it on the remaining engine (he was a very skilful pilot even then with his few hours), but it went into ground resonance, the main rotor head came off and killed one bootneck colour sergeant of the deck party, before it hit the side of the bridge and disappeared over the side. Dave and the crewman were unharmed and I think it was later that day, or early the next he was sent off to do DLPs just to restore his confidence.


I remember some other amusing incidents in the Wessex too. I was flying Wessex 2's on exchange to the Crabs in Northern Ireland in 1969 - 1971 and one day one of my passengers was the comedian Ken Dodd, who was out performing for the troops. We had put the VIP seats in the back for him and the MALM (whose name I sadly forget now) was decked in a white mess waiter's jacket was trying to impress by serving him coffee and Rich Tea biscuits. Unfortunately the weather was lousy and we hit some turbulence just as he had left his seat to serve the coffee. He put out his hand to steady himself and the next thing I heard was a whoooooooosh over the intercom and I could get no reply. I looked out of my window to see the MALM who was fortunately wearing his monkey harness dangling about a foot below the aircraft cabin step :}. He'd jettisoned the door because it was the jettison handle he'd used to steady himself. I landed, recovered the MALM and the door, but we never found his spectacles! Ken Dodd was practically wetting himself with giggling because he thought the whole thing had been staged just for his amusement :O.

Some years later, embarked on HMS Hermes with 42 Commando, on mud-marining duties I noticed that the tail of one of the Red Dragon Wessex flown by Prince Charles had been tied down to a ring-bolt on one of the flight deck lifts and that one Jolly Jack was about to take the lift down, not having noticed. I tried to shout a warning but, helas, too late as the lift descended and ripped the tail off the Wessex - oops :O

Happy days and amazing that we were let loose to do so much with so little experience. My first experience of mass night formation flying was when we had experimental beta lights fitted to the upper part of the tip caps and another line of them down the top of the tail boom. We had up to 8 aircraft in close formation as we desperately tried not to have a collision or change the colour of our boxer shorts - all with about 300 - 500 hours total flying experience :hmm:

[Bootneck]

A Agincourt, I think Soggy boxers is correct. There was a tale about a deck member being hit by a blade and decapitated. The story goes that the deck was cleared and a bunch of Bootnecks were sent up with bin-bags to pick up the pieces. I shall enquire from the oracles; some of them are still alive, and some can remember what they had for dinner 40 years ago, but not where they live now. ;)

Cyclic Gals image of a door gunner shows the second scariest beast known to man. An aircrewman with a gun. The most dangerous is an officer with a map.

May I enquire if there are any members on here who were based at Culdrose flying Wessex 5s in 1971?

I was the recipient of a 15' drop when the driver failed to compensate for the sudden decrease in weight as a stick of Booties left his machine during Eagle Flights at Goonhilly, we should have been at 6'. May I congratulate the itinerant pilot for the agony and lack of mobility which I have endured for the past 37 years. :D I have a vivid memory of the crewman looking down at my prostrate form telling his boss, "We broke one." Yes you did. ;) Own up you bastard!!!!:ooh: :):):)

[cyclic gal]

Reminds me of the time we were moving the Bessbrook Regiment up to Aldergrove for their flights home at the end of their tour (Queens Lancs I think). The RSM was absolutely terrified of flying and begged us not to give him a hard time on the flight. As we manned up the Left hand seat pilot put his feet up on the dashboard so the RSM could see only the legs of the RH Seat pilot as he looked nervously around the cabin.

Once airborne I summoned the second crewman who appeared from behind the tail cone curtain with a tea towel over his arm, silver tray, glasses and a bottle of Scotlands finest.

The RSM was well impressed, if not a little surprised at the wee dram to calm his shattered nerves. That was until I invited the right hand seat pilot down into the cabin leaving, as the RSM thought, no-one in the cockpit.

If you're reading this RSM, hope you're feeling better

[A.Agincourt]

soggyboxers: A Agincourt, You don't mean the one on HMS Bulwark in 1968 off Cyprus do you? We were re-embarking the Commando and I was about 3 aircraft behind Dave Dixon, both of us with 105mm pack howitzers underslung. Dave had one engine runaway up and the overspeed trip governor shut it down, just as he was coming to the hover over the deck. He managed to jettison the howitzer and land forward of it on the remaining engine (he was a very skilful pilot even then with his few hours), but it went into ground resonance, the main rotor head came off and killed one bootneck colour sergeant of the deck party, before it hit the side of the bridge and disappeared over the side. Dave and the crewman were unharmed and I think it was later that day, or early the next he was sent off to do DLPs just to restore his confidence.

Thank you, yes that is indeed the incident. I was a passenger in the rear of another aircraft later that morning. We arrived and were met by many glum faces but nobody informed of the incident. I was told a brief outline later.

I think you got the date wrong possibly, I remember it to be in the year 69 but it was a long time ago.

The Beta lights were a favourite gizzit for light fingered pax. Made brilliant map reading tools so I am informed.

I once met a strange bloke in the Thetford area who was to be blunt, a bit of a 'spotter' naw that's too light - he was a manic spotter and he told me that he had a photograph album containing a photo of every Wessex that had been in service. As the story goes, he used to loiter around the military training area in his free time and on one occasion presented the album for inspection to a Sqn Leader from NI. Co-incidentally, this was about the time of a big anniversary?? He told me that he was invited over for the celebrations - by air! But as I say, he was a manic spotter but it would be interesting to know if there was any truth in his claim.

Bes Wishes

[A.Agincourt]

Bootneck (http://www.pprune.org/forums/member.php?u=86494) :

Agincourt, I think Soggy boxers is correct. There was a tale about a deck member being hit by a blade and decapitated. The story goes that the deck was cleared and a bunch of Bootnecks were sent up with bin-bags to pick up the pieces. I shall enquire from the oracles; some of them are still alive, and some can remember what they had for dinner 40 years ago, but not where they live now. ;)

I heard that there was a decapitation and that the whole mess had been shoved over the side. But I was given little info.

Best Wishes

[Bootneck]

The Beta lights were a favourite gizzit for light fingered pax. Made brilliant map reading tools so I am informed.


That Sir is a terrible slur on the traditions and evil doings of a fine body of light fingered and incorrigible rogues.
I rest my case and weekend grip (Wanna buy 47 gallons of WD40?). :ok:

[soggyboxers]

AA,

You may be right about the year - I had so many trips to Cyprus on the old Rusty B during my first tour with 845. Plus many years of food cooked in aluminium saucepans in Africa tend to have an effect on something over the somethings.......

Bootneck,

It's no tale. Colours was decapitated diagonally as the entire rotor system came off when the main rotor mast sheared off. It hit him and took off one arm and his head before it went over the side. You're quite right about a party of bootnecks collecting all the parts of bodies they could find in bin bags.

[sycamore]

Nice pic. of XR522/071 of the UAF on www.xairforces.com ;gallery,p7.

[Ioan]

How is Brecon these days? I have not been there since 84, I keep saying im going back to walk the Pen-Y-Fan or the Fan-dance as we used to call it!( although i dont think i will be dancing over it these days!)

Haha, it's still the Fan-dance, and no I don't think anyone's really in much of a state to dance after they've just got to the top!
Brecon's OK. There're a lot of worse places to live I guess! Was up in the mountains a few nights back... on Fan Fawr, the opposite side of the A470 and Storey Arms to Pen y fan. Wandering by the trig point minding my own business when I almost trip over a tent and have some forces guy shine a torch smack bang in my face. About gave me a heart attack! :eek:

Go for it some day, the walk! Just don't pick a bank holiday, it's like a small motorway!

[Bootneck]

Soggy, apologies, I used the word 'tale' incorrectly. The accident is well known as it was used as a classic method of engendering knowledge and safety issues in the minds (:E) of new Bootnecks when introduced to flying machines. Of course it became a bit of folklore and was embellished etc. Thanks for clarifying the history, some of the guys I'm in touch with remember it.


Now, which one of you booogers was flogging the Wessex that broke me? :)

[peterperfect]

IOAN: nice piccies. Shame to see such a nice Wessy 3 in the wrong colours though, however the cockpit looks in better condition that when in service !

As regards to WHERE IS YOUR FAVOURITE WESSEX NOW ?

There's quite a few listed on demobbed.org if you want a logbook check, unfortunately some very sad sights in the fire pits of the Lizard peninisular etc:

http://www.demobbed.org.uk/aircraft.php?type=1184

[Arkroyal]

Pity the diving centre mixed up the 3 and the 5

XT770 used to be left in standard green with ROYAL NAVY decals in the Shawell paint ball park.

Someone subsequently vandalised it. Yuk

Favourite Wessy quote:

As we slid across a field in NI towards a large tree, trying to recover from a too fast downwind running landing, I asked a certain well known bootneck what the fack he was doing. succinct answer:

'crashin'

The backwards taxying to escape from under the branches was equally entertaining.

[airborne_artist]

There's a 5 in Smiths' scrappies yard at Brightwell-cum-Sotwell (close to the secret Oxon heli base). I've offered him money for it, but unfortunately Mrs A-A offered him more, if he kept it. Seems she didn't want a large, green garden ornament :{

[Bootneck]

I had a reply from an ancient Bootneck about the Wessex crash on Hermes. It's wonderful how the web can be used to inform people about incidents from so long ago which have become folklore.

I remember an accident which occurred in June or July 1969 when 41 were embarked on HMS Bulwark for exercises in the Med. We were out there from April to September that year.
We were on a beach near Larnaca, Cyprus, waiting to be taken back to the ship by landing craft after an exercise, when we were told that a Wessex Mk5 had crash landed on the flight deck and that there would be a delay before we could re-embark.
We could see the wreckage from the beach as the ship wasn't too far off the coast. I think I might have a 35mm slide somewhere, taken distantly from the beach, of the incident.
When we got back to the ship we learned that one of the Royal Navy flight deck personnel had been killed by flying rotor blades debris, and a pal of mine, Sharky Ward (Armourer), had narrowly avoided the same fate. He had seen the whole thing and was badly shocked.
It appeared that the Wessex had suddenly lost power and crashed very heavily onto the flight deck. The rotor blades hit the deck and flew in all directions apparently. I don't know if it was lifting, or had lifted, anything at the time.

[LZCUTTER]

Im going to the the endurance one more time, I plan to take three days, take some kit and enjoy it, I once did it in 18hrs 22mins and most of it is a blank, the old head down and a.... up !

[HadEnough]

There is a poem in the Officers' Mess at Aldergrove - reprinted below - which sums up a few thoughts about the old girl :

An ‘Ode’ To the Wessex


“The Queen of the Skies”, “A Fine Girl” and all

“A bag of bits welded with glue”

All favourite names for a craft that we call

The Wessex H C, Mark 2



She survives here longer than some of us do

Except aviators who‘re grey

If you try to work out if that includes you

Count from year fifty-seven, in May



She supported troops here since sixty-nine

Flying thousands of soldiers and more

And the latest I heard on the Bosses’ grapevine

Is she stays till two thousand and four

She can carry twelve troops, fifteen I’ve been told

Plus her full compliment of three crew

But much more than that and her rotors will fold

With the left hand seat yelling “Three-two”



She carries the Queen with abundance of care

Though she once caused a major alert

When her rotors blew protocol up in the air

Along with poor Princess Di’s skirt



She may not be fast or pretty or slick

And not very adept at gliding

But she isn’t French or made of plastic

And there’s no chance of rotors colliding



Through all types of rain and bad weather she runs

Enemies are often surprised

She survives attacks from missiles and guns

Though wing-overs aren’t well advised



So let us then toast the last of the few

For the Wessex I’d like you to rise

And drink to the stalwart of Seventy-Two

You’re truly “The Queen of the Skies!”

[Senior Pilot]

An interesting history on Nanga Gaat operations, here, (http://albiefield.co.uk/Sarawak/nangagaat/nangagaat.html) with a few photos :cool:

[ShyTorque]

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 ...... ;)

[Cyclic Hotline]

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! :eek:

They were a great machine though. :D

[bast0n]

:)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!:)

[helicopter pat]

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.

