Westland Whirlwind G-BVGE Flying Today @ Weston

[TheWizard]

This doesn't seem to have been