[bast0n]

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?

[Snarlie]

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.

[bast0n]

Autopilot?

[John Eacott]

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 :p
Tying the non flying pilot's shoelaces together, behind the cyclic. "You have control" :oh:
Fuel state chicken: 12 minutes :ooh: "Roger, remain in the port wait"

:ok:

[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?

Last time I saw Leading Edge was as HLO on a North Sea helideck although that was a few years ago.

[Bootneck]

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. :D

[peterperfect]

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......"

[bast0n]

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.

[Bravo73]

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 (http://www.pprune.org/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=203481) for easy instructions on how to post images. The icon that you're looking for is this one: http://www.pprune.org/forums/images/editor/insertimage.gif


HTH

[peterperfect]

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 !!!

[bast0n]

PP - I agree - but it's fun to tease him now and again! Did you mean "Mold"? Quite appropriate somehow.

[John Eacott]

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.

[eagle 86]

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

[peterperfect]

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 ???

[bast0n]

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.

[212man]

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.....

[bast0n]

Radfan - Pingers? Yes, who was it who fell backwards down the slope? And yes - I did some AS work in a WW7 ( sandy coloured of course) with Beast Rufus in the back! Ended up in a carpark at the Bill with some problem or other, but never found a submarine - which seems par for the course really. I have noted that Pingers are always very proud of their Jungly time but not the other way round - any suggestions as to why this should be? :)

PS 212 man seems very young to have posted all those posts. Is he with the drink taken? Perhaps we should all club together and get him a spellchekker!

[SASless]

212man was in knee pants when the Wessex was around....I bet he never flew a Sikorsky with a great big radial engine....and probably never even saw one with two HUGE radials.

(For the youngsters.....CH-34 (S-58) or CH37 Mojave (S-56))

The 58 had a wonderful auto pilot...unless some one down below opened the cabin door while the BarAlt was engaged. The 56 had a very commodious cockpit...even Nick Lappos could move around in the thing without need of a can of Crisco.

If you liked the Wessex....you would have loved the 37.

http://www.yolo.net/~jeaton/mojave/3137.jpg

[bast0n]

http://i291.photobucket.com/albums/ll301/tallbronzedgod/Midair02.jpg


http://i291.photobucket.com/albums/ll301/tallbronzedgod/Midair01.jpg


Reference my earlier post about midair collisions I thought these may be fun to post. The Fox and Hounds was lucky to get our trade I suppose, we could have ruined their roof.


PS seems I got the piccies a bit too big. I will try harder.
You will have to track right to see the WX5.

[bast0n]

http://i291.photobucket.com/albums/ll301/tallbronzedgod/img460.jpg

Reference the inability of Pingers to find submarines, I enclose this shot of the visual search procedures taken up in desperation to try to rectify the problem!

[bast0n]

http://i291.photobucket.com/albums/ll301/tallbronzedgod/img463.jpg

I fully realise that some Pingers, and I use the capital P out of respect for their wasted time in the FAA, may not believe the "Visual search procedures" used in desperation to find a submarine - so I post a photo of the crew manning the aircraft involved in the trials. I hope that this helps the cause of Jungly/ Pinger fraternity.

[Bootneck]

An aside, ref Speechless2's comment on Tanganyika and the revolting Tanganyikans. (Can you say that these days?) The silverware exhibited in the foyer of 45 Commando Sgt's Mess was 'discovered' during that little foray. Names and numbers of those involved are available; a very enjoyable two hours was spent in the company of the man who liberated the items, I haven't laughed so much in ages.

There was a comment during our conversation about the helicopter pilot's navigational capacity in terms of the intended LZ ie they had to 'acquire' a huge truck to get to their objective, from the harbour.:D

Comments on a Zimbabwean dollar note.

[bast0n]

Speechless Two -should it not be Speechless As Well?

[John Eacott]

bast0n,

Shades of Happy Hour on Friday night at the original CU Wardroom: pingers one end of the bar, junglies the other, and Moet at 19/6d used at will ;)

Ditched Sea King the latest Mod status, doors on the wrong side? No wonder it got wet :rolleyes:

Very impressed with the SHAR photo: that was fairly close :cool:

[eagle 86]

I believe the most famous extraction was done by a WX3 after all the Junglies crashed - South Georgia 1982 - where is my old mate IS?
GAGS
E86

[bast0n]

Very true - but insertion is so much more fun than extraction don't ya know?

[Sandy Toad]

BastOn you old bugger! A breath of fresh air! I'm afraid the Pingers will always outnumber us on here - all those years of button pushing. However Quality not Quantity. Keep the Stories rolling. There's always that photo of the Wasp on Mike Reece's lawn in Helston...... HH

[bast0n]

http://i291.photobucket.com/albums/ll301/tallbronzedgod/Wasp848Cui01.jpg

Toad me old mucker - did you not mean this shot of me and Dick Seymour on the lawn of my family home in Wales? Surely we did not behave like that, did we? :)

[bast0n]

http://i291.photobucket.com/albums/ll301/tallbronzedgod/Jubileereview.jpg

HH Toad

I don't think the pingers outnumbered us here!!:)

[peterperfect]

Cracking phots BastOn, keep em coming !!!

Dont suppose you've got any of Woodard on a motorbike ?

If so i'll trade you for one of an autogyro in Singers !!

[bast0n]

http://i291.photobucket.com/albums/ll301/tallbronzedgod/MokeGib01.jpg


No, but how about the great man in my Moke outside the Bayuca, Jonny and Tina Stagnetto ran it, in Gibraltar. ( Stunning onion soup with huge lumps of bread).Malim later fell out after a particularily nifty bit of driving on my part to avoid the Military Police (who had quite accurately surmised that we had stolen an army officers mess armchair to put in the back to make Rob W more comfortable in deference to his paddedness), and rubbed all the pattern off his blazer buttons and broke his designer sunglasses whilst sliding down the road unaccompanied. You may remember that I only had the Moke on board as I needed something to tow my boat. Happy Days. Perhaps one day I will tell you how I fell out of the Moke in Helston, whilst driving it, at Peter Craigs Leaving do.

[bast0n]

http://i291.photobucket.com/albums/ll301/tallbronzedgod/PeanutArctic02-1.jpg

Looking back I see I do have a motorcycle shot of me giving a lift to an elderly pinger, Colin MacGregor, in the arctic. This shows that we Junglies do have hearts of gold towards distressed gentlefolk especially if they write your 206. I will not tell you what the shovel was for.

[peterperfect]

Bast0ns phots perhaps indicate one answer to the original title of the thread:

Its not just the aircraft, its the blokes that flew in it and serviced it. An inate ability to display a potent mix of punchy flying, gall, cameraderie, daftness, spirit and irreverence whatever the Wx mark, variant and operational role ! Happy days indeed.

[bast0n]

http://i291.photobucket.com/albums/ll301/tallbronzedgod/img992.jpg

Mark with a coloured crayon all those WX5s being flown by someone without a hangover!

[bast0n]

http://i291.photobucket.com/albums/ll301/tallbronzedgod/img991.jpg

The nervous and tired line up for the previous formation.

By the way if anyone wants any of these photos, and I have oodles more, do let me know.

Also you lot out there must have a wealth of unseen material that would be fun to share, as PP says it is not only the aircraft that made us happy, it was also the sometimes potty people who flew and maintained them and the mistakes/adventures they had. :)

[sycamore]

Any truth in the rumour of a certain `junglie`( D.L) thrown out of a pub one night,when next night flying at the same location ,flicks fuel jettison ON-OFF,..find it hard to believe really,as I was told `junglies` didn`t fly at night,or couldn`t do two things at once !!!

[Senior Pilot]

I guess this would make a lot of peeps fond of the Wessie ;)

http://www.abpic.co.uk/images/images/1029522F.jpg

[212man]

potty people who flew and maintained them and the mistakes/adventures they had

Like loosing off a couple of rockets at the Governor's residence, while on the crosswind leg of a nearby firing range?

[Thud_and_Blunder]

212man, surely all the years he spent after that in Nigeria were adequate penance for those few moments of madness?

[bast0n]

it was also the sometimes potty people who flew and maintained them and the mistakes/adventures they had.

There was the occasion when a WX5 returned to Simbang trailing hundreds of feet of telephone wire around his undercarriage, having taken out the communications between Singapore and Malaya. THIS DURING AN INSTRUMENT FLYING SORTIE!!:):):)

[delta96]

http://lh5.ggpht.com/TFN.Heaps/SC6_ThvgrZI/AAAAAAAAADQ/UiQULR6hPl0/s800/LYME2.jpg

I took this pic. on the promenade at Lyme Regis C.1972, when I was a sprog ATCO at Portland. The SAR Wessex was giving a winching demo with the local lifeboat when something went tech and it ended up 'feet wet'. The lifeboat had to tow it ashore where Trumpton can be seen hosing out the salt water. The pilot (a large bearded fellow) insisted that he had made a 'Mayday' call, although none of us in the radar room at portland had heard it. A protracted search of the tapes revealed a very feint maydaymaydaymayday in amongst the background noise.

[bast0n]

To really bore you to death, I have been reminded of an article I wrote for "Cockpit" some years ago on the end of the Wessex 5 in RN service. Some of you may recognise yourselves!!:):):)



Well, it’s gorn, finally and irretrievably, gorn. A lovely old helicopter that was already an old design when Westlands (those well known makers of garage doors) got their hands on it and turned it into the Wessex 5. The stories surrounding the aircraft are legion,……. its reputation for rugged, safe, if not always reliable, flying making it a firm favourite with those of us who were lucky enough to fly it. I suspect never again will we have a helicopter that has such a superb single engine performance and such enormous reserves of power when both were running. Some of the torque figures pulled are firmly burned into the minds of those who just kept pulling on the collective lever to avoid impending doom!



The well known Commander (Air) of a Naval Air Station who managed the ultimate in Australia by pulling so much torque that the complete head came off must surely hold the record for over-torqueing, though I am sure that as a Helicopter Warfare Instructor (HWI) he wouldn’t admit to ever looking at the torque meter even if he’d known where it was. Luckily the head came off on take-off, so the dozens of Australians occupying the fourteen available seats all came tumbling out of the back whingeing but unscathed. Engine-off landings were a fertile area for experiment, and it surely was one of the few helicopters that could be safely ‘engined off’ without having to use the collective lever. All it took was bags of nerve, even more speed than normal and a certainty that no one important was watching you! The resultant flare and interesting rearward tilt to the rotor disc made it a spectator sport of some note, with many cries of “Chicken” over the radio from the not so brave, as it was very obvious when someone cheated and used the lever! Did I say cheat by using lever? Strength at all ends of the machine was always a great bonus. No one who saw the brilliant arrival in dispersal, after an air display rehearsal at Yeovilton, will forget the Squadron Commanding Officer’s dashing arrival as he bounced the tailwheel off the top of a ground power unit with a good twenty degrees nose up, recovered, and landed for the second time in front of his surprised and by now very nervous marshaller. There was the chap in Singapore who returned to dispersal after an Instrument Training trip (supposedly being conducted at several thousand feet) that had a goodly portion of the main telephone cables between Singapore and Kuala Lumpur wrapped neatly round its nose and undercarriage!! It was bad luck, that one,…. because he only hit them while avoiding a train!



A WESSEX in Borneo returned from a trip to a very hot and high mountain, complaining of a vibration which was easily explained by the large lump of tree that was still embedded across the tail; in front, yes in front, of the tail rotor! A particularly good demonstration of the ruggedness of the old girl was amply demonstrated on an Instrument Flying (IF) trip in Cornwall. The pilot was the Sqn CO, who had the added disability of being a Royal Marine and to whom IF and quite a lot of other things, like holding a knife and fork, did not come naturally. Well at the end of the trip, to the IRI’s surprise, (No, I was never an IRI) the aforesaid RM was on centreline and glidepath (though glidepath has always struck me as a singularly inappropriate name for what a helicopter is doing at the time, certainly not ‘gliding’) and so the IRI decided to let the Jolly Green Giant continue below break-off height and see what happened! Well, it did, didn’t it, the aircraft struck the ground a shrewd blow at a steady 90 knots and stuck there as the combined team of IRI and RMJGG could not work out what to do next or even who had control at this stage! Wings knew what to do, he picked up his phone with one hand and watched the aircraft with his other, because if you see the disaster you legally cannot be on the Board of Inquiry! Well, the aircraft passed the tower slowing only slightly with faint wisps of brake dust beginning to show and a fairly impressive amount of rearward cyclic, finally coming to a halt at the runway intersection. The subsequent debrief was not entirely dominated by the IRI, as is usual, Wings seemed to have an awful lot to say.



To my certain knowledge it is also the only helicopter ever to have successfully taken on a SEA HARRIER in air to air combat and won, forcing the damaged stovie to return to base unable to continue, whilst the victorious and gallant Wessex crew, of which I was the Captain, landed at a nearby inn and celebrated their historic victory. This followed a mid air collision in cloud and did result in a little cosmetic surgery required around the tail wheel area of the Wessex and a new tailfin for the Harrier. Spookily, the Air Traffic Team on watch at the time happened to be a husband and wife, one of whom was controlling me and the other Willie Macatee, a USMC exchange Pilot in the Sea Harrier. More importantly than these very important details was the fact that husband and wife had fallen out at the time of the incident!



If the Wessex 5 had a weakness it was its tendency not to start when it was really necessary. It damned well knew when you were on a VIP trip and would flatly refuse to start, but then after the chap had departed, fuming and late by car, would start as though nothing had happened! The attitude of “Command” was always to have a spare for a spare for a spare, especially at long weekends to ensure the job could be done. The dodgy starting was made worse in later years by the Engineers changing the batteries to smaller ones without telling the Operators. This certainly made going home for lunch or stopping off at a pub whilst in transit, a much more exciting business! No one to my knowledge ever got caught out by “Them”, but several Wessex have been known to fly quite long distances on one engine to a place where it could be admitted that the other would not start! It knew when things were really serious though and rarely failed on a SAR mission, or on one glorious occasion in the days of short exhaust pipes, when an aircraft in the middle of a line of 18 others on Salisbury Plain did a wet start and set fire to the grass! They all started wonderfully that day!!



When it first went out to Borneo this tendency not to start, especially when hot, meant that you did not shut down whilst pausing between tasks. However, to reduce fuel consumption and noise it was common to pull the speed selects back to about 200 rotor RPM or less (they would normally be at 230). The interesting bit came when you took off, especially if you forgot to push them back up again. The aircraft would stagger into the air, if you were lucky, down a slope, rotor blades coning like a ballet dancer’s arms whilst you struggled to get the revs back without the passengers knowing anything was amiss and of course before you struck the trees.



Radios were another interesting quirk of the early Wessex 5. It had a marvellous HF set that could receive every known commercial radio station from all round the world and the ability to talk clearly to Malta from the Culdrose local area. What it could not do, however, was to talk to Culdrose from the local area or any other Naval Air Station from any other area. Whether this was due to the Ops Wrens spending more time on their nails or perhaps the Ops Chief, than listening to deafening static for hours on end, we shall never know. To go with this marvel of technology the WESSEX 5 was fitted with a truly remarkable UHF set, the PTR 170. This was a lightweight set designed for the Whirlwind with the fantastic total of 12 crystallized channels and nothing else. The Whirlwind was lucky: the set was not ready in time, but instead of ditching it, some communicator who clearly had a vested interest in the thing, (probably future employment with the manufacturer, though anyone who would support the PTR 170 would make a doubtful employee!), kept the project alive and bolted it into the Wessex 5, presumably thinking that’s where it would do least harm. Even though 12 channels may have been adequate in the ‘60’s and ‘70’s, they were understandably always the wrong 12 channels.



Now you may think that Junglies have enjoyed spending their lives flying as low as possible, but this is not so. We would have loved to join the Pingers flogging around in the clouds, idly glancing at instruments that patently lacked the correct attitudes, but we couldn’t talk to anyone. The only answer was to keep as low as possible and talk to no-one. After all, if you are lower than a delivery van, which does not have to get permission to enter the Heathrow Control Zone, why should you bother? Continental jaunts were made all the more exciting by the fact that the foreigners would not talk to us on our specially arranged frequencies, or would ask you to call approach which we did not have and then switch off on the special frequency! Back down to the delivery van flight level and pause at the airfield boundary in order to gain height to clear the barbed wire.



I had better clear up the low flying business, as the Wessex 5 spent most of its life there. To fly as low as possible is clearly still a prudent course of action, never mind the lack of radios that forced us down in the past. If anything drastic should go wrong you are much closer to that which is going to break your fall, ask anyone who has fallen off a barn roof (as indeed I have) and he will tell you “height hurts”. Teaching students to fly the Wessex 5 was another interesting pastime, as anyone who has followed the saga of modifications to the fuel computers and the plethora of pilots notes to go with them, will testify. Luckily, once again the fantastic single-engine performance made up for any lack of speed in dealing with the things and gave the instructor time to look up the correct actions as the student struggled with the wrong ones! The total lack of drama when on one engine was well demonstrated by an experienced Pongo on an exchange posting. On his final handling check at the end of his conversion course he did autos, approaches, landings and take-offs, all without noticing that the port engine had not been advanced from ‘ground idle’, where it was no good to man nor beast. On his re-scrub he did little better and was returned to the Army where his single engined flying skills would be of more use in their single engined aircraft.



Not always did the aircraft escape unscathed from these training exercises. Witness the two instructors who were practising Engine off landings by pulling the Speed Select levers (throttles) back on each other in increasingly difficult places. One pulled them at around 100 feet on climb out but the other chap wasn’t ready for it and failed to do anything, causing the rotor RPM to decay rather drastically. As the rotor RPM wound down they crashed straight ahead, having to climb out through the back of the cabin as there was a main wheel gently rotating outside one Pilots window and the ground filling the other.



The Wessex 5 has certainly seen life all round the world and it’s starring role in operations and disasters during its history are well known. Its greatest asset was that it was FUN to fly. You may not have been able to see out of it, you may even now have a bad back from its appalling seats and you may well never have seen your crewman’s face, but it was FUN. Chuck it about all you like and as long as you were smooth with your green gloved mitts, it would do almost anything and only retreating blade stall, tail rotor stall or your seat collapsing as the adjustor sprang out from the vibration, let you know that its limits were being approached!



Will the “Flying 290 Frame Crack” (Sea King Mk4) ever engender the same affection? With more radios than Currys, and bootnecks able to see if you have got the right map, I doubt it. Thirty degrees angle of bank the maximum and vibration that would shake the spots off a prostitute, pah! Fancy not being able to land with over forty degrees nose up for fear of breaking something, the Commando assault at Air Days will never be the same! We won’t see the likes of her again, more is the pity, but the venerable Wessex 5 was FUN whilst it lasted.

[Agusta]

I have never had the privilege of flying in a Wessex or even handling them (as I have worked on the ramp with Helos), however I do know plenty of Pilots who have flown them, one as a Junglie and owner of many campaign medals of the Cocktail party as he proudly posts.

They all talk with fond memories about the Wessex and it’s power. “The Junglie” told me when he was instructing on them, he pulled the power on one engine and the student did not notice, he continued to fly with one engine only on land “The Junglie” said “Do you want me shut this down as you don’t seemed to want to use it?” Oh how the student must have felt like a Donkey!

Another story I was told was about how tough they were, one was in an incident in Northern Ireland, the pilot flew several trip in a badly damage machine which was immediately written off when it got back to base


My memories of the Wessex, are back when just a Boy climbing in North Wales with the “Old Man”, is watching them flying around, bright yellow and “Stan the Winch Man” giving me a wave as they passed; what a machine!

[Simonta]

Not sure if this was a 72 SHFNI thing or of wider provenance.

Does anyone recall the words of a little ditty, often sung whilst lumbering over bandit country that began something like this and was sung to the tune of Cwm Rhondda (Bread of Heaven):

There's a funny looking airplane.
Drove by funny looking men.
...
..

My favourite memories (good and bad) as a fairy on 72 were:

Belting down the fire breaks in a forest near Sennelager at 90 kts and 15 feet.

Chasing "bandit" cars around the Thetford range. I'm sure that someone whacked a main wheel onto the bonnet at 60 mph to "encourage" a stop.

First heli I ever "hovered" - or danced around a field in some sort of loose interpretation of remaining stationary over the same bit of ground.

Covering the marshalling bats in oil and lighting them to help a Walter come back down at night in fog at Aldergrove

Fantastic torque turns into a rapid arrival. Couldn't believe how you could throw those things around.

Getting a phone call from a captain who couldn't find his way through the fog, spotted some grass, popped it down for a look see and found himself on a roundabout on some road junction (most definitely third hand and may be a myth).

And my favourite memory of all at 72. Dick Poole, sooty or rigger if I recall, sitting in the crewroom. Sqdn WO walks in (forget his name) and the following conversation ensues:

"Corporal Poole. I saw you leave the squadron at 5.20 last night. You know shift end time is 5.30".
"Not me sir. Must have been someone else".
"Don't argue with me Corporal, I saw you".
"Sorry sir, you must be mistaken".
WO, visibly angry now - "Corporal Poole. I saw you with my own eyes!"
"Couldn't have been me sir. I left about ten past"

WO turns incandescent with rage and can't shout properly through the apoplexy, rest of crew room howling in laughter...

Anyone who has to ask "why so special" probably had to be there. Looked right, smelt right, sounded right and from what I hear, flew right.

Fond memories.

[VicW]

G,day from Australia,

I just found the comments on the Wessex crash on the Rusty B. As I was the crewman flying with Dave Dixon. The description of the incident is basically correct. However, I just want to clarify a couple of points; the crash took place on 17 May 1969 and we were carrying a trailor underslung at the time. I believe the unfortunate member of the stores party that was killed on deck was a young Welshman.

Vic Warrington

Additional information:

We have the following entry for XT774: 845 Sqn ('F/B'), whilst landing underslung trailer on deck, lost power, heavy landing, entered ground resonance, port undercarriage collapsed, a/c rolled onto port side, A/B AB Hughes killed by debris and A/B W Willis injured, Bulwark off Cyprus, Cat HY 17.5.69 (S/L DP Dixon and PO VS Warrington).

[catbalu]

Hi guys, can anyone please help with a set of scale drawings to the wessex, i have a copy of the +4 drawings but not sure of how accurate these are. Why i ask is that i have scratch built a rc. westland wessex has1 and wish to build a 1/6 scale wessex and need to make sure that the drawings i use are to scale.Any help will be much appreciated. cheers gav..

e2mbq-xh_GQ


YouTube - westland wessex has 1 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e2mbq-xh_GQ)
ps.this is a link to my 1/10 scale wessex in flight.

[EESDL]

flying amongst the undergrowth and trimming the trees to get out would have been more realistic!
what a wierd feeling seeing a 'wessex' flying again

[helidoris]

Great Gen, been looking for that 72 stuff for ages. did 8 yrs in 70s & 80s. have a mate who was with me and his son is now on 72 course with 8 weeks to go. Albums had some cracking pics in them, will follow up, thanks. any other info would be welcome. (4000 hrs in a walter, never got hurt)

[Herod]

Just stumbled on this thread and haven't read all the posts yet. Why do people love the Wessex? Because it "did what it says on the tin". I flew the Mk 2 back in the sixties with 78 and 72 Squadrons RAF, desert, jungle, Europe. A genuine, honest machine with no vices (as long as you respected the old girl), and a proper engine-out capability. Advanced (for the time) engine controls and a good autopilot. Auto-stabilisation, but in "feel-free" mode supremely manoeuvrable. Won't hear a bad word said against it.

[helidoris]

Get it right, SHNFI. courtesy of cpl nfi br**n

[Thud_and_Blunder]

Herod, I dearly loved the beast at the time - it was the type I flew on my first 2 Sqns then taught on at Strawbury - but no vices? Shome mishtake shurely - think ground resonance (only a/c I've flown where you had to set torque against the rotor brake to stop it shaking itself to bits on start-up), autorotations with hyd-out, massive I-beams instead of window frames, a DECCA box which neatly filled the space between those I-beams and a cockpit which absolutely guaranteed a dodgy back at some stage in your career. Remember the drill for double-gen failure at night? Even the Series 3 Whirlwind had a better system for selecting essential electrics than the Wessie 2/5 - wipe your hand twice down the roof-panel: once to make the switches and once to make sure.

Still great fun though.

[Herod]

Thud and Blunder, I said "no vices (as long as you respected the old girl). Yes, it had its faults, you show me an aircraft that hasn't, but for the time it was a fine machine. Hot day, max weight, 105 howitzer slung under, one engine out, and still able to come to the hover and gently put the gun down before landing alongside. It's forty years (ye gods!) since I last flew rotary, so I'm not au fait with the state of the art, being more of a fixed-wing person until retirement. I guess things have moved on. As you say, t'was good fun.

[oldbeefer]

I think the great thing about the Wessex is that it has ceased to exist (to quote from the dead parrot sketch) - I much prefered the Puma (head down waiting for incoming).

[Data-Lynx]

As another who has stumbled into this thread, it has been a cracking read , especially for one of two overconfident Junglie sprogs who, in mid '72, were catapulted into three successive Wessex tours: Mk5 with 845 Sqdn, Mk1 in 771/772 Sqdn and then Mk3 in ships' flights. If you then think that the FAA had paid off all variants by the mid 80s, please accept dimming memories which have probably turned 'faults' into 'features'.

The warmest feeling arises from what we could do with the beast, at the time. While much has already been covered, I must say that the Mk5 was a joy in cold mountains, providing you could see the rocks. Bast0n's wheel on a pinnacle experience was not uncommon. Fitting a 'parrot's beak' intake in '73 with revised anti-icing and a better thermometer allowed us to fly down to -9 celcius (indicated) in the snow around Bardufoss, until they realised that the Gnome's new whistling noise from its 'hoover' warranted a replacement ecu. 5 engine changes later, the intake was removed. Strafing with 2" RP was another wonderful experience for many, not just for the concrete sailor's rockets around the Cyprus range.

The constant challenge was how to best achieve a Company Lift in a single sortie, by day and night. Less glowing is a recall of night stream formation without NVG. With practice and regular turns to even out the spacing, the stream interval could be reduced to 30 seconds between 8 aircraft in line astern. On one dark night, a formation landed in the order Ldr-2-3-4-6-5-7-8 without 5 and 6 knowing where they had crossed. I can also vouch for the sorry state of the radio fit and some of the regretable scrapes we got into just trying to fly around the UK, dodging cloud, poor visibility and the ground.

The move to the Mk1 brought multi-dial UHF and VHF radios, twice as many exhaust pipes for one less engine and Night SAR. There must be some out there who remember 'Engage - Wind me down'. Into wind at 125', the co-pilot engaged the FCS and then had to turn the height pot to maintain a lead at about 20 feet lower than the Rad Alt indication. A swaying 40' hover above a flickering floating flare could induce sweaty gloves. There were also some odd moments. Suddenly realising that the ground crew had gone during a grumbling AVPIN start did not induce confidence, especially when the obvious way out was past the Koffman starter that might be part of a fire (it wasn't on this occasion). Lu Zuckerman (http://www.pprune.org/rotorheads/123915-what-about-wessex-makes-people-so-fond.html#post1246751) was right and hindsight notes that a full double-skinned AVPIN tin was relatively safe on a land-away until it was part-used, taking in more air. We never really knew how big the bang could be if the crewman had kicked it out and it landed hard.

The Mk3 with its outstanding duplex FCS (Mk30?), Flight Director, accurate instrumentation and a circuit height raised by 25' to 150' bought precision, confidence and a much better class of run ashore: Destroyers went to more interesting places than Carriers. However, a closer relationship with the Bucket of Sunshine gave hours of reading out loud for very little flying.

http://nuclear-weapons.info/images/we177-wessex-edited.jpg

In all, each version had its features and idiosyncrasies and I would not have missed any of it. They did have one thing in common that does not seem to have been mentioned and I do not miss. The seat posture was rubbish!

http://www.codesmiths.com/shed/furniture/chairs/airchair/5f_1.jpg

[EESDL]

Ah! The Wessex 'hunch' which led to lower back pain which never officially existed according to those with a pen!

Never mentioned because Thread has the phrase.....'fond memories'.....in the title:-)

[Herod]

Oldbeefer, you preferred the Puma? Surely that should have been strangled at birth; IIRC its rotors go round the wrong way!!:}

[Oldsarbouy]

Coming from the Whirlwind, the two engines of the Wessex were of great comfort when dangling under it during my SAR days but I still remember some embarrassing times in NI having to drop half a stick of troops and their bergens outside while we went back into the fort to get the other half of the stick when Walter ran out of puff. Memories of ultra low flying in the Mk 4 around Scotland with Alan McG when I winch operated for the Queen's Flight delivering mail to the yacht. Seeing Foxtrot still afloat after we ditched in the South China Sea in a typhoon following a double engine failure due to water ingestion. Still hear the cries of "SAR boys, w*****s" from the crews who recovered us! :\ Happy memories indeed.

[TipCap]

As always, coming in late on a thread, I had the pleasure of flying both the Wessex 5 and the Wessex 60. My logbook tells me I had 1029 hours on them.

How did you know you had no 1 engine shut down on the wessex? You heard the exhaust of no 2!!

A few pics. 2 from 848 Sqn RNAS in 1966 and t'other from North denes in 1972. If you look closely, "x" marks the spot.

http://i692.photobucket.com/albums/vv287/kernow_lad/w5rn1.jpg

http://i692.photobucket.com/albums/vv287/kernow_lad/w5rn2.jpg

http://i692.photobucket.com/albums/vv287/kernow_lad/wx5nd.jpg

John Whale

[Savoia]

.
https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/__dRpfF8qlVM/TdIQ5hEhXPI/AAAAAAAADOY/QGdYD4OpzuQ/s720/Wessex%20HAS1%20XM330%20at%20Farnborough%2010%20Sep%2076%20% 28Steve%20Fitzgerald%29.jpg
RAE Westland Wessex HAS1 XM330 at Farnborough on 10th September 1976 (Photo: Steve Fitzgerald)

This craft incurred an incident during a ground run at Farnborough and was, from what I understand, somewhat badly damaged. It was later shipped off to the museum at Weston.

While on Wessex, Ferranti supplied a number of SAS units to Bristow's offshore fleet in the early 70's and it would be interesting to hear any recollections as to how the SAS performed.

Sav

[heli1]

XM330 actually suffered an IPN starter explosion,which caused some localised structural damage only.Easily repaired for static display and as noted now at the Helicopter Museum.

[Senior Pilot]

This little gem popped up on the Rotors over Gloucestershire (http://glostransporthistory.visit-gloucestershire.co.uk/Rotors.htm) website :ok:

zhDLME6dgpk

By 1979 the Churchdown School magazine had a new name – Chant – and Matthew Price of E1 had this to report about the previous autumn:
"In November, the Royal Navy came to the school to give us a display. They were stationed on the ground as well as in the air. They had a Landrover and a trailer. First the helicopter landed on a rugby pitch, then flew off leaving a man behind. The helicopter came back and picked up a trailer, putting it down on the other side of the field. Then a man sat in a dinghy, pretending to be at sea, to be rescued by the helicopter team. I thought it was very exciting to watch, particularly when the helicopter waltzed around the field. It was funny when the man sat in the dinghy in the middle of the field and when later, dangling from the helicopter, he looked like a spider!"

I personally remember this event well, not least because the Royal Navy always seemed to have the slickest careers presentations of the three services. The rotorcraft in question was a blue Westland Wessex HU5 with the letters P and T in white either side of the blue and red roundel on the rear fuselage. Did this stand for Presentation Team perhaps? Perhaps someone made a note of the number too. What I always regret is going home to eat – as usual – that day. Apparently some of the Sixth Formers were given a ride during the lunch hour!

[Andy Healey]

In 73 I was Nav2 on Bulwark and my SLJ had the rather grand title of Assault Chief Marshall. Mission - to wear a surcoat/loop headset and make sure the right sticks of booties got in the right Wessy. I loved that job and, call me soppy old romantic, was intrigued with the way the pilots climbed in the helo, as you might mount a charger before a joust, rather than just 'got in' like a SK.

It was that job that convinced me to go for flying and I was mildly disappointed, on getting my wings, to be sent SK rather than Wx5. But I finally realised my ambition when, on the cusp of leaving the RN in 82, I became the last pilot to convert to the Wx3 - day VMC only.

So I got to climb up the side in the end. I also loved the SOPS running landings and regular formations. On the downside, I still miss Greg Lewis.

[Savoia]

Nigel Osborn wrote: That Farnborough video reminded me of 1964 when 848 Squadron flew in the airshow with the Wessex 5.
Since reading this comment I've been keeping my eyes peeled for any '64 images of Wessex in the Farnborough vicinity but, alas, I've not had too much success. There was a RAF HC2 on display that year and I do have a shot of that!

However, 1964 was supposedly the year when two Wessex demonstrated their in-flight refuelling capability (below):

https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-xMCUb7JJy_M/Tkduw6qSvMI/AAAAAAAAEcA/WuQDtMC8_XQ/Wessex%25252064.jpg
Presumably Nigel remembers seeing this demonstration?

Another Wessex from '64 would have been this Mk 5 at Yeovilton:

https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-18Bkq6jXhlc/TkdsgtsqyQI/AAAAAAAAEbw/3Q9aGrTGI-Y/RN%252520Wessex%252520HU5%252520Yeovilton%25252025%252520May %25252064%252520%252528Alex%252520Christie%252529.jpg
RN Wessex HU5 at Yeovilton air base on 25th May 1964 (Photo: Alex Christie)

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-uJhlY9TZnq8/TkdsgXbqKvI/AAAAAAAAEbs/V59oc6sZCuE/848%252520Badge.jpg

Of the 848, just two images, one of which is likely to be of greater relevance to Nigel than the other:

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-M_NMSaTzL64/Tkds3epGX2I/AAAAAAAAEb4/dAHDlm4G1hU/WW%252520HU5%252520XT471%252520from%252520HMS%252520Bulwark% 252520at%252520Edinburgh%252520Summer%25252073%252520%252528 Peter%252520Nicholson%252529.jpg
Westland Wessex HU5 XT471 of 848 Squadron attached to HMS Bulwark visiting Edinburgh during the Summer of 1973 (Photo: Peter Nicholson)

https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-SiD7szaWv3Q/TkduwYFEp9I/AAAAAAAAEb8/76oEN98R7Ts/C%252520Flight%252520848%252520Nanga%252520Gatt%2525201965.j pg
Westland Wessex Mk 5 of 848's 'C' flight in Nanga Gaat in 1965

Some of the narrative associated with the above image reads: "On arrival in Singapore we disembarked for the RM barracks Sembawang and NAS Simbang where we prepared the helicopters for operations in the jungles of Borneo swapping the sand and green camouflage for the jungle green colouring that now denoted us a jungle bunnies.

After the period of preparation we once more embarked on the Albion and proceeded to Borneo. On arrival off Kuching 'B' and 'C' flights flew off to their respective areas of operation. We had now exchanged our Navy blue for the green uniforms of our Royal Marine brothers but we did not seem to convey the same outwardly appearance that the 'Bootniks' achieved and I suppose most of them were a little weary of 'Jack' with a rifle in his grasp.

'B' flight was to operate from our rear base at Sibu and 'C' flight was on its way up country to Nanga Gaat which was a few miles from the Indonesian border where the Gaat and barley rivers met. As we flew down the river it became apparent on just how much 845 Squadron had suffered whilst operating here. In the trees was a wreck of a Wessex 1, one of two that had collided as they approached the forward airbase. This was more compelling as Scouse Rothwell, a Naval Air Mechanic who had been in my class at Ganges and Condor had perished in the incident.

It was as it we had entered another world. We had all heard about the head hunters of Borneo but never in my wildest dreams did I ever imagine I would live amongst them. The Iban tribesmen were used by the British forces as border scouts and one of my first sightings of them was as they disembarked from one of the Wessex."

Another Wessex character from this period was W.H. Sear:

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-LecJck4U_20/TkdshA0T6MI/AAAAAAAAEb0/W4vmFncxNlQ/s512/slim%252520sear%252520with%252520wessex.JPG
'Slim' Sear climbs aboard the Wessex

W.H. "Slim" Sear, OBE, AFRAes, was Chief test pilot of Westland Aircraft from 1952 until 1967. "Slim" Sear went to Westland after flying with the RAF and the Royal Navy and graduating from the ETPS and was responsible for the development and production flight testing of all the company's rotary-wing aircraft during his tenure. He played a prominent part in developing the all-weather and anti-submarine capabilities of the Wessex and was closely associated with the development of turbine types.

He was responsible for flight development on the Westminster which was, at that time, the UK's largest helicopter and, latterly, the anti-submarine Wessex Mk 3. He received an OBE in 1963 in recognition of his flight test work.
.

[Nigel Osborn]

Sav

Very interesting! Slim Sear was a great bloke & took me out for dinner twice at Farnborough as I had 2 girls visiting & he made a foursome! Slim is flying one of the refueling Wessex, quite a straight forward operation but not really practical. The Wessex he is climbing into had the short original exhaust pipe, ok in England where you kept the back door shut but no good in the tropics as the cabin filled with exhaust when the main door was open for ventilation. Hence the longer pipe was fitted.

The late John White is on the ground in the middle of the front row, along with Gordon Bradley, Pat McHaffey & myself; too small a photo for me to recognise the others.

The Nanga write up is not correct, both Wessex Mk1 of 845 fell into the river & thanks to the depth & very strong current were never located by the divers. Only one person survived the accident, Petty Officer Crispin, who went out the open main door into the river & only had minor injuries.

One day I'll work out how to load photos!!:confused:

[Savoia]

.

The late John White is on the ground in the middle of the front row, along with Gordon Bradley, Pat McHaffey & myself; too small a photo for me to recognise the others.

Good Lord! What a merry band of rascals you were!

Yes, now that you mention it that does look like Pat (third from the right) and Chalky (fifth from the left). The image is horrifc and for which I apologise. Believe it or not, it was enlarged from the original!

If you have photos Nigel then please get them scanned (if you can) and email them to me. I'll gladly host them for you whereupon you can post them on PPRuNe to your heart's content and, I dare say, to the appreciation of a few Wessex fans!
.

[TipCap]

Savoia, It was great seeing Wessex "E" with the "A" of Albion on the tail in your post (#154) on the ground at Yeovilton in 1964 :).

That was the aircraft that was allocated to me when I flew it on to Albion from Culdrose on 3rd April 1967 when 848 embarked (see my post #148).

Regards

TC

[Savoia]

John

There seem to be a number of PPRuNers with links to the Albion, posted below for posterity:

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-L3tB8mVPpSU/TklP2Q8YD6I/AAAAAAAAEdo/_pZgLwGSUXs/s640/hms%252520albion%2525201972.jpg
HMS Albion 'at sea' in 1972 onto which PPRuNer John 'TipCap' Whale flew Wessex 'E' from RNAS Culdrose in 1967

On the Nostalgia Thread (http://www.pprune.org/rotorheads/419023-rotary-nostalgia-thread-42.html) I've dropped a wee note about the late great Roi Wilson who was senior pilot with 848 Sqn from 1955-57 and who served as Air Commander aboard the Albion from 1966-68.

Did you also fly Wessex with Bristows and if so, do you happen to recall if the craft you flew were fitted with Ferranti SAS and again, if so, how did the equipment perform please? (This is for a write-up on the Ferranti site).

Finally, can anyone assist with the image below for which I have no details? Grazie Mille.

https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-N5O6Jtp-EnU/TklPoDDyv1I/AAAAAAAAEds/qZT0AVfn30U/s640/RN%252520Wessex.jpg
A Wessex flight 'somewhere' at 'sometime' !! Sorry, no info on this one.

Regards

Sav lemonchiffon

[TipCap]

Hi Sav

Thanks for the great pictures :ok:. Any chance of sending me that picture of Albion at sea. I have several of her that if anyone was interested I would post.

Yes I flew the Wessex 60 with Bristows with some 700 hours in command. We certainly had sas fitted and in later days even weather radar but whether the sas was ferranti or not I don't know but I will find out for you.

Best wishes

John Whale

[dg93]

John, I have been watching your posts so I will supply some of the answers.
The SAS fitted to the Wessex 60 Series 1 was a Ferranti Type FAS-2W embodied to modification ATL/GEN/004.
To show what an anarak I am it consisted of 3 Gyro amplifiers P/n 64-55530 or FAS-A2-W. A control unit P/n 74-80-025. An Adaptor unit P/n 64-55490 or FAS-TI-W and three normal Servo motors WB5-73-2903.
Please keep the pictures coming.
Its reliability was quite good after we learnt the lessons from G-ATCA's crash at Swansea Airport (9 Sept 1972) except for a onerous check every seven days.
Dave Gash.

[TipCap]

Thanks Dave.

Nice to hear from you again after all these years.

Sav, there's your answer.

Take care, guys

John Whale

[Savoia]

John/Dave, many thanks! :ok:

My understanding is that the Ferranti SAS unit employed on the Bristow fleet was reasonably effective. I would still appreciate further feedback from any drivers familiar with the system.

More Wessex from Osborn's era ..

https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-MuO-pyuOj2M/TlEt9ZpXV4I/AAAAAAAAEjU/xcYLwG7FfyY/s800/WW%252520HC2%252520XR516%252520RAF%252520Gaydon%25252019%252 520Sep%25252064%252520%252528Peter%252520Clarke%252529.jpg
An RAF Westland Wessex HC2 XR516 at Gaydon on 19th September 1964 (Photo: Peter Clarke)

Is that an early Mobil Oil symbol on the tail?

ps: One of the mods is tagging me "lemonchiffon" - should I be pleased or pi**ed? Lol!

lemonchiffon.

[CharlieOneSix]

.
Is that an early Mobil Oil symbol on the tail?.

Although it doesn't much look like it, it's a Pegasus rampant which indicates it is an 18 Squadron airframe.

[Savoia]

C16, many thanks for identifying 516 as a member of 18 Sqn. As you say, the Pegasus rampant doesn't reflect the standard design normally used by the squadron and (as depicted below) appears to have more in common with the logo of the oil company.

Perhaps 18's CO had an understanding with the MD of Mobil! ;)

https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-MKBrh20oCX0/TlFNYFzXSPI/AAAAAAAAElE/v4TarJ8BsBI/18_Squadron_RAF.jpg

18 Sqn badge with Pegasus rampant

https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-S3j_kb9Snsc/TlFNXd15ZLI/AAAAAAAAElI/lJmRBQTQKJg/logo_mobil_lg.jpg

1960's Mobil Oil logo

lemonchiffon

[dg93]

Hi Savoia

Yes we received a batch of Transfers from Mobil as it was the easiest way of getting a sign on the aircraft before we took part in the 1964 Farnborough show.
Thanks for the pictures
Dave

[Savoia]

Dave, good Lord, how odd!

Let me hope that the chaps at Mobil granted the squadron a favourable discount on Jet A or a year's supply of jet oil or some such benevolence in recompense for the 'free advertising' 18 Sqn delivered during the show, lol!

lemonchiffon

[TipCap]

Sav

You are talking about an Oil Company now and I had 40 years experience flying for them - enough said!!! You don't get "owt for nowt"

John

[Savoia]

I'm not entirely sure of the rotary path followed by the White House but I think its something along the lines of .. Bell 47J Ranger (USAF), Bell 205 and then onto the Sikorskys (how many different types prior to the Sea King I am unaware) with a transfer of responsibility to the Marine Corps somewhere along the way.

I am even less sure when the well known 'white top' colour scheme came into vogue but had always assumed this to be an exclusively American configuration.

You might imagine my surprise then to discover that the RN had a number of Wessex assigned to VIP duties which donned a similar green and white motif!

https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-e6qeIbNY764/TlK0S08LLrI/AAAAAAAAEm4/W45U4KoxBnI/s800/WW%252520HU5%252520XT772%252520Southend%252520Rochford%25252 0Jan%25252079%252520%252528Richard%252520Vandervord%252529.j pg
Westland Wessex HU5 XT772 serving with 781 Naval Air Squadron at Lee-on-Solent seen here at Southend (Rochford) in January 1979 (Photo: Richard Vandervord)

Evidently these VIP ships were nicknamed 'Green Parrots'. Does anyone have insight as to some of the VIP work these craft would have undertaken?

[Tallsar]

...or Admiral's Barges.... Says it all really... :)

[Sandy Toad]

Excellent photo Savoia - good find!
I was lucky enough to spend 2 years based at Lee flying the Green Parrots from 73-75.
At the start they were XS450 and XT770. XT772 replaced XS450 in May 74.

Tasks were varied but often out of Battersea with various Admirals or Cabinet Ministers. Destinations from Isles of Scilly to Scotland, though Naval establishments and Ships obviously predominated. Lord Mountbatten was a regular passenger and never failed to send a short thank you note.

Unusually for the RN we flew with Comms Guy left hand seat to handle the Decca and our lavish avionics suite of ARC52 with VHF frequencies instead of the usual PTR 170 UHF of normal MkVs. We also carried a Wren Hostess in the back to look after our passengers who sat in the unusual comfort of a Club seating layout complete with table. The fact our Wrens wore stockings was a regular Flight Safety issue but was easily rebuffed by saying that I wasn't prepared to ask Admiral's wives to remove their tights, so our girls should keep their stockings, though silk would perhaps be better than nylon!

In addition to our bread and butter tasks we used to pick up miscellaneous jobs. Photographing the Harrier landing on HMS Fearless off Greenwich; Air Day displays; Red Devil Para Drops; odd electronic trials; in fact anything that couldn't be laid at anyone else's door!

The position carried the additional bonuses of being Self Authorising, much to the consternation of some Commanders Air and that any visits by the Trappers (Standards Flight) invariably consisted of us taking them on a London Heli Route famil to see the sights instead of the usual GFP/IF ordeal.

A fantastic job, excellent memories and a few good stories for the bar!

[chopper2004]

Does anyone have cockpit layout of the then RAE Bedford Wessex configured for testing the first gen of Multi Function Displays please?

Until the AW101 Merlin demonstrator for AAR during trials with AMI KC-130J, I didint realise that we had experimented with AAR with rotorcraft let alone the Wessex! :ooh:

Are there any more details on AAR trials for the Wessex, any papers around?

Cheers
Chopper2004

[Cornish Jack]

Managed to amass FOUR half crown/sixpence episodes in TWO days Wessex flying. returning from Winter/Icing trials in the 70s. Eventually ended up in a playing field at North Foreland being hosed down by the local Fire Brigade as an antidote to possible Foot-and-Mouth infection!!!:{ Think mid December temperatures!!
Fond of the Wessex??? Hmm, I'll 'take the Fifth' - to (mis)quote our transatlantic cousins - especially as a long-time and TOTALLY committed fan of the Whirlwind -all versions. Someone once suggested to me that the Wessex was just a Whirlwind with SAS - Never!! compared to the ultra-light cyclic input on the Whirly, the Wessex was a big lumpy pudding stirring experience - even SAS out, it lacked finesse.
Given the previous posts, maybe one should consider taking cover!!:E

[bast0n]

Nigel O - aka YAK - Where do you think you are sitting in the photo of C flight?

I know most of them and do not recognise you.

D

[Nigel Osborn]

My memory isn't as good as yours as I can't remember which flight I was in! I find the photo a bit indistinct but I thought that maybe me next to McHaffey but I guess not. Is that Mike Smith in the middle?

[Savoia]

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-71ua3dzJlao/TlSpbzNf2_I/AAAAAAAAEno/qW8dmdZ5HKk/C%252520Flight%252520848%252520Nanga%252520Gatt%2525201965%2 52520II.jpg

As mentioned, the photo is atrocious and for which I apologise (ripped from some blog in deepest darkest cyberspace!). But, I 'think' the white cirlce is John 'Chalky' White and the orange circle Patrick McHaffey! Any other names please send them in so we can identify this motley crew!


John Whale wrote: I have several of her that if anyone was interested I would post.


John, it would seem as though there are several Rotorheads whose experiences involve the Albion and I would have thought that a shot or two of the lady at sea would be in fine order. I'm sure Senior Pilot is not averse to the odd ship, especially as she was a helicopter carrier! You never know, perhaps SP is ex-RN!

Re: The Albion photo I posted, you can either 'right click and save' or PM me your email address and I'll mail it to you. The version posted on PPRuNe is only slightly different from the original in that I modify the constrast, colouring and 'sharpness' of all the images I post.

More Albion ..

https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-3h-L-V-cbuw/TlSpau6vC8I/AAAAAAAAEns/qDIwocCb3A8/HMS%252520Albion%252520July%2525201967%252520One%252520of%25 2520the%252520girls%252520from%252520the%252520Billy%252520S marts%252520Circus%252520sits%252520on%252520the%252520fligh t%252520deck%252520of%252520the%252520aircraft%252520carrier %252520wearing%252520one%252520of%252520the%252520sailors%25 2520caps%252520during%252520a%252520performance%252520for%25 2520the%252520crew.jpg
One of the girls from the Billy Smarts Circus sits on the flight deck of the aircraft carrier HMS Albion wearing one of the sailors caps during a performance for the crew. (Notice how the chaps have to be restrained by a rope, lol!) ;)

[chopper2004]

North Weald Air Show summer 1993 72 Sqn Wessex on show

http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g209/longranger/72sqn_wessex_northweald93.png

http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g209/longranger/72sqn_wessex_north_weald93.png

My one and only visit to North Weald :)

[Savoia]

Very much enjoyed Sandy's reminiscences of his time with 781 Sqn and to know that he shares, along with my godfather, a number of handwritten notes from the late great Lord Louis 'Dickie' Mountbatten. (Ferranti's aircraft were at the Dickie's disposal for the better part of a decade and were, I suppose, the civilian helicopters he used most often).

I was sure the 'Green Parrots' would have frequented Battersea (given the nature of your work) - did you use the congested little helipads or remain out on the pier?

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-ap1G3agRT6Q/TlVNblpbPNI/AAAAAAAAEpA/UAF9A_wjQps/s512/MB%252520arriving%252520for%252520launch%252520at%252520Camm ell%252520Laird%2525201962.jpg
Earl Mountbatten arriving at Cammell Laird's shipyard in Birkenhead on 16th August 1962, courtesy of Fleet Air Arm Westland Wessex HAS1 XM923, to attend the launch of HMS Ajax (a Leander-class frigate which carried a single Westland Wasp on board)

[Of HMS Ajax; In 1964, she deployed to the Far East, becoming leader of the 24th Escort Group returning only in 1968. In 1970, she became the Gibraltar guard ship, a required deployment at that time due to the tense fears of invasion by General Franco. Later that year, Ajax began modernisation that lasted to 1973, having her 4.5 inch turret replaced by an Ikara anti-submarine missile system. GWS22 SeaCat (2x4) was fitted aft and 40mm guns were mounted amidships. Just prior to her decommissioning Ajax escorted the HMY Britannia during her 1985 tour of Italy.]

Looking at the Green Parrots, they seem to be fitted with the same VIP cabin windows as those used by the RAF's Queen's Flight in their day:

https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-GFIvrC1Bfp0/TlVNr7-tE4I/AAAAAAAAEpI/MqPHohNO63I/s720/WW%252520HCC4%252520XV732%252520Manchester%25252016%252520Ma y%25252075%252520%252528Shaun%252520Connor%252529.jpg
RAF Westland Wessex HCC4 XV732 of the Queen's Flight at Manchester's Ringway airport on 16 May 1975 (Photo: Shaun Connor)

Sandy mentions the interior of the Green Parrots and which, I suppose again, were similar to that of the Queen's Flight (below):

https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-XwVeZXk8np4/TlVNb_WfcmI/AAAAAAAAEpE/MjJr_Z8GJ0o/WW%252520HCC%252520Mk4%252520XV733%252520Queen%252527s%25252 0Flight.jpg
The interior of Wessex HCC Mk4 XV733 formerly of the Queen's Flight

As shown above, the Queen's Flights ships were not normally configured in a club arrangement, but one imagines that this could have easily been arranged if required.


I was hosted for a day at Benson in 1991 courtesy of their CO, a chap by the name of Hugh Rolfe, and got to see both 'Rainbows' for myself. A great outfit with a great bunch of chaps. Hugh mentioned that HM was not overly fond of the blitterblats (I believe she has warmed slightly to the 76 in recent decades) and that she rarely flew in them. However, some months prior to my visit, they had flown HM from Balmoral to BP when Gulf War One kicked-off.

[Savoia]

https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-xHztSFfEAO8/Tlc1w-f1fBI/AAAAAAAAEpc/AjxIXsflrko/s640/WW%252520HU5%252520XS479%252520848%252520Sqn%252520Yemeni%25 2520Coast%252520Nov%25252067%252520%252528Joe%252520Barr%252 529.jpg
Westland Wessex HU5 XS479 of 848 Squadron off the Yemeni coast in November 1967 (Photo: Joe Barr)

Another Wessex from 848 attached to the Albion. This one involved in the British withdrawal from Aden.

Icing Trials: Was it 'Chalky' (John White) who told me one day on the pads at Brooklands that he was involved in icing trials with the Wessex which resulted in an almost unrecoverable Nr droop - or was that someone else?

[bast0n]

Nigel

Pilots in the front row left to right.

Chalky White - Mike Smith - Colin Howgill - Pat Mcaffey and me! I think the rest of the front row are other trades various.

D

[bast0n]

AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

http://i291.photobucket.com/albums/ll301/tallbronzedgod/BulwarkAlbion9.jpg

[bast0n]

Cornish Jack

the Wessex was a big lumpy pudding stirring experience - even SAS out, it lacked finesse.

You should have taken the stick trim out to get nearer to a Whirlwind! I do agree though that the nicest to fly - if not to do a job of work in - was the Whirlwind 9. Engine offs into dispersal with a full SAR crew in the back? No problem!

D

[Savoia]

Bast0n, what a great shot of the Albion and how accommodating of the ground crew to get the Wessex to behave so well even to the point of spelling-out the name of the carrier, great stuff! :D

Would anyone care to educate me on the two 'bits' identified by the yellow arrows. I'm guessing the pod is an auxiliary fuel tank and, if so, what is the black contraption atop the tank? The second (a pipe? protruding from the belley at a 45° angle) perhaps an oil vent?

https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-7TVfmMwgUak/Tldbpv27qaI/AAAAAAAAEp0/sg_lGaRmlew/WW%252520HU5%252520XT469%252520Bassingbourn%252520Barracks%2 5252028%252520May%25252078%252520%252528Mick%252520Bajcar%25 2529%252520II.jpg
Westland Wessex HU5 XT469 at Bassingbourn Barracks on 28th May 1978 (Photo: Mick Bajcar)

[bast0n]

Savoia

Black contraption above the tank is the stores carrier for hanging whatever from and the two pipes underneath are the fuel jettison pipes, an item that the WX 2 did not have for a long time.

D

[Nigel Osborn]

I wasn't too sure if that was me but with that high forehead I should have guessed it was you! Colin looks very like Gordon Bradley, my mistake. Which flight was I in, John Rawlins was the leader but I don't remember the others.:ok:

[coley chaos]

The photo above so reminds me of being a young lad (PO on the tail set me off)...living in Weymouth, but come the summer holidays..going over to the mini beach at Portland Castle with my mum....sitting on the stone wall at the end of the threshold of HMS Osprey and waving to all the crews landing or taking off....didnt care if they didnt wave back....just was fascinated by all the aircraft.

my mum did her part too by sunbathing in a bikini....which if memory serves me right...led to a lot of slow approaches and always off centreline...which pleased me no end.... Wessex Mk 3 & 5s...Wasps....

Chris.

[bast0n]

AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH TWO !!!!!!!!!


http://i291.photobucket.com/albums/ll301/tallbronzedgod/BulwarkAlbion.jpg

[Savoia]

Bast0n that's a brilliant shot. :ok:

Dave Gash wrote: The SAS fitted to the Wessex 60 Series 1 was a Ferranti Type FAS-2W embodied to modification ATL/GEN/004. It consisted of 3 Gyro amplifiers P/n 64-55530 or FAS-A2-W. A control unit P/n 74-80-025. An Adaptor unit P/n 64-55490 or FAS-TI-W and three normal Servo motors WB5-73-2903.

Its reliability was quite good after we learnt the lessons from G-ATCA's crash at Swansea Airport (9 Sept 1972) except for a onerous check every seven days.

David thanks for this. I was unable to discover anything substantive about ATCA's demise, in fact all I could source was this brief note in Flight International:

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-NP59g6HpGM0/Tn7zuBY0JcI/AAAAAAAAFBQ/vsZyt2Tssmk/ATCA%252520piece%252520FI%25252014%252520Sep%25252072.jpg
Flight International 14th September 1972

What exactly happened please? They were conducting low-level hover trials .. and it burst into flames!!!

G-ATCA in better days; from post 507 on page 26 (http://www.pprune.org/rotorheads/419023-rotary-nostalgia-thread-26.html) of the Nostalgia Thread:

https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-0B4HDLDgvS4/TYmeQpIlHQI/AAAAAAAAEsk/Vn4ubqRbx6Q/atca.jpg
Westland Wessex Mk 60 G-ATCA over Ford's Dagenham plant on 9th July 1970 en-route to Belgium to deliver the one millionth Ford Cortina car

.

[TipCap]

I sort of remember that. I was at North Denes on the Wessex 60 at the time. I am not sure if it was an autopilot thing but Ben Breach (RIP) got quite badly burnt in the crash. I think it was on a test hover but that was 40 years ago and the memory aint as good as it used to be. Sadly it was Ben who lost his life in the Wessex off N Denes which signalled the end of the Wessex for Bristow

John

[Fareastdriver]

Every time i carried a car underslung it would spear into the middle of an airfield in front of a crowd.

[dg93]

I will try to explain simply (the memory banks are a little cloudy). The Secondary servo pack is situated between the pilots at about shoulder height just above the main drive shaft running between the coupling gearbox and the main rotor gearbox.
It can be moved by the pilot or the Auto stabilizing System, the ASE has two (Civil) or three (Military) electrical servo motors which will move the pilot valve to help fly the aircraft.

With this arrangement a Stick Jump Check was called for by the Pilot on a daily basis. The Pilot did this and discovered a large stick jump. As the system was new the Engineer flying with the aircraft spoke with the engineers at North Denes and it was decided to adjust the pilot valves to try and eliminate the stick jump.

The impression that I got when I joined the Company 6 months later was that this was something new and unknown, the fault diagnosis in the Manual was a bit vague so they proceeded with an adjustment.

It would seem that a combination of errors, i.e. servo motor operating outside its proper range, a vague procedure, and an adjustment too great that when the secondary hydraulics was switched off the aircraft controls were outside their operating range and the aircraft crashed and burned. The Pilot and Engineer were both badly burnt but both returned to work after quite a long time recovering.

After this event a 7 day hard-over check (Tech. Memo 110) was started, a Hard-over box was developed and the inspection was expanded to the check that I referred to previously. When I arrived at North Denes I was able to increase the knowledge a little as I used to set these servo units up on the bench. The RAF had similar problems with their servo motors going outside their operating range so a programme was set up to study and improve the reliability of the units.

One must remember that at this time electronics was something new, some of us could not even spell electronics or avionics let alone understand it.
David Gash

[[email protected]]

Anyone happen to know if the Uruguayans are still operating the Wessex we sold them?

[AndyBuckley]

http://www.eacott.com.au/gallery/d/4555-1/wls58_uy_xr505.jpg



081 XR505 westland Wessex HC.2 C/N wa130 - Helicopter Database (http://www.helis.com/database/cn/275/)

Rgds

[catbalu]

hi guys , I did come across these videos. here is a link. cheers gav:D Aviacion Naval del Uruguay WESSEX 081 - YouTube

[[email protected]]

Fantastic, thanks Andy - that one's definitely in my logbook and I might fly it again when I visit the Urugayan SAR set-up in November:ok:

[oldbeefer]

Crab - very brave of you judging by some of the pics brought back to sy some time ago!

[John Eacott]

Fantastic, thanks Andy - that one's definitely in my logbook and I might fly it again when I visit the Urugayan SAR set-up in November:ok:

Carry your bags, guv? ;)

I notice that they seem to have dispensed with the pop out floats: even with good SE performance I think that I'd like them as a fall back :hmm:

Every time i carried a car underslung it would spear into the middle of an airfield in front of a crowd.

Lossie Air Day as a callow Mid being chased by a flour bombing Tiger Moth, then abandoned the (cut down) Austin to watch it lifted and dropped by the Station Flight. Interesting times :p

[Fareastdriver]

The last car I dropped some years ago was from 1,000 ft. There was then time to do a tight orbit so everybody could see it going down. What was really impressive was the massive shock wave that radiated out across the grass; real 2nd WW bombing stuff.

[Savoia]

Over on the Bristow Thread Industry Insider has been looking for S61's carrying various oil company titles. Albeit a Wessex this one bears her client's shield .. in this case Amoco. Then, on the previous page, (post 161) we had the RAF Wessex which wore Mobil Oil's logo in place of their squadron badge during Farnborough '64!

https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-adiewB-feaU/TpEonz4554I/AAAAAAAAFNE/jmZ2QoJKPbo/s850/Wessex%252520Mk60%252520Paris%252520Le%252520Bourget%252520l ate%25252060%252527s%252520%252528Robert%252520Roggeman%2525 29.jpg
Westland Wessex Mk60 at Paris Le Bourget in the late 60's (Photo: Robert Roggeman)

Of course ASWI can only evoke sad memories for those who knew her and it is now 30 years since that fateful day in August when she met her demise:


"The Westland Wessex Mark 60 G-ASWI left North Denes airfield at 13:47 on Friday 13 August 1981 on a routine passenger and freight flight between rigs on the Leman and Indefatigable gas fields. The crew consisted of a pilot and a cabin attendant.

At 15:41, returning from the Leman field to the landing site at Bacton, the commander, Ben Breach, sent a distress message reporting that he was ditching due to engine failure. Three seconds later the aircraft was lost from radar. A Royal Air Force Search and Rescue Westland Sea King departed RAF Coltishall at 15:47, sighting floating wreckage from G-ASWI at 15:57. There were no survivors.

Efforts to recover the wreck were delayed, meaning that the wreck was beyond recovery by the time salvage operations started. There was insufficient evidence to explain either the loss of power or loss of control that caused the aircraft to crash. The inquest into the deaths of those on board recorded an open verdict."
Terribly sad. :( RIP

[bast0n]

Crab

Are you sure it is a Wessex 2? I did not think that they had fuel jettison fitted...........?

D

[lsd]

Wessex 2 sure had fuel jettison, check out AP 4723B-PN Part 1 Chap 3 para 16 and Part 2 Chap 1 para 20.
Only way to keep up with the Red Baron sometimes was to dump weight asap.

[soggyboxers]

bast0n,
It's approaching the 40th anniversary of my last flight in a Wessex 2 whilst on an exchange to the Crabs, but I seem to remember it did have fuel jettison. I'll see if I can dig out some old photos next time I'm home at the end of December.

[[email protected]]

Baston , yes the Mk 2s had fuel jettison but the 84 Sqn Wessex were Mk5s reworked to Mk2 standard and they retained the drop tank on the port side as well. An SBS officer suggested they could mount their canoe on the drop tank so we could fly them out and air-drop them!!! Barking mad.

[bast0n]

I must be getting old as at Farnborough '64 the HC2s did not have the jettison facility wot we had and I am not sure that they were fully folding. Nor did they have the purple Triumph Tina scooters...........!

Oh the joy of falling off and loosing all the pretty anchors from ones uniform as one skidded towards the oncoming traffic. Anyone remember the Crabs big flying Phoenix wot we knicked.........?

D


Farnborough '64
http://i291.photobucket.com/albums/ll301/tallbronzedgod/WessexV0129.jpg

[c53204]

Built in hair dryer for passengers - when getting on/off :-)

My last memory was sitting in one on a pad at Bessbrook Mill. just after lift off an almighty bang and the pic dumped it on the ground. By the time we were allowed off, several techs looking curiously around the TR.

[lsd]

D

Yep! your own words, you are getting old! In '64 the first Mk 2s did not have fuel jettison (the XS, XT and XV serials did) or blade fold experience within the squadrons, the tail fold was there(post mod 1025 '67)

... and the mobility scooters were for those who needed them it seems!

ps. your pictures (and mine) do not show Wessex 5s in those days with fuel jettison, so just what did you have to brag about in those days......?????

pps guess I'll accept a glass of that german white wine...

[bast0n]

LSD

The 5 did have fuel jettison from the start but not the rubber tube and hinge extensions fitted later to stop covering the whole rear of the aircraft in fuel. You can see the pipes in the photo below. (if your old eyes are good enough...........!)

D

http://i291.photobucket.com/albums/ll301/tallbronzedgod/WessexV019.jpg

[lsd]

D

Your memory better than my eyes!

Bravo Zulu!!

lsd

[CharlieOneSix]

It's a long time since these old eyes have seen a Mk 44 torpedo but is that what is on the stores carrier in the above photo? If correct, what was it doing on a junglie Wessex?

[[email protected]]

If only they had let us operate the Wessex in NI in that fit (without the tropedo but with the fwd facing cannon and port GPMG)!!!

I like Baston's pic proudly proclaiming it had a Royal Nav - we only had ordinary plebian ones:E

[bast0n]

Charlie1 and sixpence

It's a long time since these old eyes have seen a Mk 44 torpedo but is that what is on the stores carrier in the above photo? If correct, what was it doing on a junglie Wessex?

We used to toss bomb them into clearings in Borneo to make sure there were no nasty chaps about. Fuses modified of course. Most effective too.

Crab - all for you. Y Insert as necessary!


Oh - and the 2" RP was fun as well.

http://i291.photobucket.com/albums/ll301/tallbronzedgod/Photoscan3471.jpg

[Fareastdriver]

How did you manage to miss an island that big?

[bast0n]

FED

How did you manage to miss an island that big?

As you can clearly see - depending on age - that the island is sinking by the stern.........

D

[Fareastdriver]

Nice one, BastOn.

[dg93]

Oh the joy of falling off and loosing all the pretty anchors from ones uniform as one skidded towards the oncoming traffic. Anyone remember the Crabs big flying Phoenix wot we knicked.........?

Yes we eventually got it back in pieces and painted in an odd colour scheme, but we had the technology to rebuild it. It was restored to almost its original (Mobil) splendour.

D.G.

[bast0n]

DG

As I recall it was in one piece until the rugger match- yes camouflaged - but in one piece. Things seemed to go downhill a little after that..........

PS we won the rugger.......................

D

[Regain]

Apologies if similar already posted having not read the whole thread but:-

Early in my army aviation career while co-located with a Wessex in Omagh, I asked one of the pilots what it (he/she?) was like to fly.

"Like flying a council house from the upstairs bog," came the reply.

Tickled me.

[Cabe LeCutter]

Crab

That remark about Navs could cost you dear. :mad: pilots. OK yeh I know, but it makes a change from you biting:\

Heads down, look out for the flack

[bast0n]

Regain

"Like flying a council house from the upstairs bog," came the reply.

Just a couple of points - those who flew and loved the Wessex because it was a tough old bird and would do anything that you asked of it - pulling you out of potentialy disasterous situations with aplomb - would never have been in a council house let alone in the "bog" I think you called it.

Cable cutter fellow

Flack - leave the poor Crab alone - at least he seems to like the Wessex - the point of this Wessex supporters club thread - but then again he is a Crab so probably on reflection it is OK for you to bait him.....................

D

[Grumpyasever]

She looked after me as a "young" sprog pilot, so I would contest the "council house" remark! Not that I have anything against council houses!
David, you have too much time on your hands now that you are retired!!
G:)

[Cabe LeCutter]

Thanks bast0n, but he has too much dirt on me to bait him too much:{

Mind you, what goes around comes around:E

I must put up some pictures of the Mk5 after tha RAF improved them to Mk5C

Heads down, look out for the flack.

[Geoffersincornwall]

You Junglies don't know how much better the good old Mk III was. Great autopilot and instrument fit and just enough fuel for you not to get tired. Then you had the excitement associated with EOL practice, In-Flight-Refueling (being towed around by a frigate in the middle of a dark night gives your ticker a good work-out) and you had the benefit of TWO tea-makers in the back.

G. :E

[[email protected]]

So that's 2 people down the back to reach up and tie your bootlaces together or pass you a pre-shaken bottle of coke or crack eggs into your washbag!! All things that happened down in S Armagh - fortunately not to me, however they probably just rimmed my toothbrush:{

Cabe LeCutter - one always needed a nav to prevent one from landing with the brakes on!!

[bast0n]

Geoffers in Oggieland

You are very right about the Wx3 being a great aircraft. I once went for a test flight in one, in fog from Culdrose, and the autopilot was quite awesome when it all worked! Pots of power as well - but only one of them!

As to EOLs - did you not watch in amazement as the Junglies did them by day and night - not without some damage every now and again............

Biggest problem of the 3 was that it had Pingers up front and Observers down the back............definition of Observer - "interested bystander" and one of those words is wrong!!

Ian Stanley proved it's worth in South Georgia, in spades.

D

[Geoffersincornwall]

Never be rude to, or about , your Looker. You can sneak back down in the darkened cabin, creep past the U/C with a finger raised to the lips and approach from behind and tap him on the shoulder giving him the fright of his life... but don't be rude or as Crab says, the pair of rascals down the back have some nasty tricks up their sleeves. Amongst some of life's injustices was the fact that 'they' managed the pee-tube. It is a bit of a sign-of-the-times when you find out that a cab in your Logbook is now a star in a museum.

G. :{

[Savoia]

Amongst some of life's injustices was the fact that 'they' managed the pee-tube.

I recall Col. Bob reminiscing about the pee tubes in the Whirldwind when he flew as CP for Christian Salvesen in the Antarctic. Evidently the off-ship sorties could be quite lengthy and nature could sometimes beckon while airborne. However, after digging through the various layers of clothing my godfather descibed (sometimes in too much detail) the challenge of extracting his John Thomas (shrunken by the hostile climate) and attempting to align it with the tube. Evidently after a couple of awkward efforts he settled on abandoning the pre-flight cuppa and waiting until he was back on terra firma, or in this case, ship.

It is a bit of a sign-of-the-times when you find out that a cab in your Logbook is now a star in a museum.

Ah well, if you discover how to slow the sands of time .. do let us know! My father once wrote to me while I was at one of your British boarding schools that I should in the future "embrace each season of life with enthusiasm" and in preparation for which, should I live to retire, I have this vineyard in mind which is in need of revival. Yes, making wine is how I would wish to round-off the years!

Oh, but this is about Wessex .. couple of questions:

In the cutaway (yes I know its a Whirlwind) I assume that the Wessex had a similar arrangement to that of the Whirlwind in that the engine driveshaft passed through (or near) the cockpit on its way to the main transmission? Given this arrangement and with nose-mounted engines .. was the Wessex's cabin quieter, compared to .. say the Sea King?

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/--dARvHC3-wc/Tpb6RgNeezI/AAAAAAAAFN8/qCe2vkAzerU/s799/Whirlwind%252520Cutaway.jpg
Whirlwind cutaway showing the driveshaft passing from the nose-mounted engine through the bottom of the cockpit and onto the main transmission

Secondly, why was the Whirlwind so much lighter on the controls compared to the Wessex?

[bast0n]

Savoia

Secondly, why was the Whirlwind so much lighter on the controls compared to the Wessex?

No ASE in the Whirlwind therefore no stick trim to fight against. Take out the stick trim and they were virtually the same. As to noise I think the Seaking is the quietest - but it is all a matter of degree..............

Those who flew the WW10 and 9 would tell you that they had the sweetest and lightest control feel of the lot - just don't let go of the stick.....!

D

[sycamore]

Sav,the WW was not really `lighter` on the stick,as it did not have a `stick-trim`system,or an ASE/SAS/afcs to provide a datum,only adjustable friction controls,so the stick had to be held all the time,either by hand/fingers ,or by the knees.The Wx. had a stick trim,to provide the stick datum as it had an ASE/.AFCS, depending on whether it was a Mk1,2,3,4,5.However ,the stick -trim could always be turned off,so you were not holding any `spring-force feedback`,and fly it in exactly the same way as a WW,ie,no force,no feel,except a little feed-back from the ASE actuators.
The Wx.had duplex servo controls,secondary hydraulics ran from the coupling gearbox ,so one could check the ASE before rotor engagement,as the rotor system was much more substantial than a WW.

Anyway,you can see now why anyone in a WW would have great difficulty trying to use the P-tube,unless you had a copilot to hold either the stick,the tube,or the ....;I think even the Navy would not be that keen,as there would be a strong possibility of `spraying` everywhere....much better to just let the flow go,and enjoy temporary warmth..!
Would be much easier in a Wx. with an ASE/AFCS; as has been mentioned the Wx,3 had a great AFCS, dual channels,so no big dramas if you had a `Runaway` .Just a great pity it was not adopted for the Sea-king....
Spent many hours in XT256 trawling along the S Coast at 40-50 ft with a 25ft pole dangling underneath in all weathers.

In answer to the transmission in the Wx, yes it did come up between the seats,same as the H-34.

[John Eacott]

ISTR the Wessex pee tube went to a bladder, which if filled was expected to be emptied by the user. QED, it was not often used ;)

Unlike the Sea King which vented under the fuselage, and was needed on 4+ hour sorties. Although the Sea King A25 in my name was another story......

[obnoxio f*ckwit]

C53204

My last memory was sitting in one on a pad at Bessbrook Mill. just after lift off an almighty bang and the pic dumped it on the ground. By the time we were allowed off, several techs looking curiously around the TR.

Was that early in 2001?

OF

[Savoia]

Bast0n, Sycamore; many thanks! :ok:


Sandy Toad wrote: Tasks were varied but often out of Battersea with various Admirals or Cabinet Ministers.

https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-CLr5PgaCSFU/TplF1UQylfI/AAAAAAAAFQQ/cXHb2p-ZTGg/s654/XT772%252520WW%252520Bat%25252078.jpg
Westland Wessex HU5 XT772 'Green Parrot' of 781 Naval Air Squadron (for another [better] image of this craft see page 9 (http://www.pprune.org/rotorheads/123915-what-about-wessex-makes-people-so-fond-9.html)) departing Battersea Heliport in 1978 (Photo: Anton Heumann)

Nice to see the RN Ensign on the nose.

[bast0n]

Seeing the Green Parrot reminds me of a good fun flight when Bob Warren was flying it out of Lee and I was the SAR pilot in a WX5. There was a splendid chap whose name escapes me who did the radar approaches and it was his last day on the job before retirement. Bob was approaching the Needles from the west and I went round the IOW low level clockwise and met up with him in very tight formation.

Bob did all the radio and we did a radar controlled approach until we were at about 300 feet and Bob broke up and right and I went down and left! When we got to the bar the controller was still shaking from the experience……….he genuinely thought that Bob had had a midair……………….! Happy days.

D

http://i291.photobucket.com/albums/ll301/tallbronzedgod/jsf_Photo_scan_3734.jpg

[212man]

Unlike 4+ hour sorties

I hadn't realised the RN had 45 year old Sub Lieutenants.......:p

[Savoia]

Lol, that's excellent Bast0n!

There was certainly more freedom in those days to have a bit of a laugh .. progress for you.

And the plank in your photo?

[TipCap]

Dave

We took over from the Wessex V SAR at Lee in 1988. Can't remember the Flight Commanders name but a nice guy who I think went outside to the USA after staying with us for a handover.

Do I remember you had something to do with Seafield Park at the time.

Also I believe you were SAR on the Mk 9 when I went through basic training at Culdrose end '65/'66

John

[Cornish Jack]

Re. the Whirlwind cyclic 'feel' as against the Wessex, VERY light indeed!! When I first got to SAR at Thorney, a story was current of a previous Flt Cdr -(one 'Punch-Up P..... r' , for reasons we won't go into!!:eek:) He was built like the proverbial outhouse and found the lightness of Ww controls not to his taste. He, therefore, used to tighten the fore and aft and lateral frictions to absolute maximum. He had completed a flight just before the visiting 'trapper' pilot decided to have a bit of local continuity flying - ... the resultant take-off and transition was, to say the least, interesting - couldn't take his feet of the pedals to adjust the friction until he got to 60 kts and getting there needed mucho muscles!!:E

[Hueymeister]

I flew her from 1990-97 and wrote over 2000 WetSex hours in my log book. It was like flying a semi looking through the letter box, but as a decidedly average pilot, it was a great beast to learn to operate, esp hot and high in Hongkers! Best of all was the big, bouncy undercarriage; it absorbed many of my finest arrivals! Many of them are in museums...makes me feel really old though!:ok:

[Floppy Link]

...yeh but you did start kinda young!

[Hueymeister]

Aye, that I was...I think I was nearly 5!

[Savoia]

https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-gHg5Obmvgic/Tp1_kWC326I/AAAAAAAAFUQ/TNngqA_HM4g/s796/xs678.jpg
Westland Wessex HC2 of the Empire Test Pilot's School photogrpahed on 19th March 1976. The pilot failed to arrest his rate of descent during a transition from rearward to forward flight after hovering in a tail wind. The aircraft struck upward sloping ground in a field adjacent to Boscombe Down village. Both crew received injuries. The forward section of the fuselage was sent to Australia to be used for technical training

https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-BY8Aue-lmqQ/Tp1_kO38RJI/AAAAAAAAFUM/G260PTItQG4/s500/HAS%252520Mk%252520III%252520Return%252520to%252520Culdrose. jpg
Westland Wessex HAS Mk III returns to HMS Osprey/RNAS Portland with wheel-floats inflated

[CharlieOneSix]

Westland Wessex HAS Mk III returns to Culdrose with wheel-floats inflated

Looks more like Portland to me....especially as it has PO on the tail!

[coley chaos]

Tiz indeed HMS Osprey...one of the (still in place) concrete Mullberry Harbours are just in the bottom of the shot that didnt get floated over for D Day.

Chris

[John Eacott]

An interesting photo of a Wessex HU5 in the hover, changing an oleo over the deck of Bulwark reportedly in 1972. What/why, anyone?

http://img257.imageshack.us/img257/4854/wessexsmallug0.jpg

[stacey_s]

Interesting to see the MK2, if its the one I think it is, as an apprentice in Fleetlands I was extensively involved with the re-skinning of that aircraft after it had returned from an extended tour in Oman and badly corroded, and sometime later (it was under re-build for a long time), I was the Flight test fitter who did the ground runs and air tests, the last time I saw it was on a 'Queen Mary' lorry outside the flight test hangar in Fleetlands destined for the scrap yard!

Stacey

[Savoia]

C16/Coley Chaos, thanks for verifying the location of the Wessex with wheel-floats inflated. I should have known better having been into Osprey a couple of times although never to Culdrose.

Bast0n - still no word on the event depicted in your image lifting the plank?

https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-HWmOK2BW8GI/Tp-mgJcY3JI/AAAAAAAAFWA/lKerTOPn_0Q/s512/Bristol%252520Belvedere%252520XG%252520456%252520of%25252066 %252520Squadron%252520based%252520at%252520Seletar%25252C%25 2520Singapore%25252C%252520recovers%252520Westland%252520Wes sex%252520XS%252520117%252520of%252520845%252520Naval%252520 Air%252520Squadron.jpg
Bristol Belvedere XG 456 of 66 Squadron based at Seletar, Singapore, recovers Westland Wessex XS 117 of 845 Naval Air Squadron

[bast0n]

Savoia - the light aircraft was from a flying school, Hamble I think, and the student for some unknown reason lost the plot on finals and went in upside down in the mud. I turned the aircraft the right way up so they could get at the sad remains.

Carrying on from the last picture of the WX1 being recovered............

http://i291.photobucket.com/albums/ll301/tallbronzedgod/Photoscan3765.jpg

[CharlieOneSix]

Bristol Belvedere XG 456 of 66 Squadron based at Seletar, Singapore, recovers Westland Wessex XS 117 of 845 Naval Air Squadron
"Recovered" is a bit of a misnomer. Shortly after the photo was taken the Belvedere crew dropped the Wessex into the jungle when the load became unstable.

Edit: There's quite a story of mishaps associated with this event - as detailed in Lee Howard's book "FAA Helicopters Since 1943".

XS117 was parked overnight on a slight slope at Nanga Gaat, Sarawak. There were monsoon rains overnight and on 5 December 1963 the aircraft jumped chocks and rolled down the slope with the nose embedding itself in a tree stump. The tail pylon was removed from XS117 and on 9 December the late Nick Boyd in Wessex XP138 lifted the pylon but it gyrated and the twisted strop eventually failed and the pylon was lost in the jungle.

The engine from XS117 was removed on 11 December and dumped in a river - why I don't know. Presumably a write-off having clobbered a tree stump but why in a river?

On 15 December the Belvedere completed the saga. XS117 was only 8 months old with just 144 hours on it.

[CharlieOneSix]

An interesting photo of a Wessex HU5 in the hover, changing an oleo over the deck of Bulwark reportedly in 1972. What/why, anyone?

Could possibly be XS490 with Lt TMF Neil on 3 March 1972. Port u/c leg radius fractured. Oleo and arm replaced in the hover on Bulwark (Info from book "FAA Helicopters Since 1973"). But it was not an unusual occurrence - it happened again on Bulwark a few months later to XS498; port radius arm fractured on T/O off North Carolina on 31/1/73 and again all changed in the hover.

[bast0n]

John Eacott


I think that oleo change was whilst at anchor in Grand Harbour, Malta. D

[Savoia]

Excellent shot Bast0n!

https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-ZpDo0rVaS9w/TqKJOEPBs9I/AAAAAAAAFe0/imXC-MJsv6I/s640/Cathy%252520Jones%252520RAF%252520Valley%252520c.%2525201976 .jpg
A young Cathy Jones visits the chaps at RAF Valley c. 1976

[EESDL]

XS117 engine dumped in river because they thought it was a shopping trolley?

[bast0n]

Is it true that Wessex 5 pilots were, note the were, most handsome of the genre........................?

http://i291.photobucket.com/albums/ll301/tallbronzedgod/DaNavy02.jpg

OK Nigel let's see you in the cockpit......................

D

[Nigel Osborn]

I can't believe you didn't remain a Mid for your entire Navy career!!!! When did you eventually retire?:ok:

[bast0n]

Anyone recognize this young chap......................:confused:

http://i291.photobucket.com/albums/ll301/tallbronzedgod/OsbornN.jpg

[Savoia]

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-R0hnKIZhVHs/TqpzNimCTuI/AAAAAAAAFlo/75xf-ZNdmGY/s547/PC%2525201.png
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-TfKfQxsUogI/TqpzOy6BD5I/AAAAAAAAFlw/AN_tnxhJy18/s546/PC%2525202.jpg

[Nigel Osborn]

And I haven't changed a bit!!!!!!!!

[John Eacott]

No doubt you poor old codgers will recall this from the Farnborough programme :p

https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune.org-vbulletin/1480x2000/845_farnborough_72f000a4cae8545a96c1d9aeb4cf9f0225e10872.jpg

[bast0n]

And for Savoia I combine the two best looking Wessex 5 pilots...............:)


http://i291.photobucket.com/albums/ll301/tallbronzedgod/Savoia.jpg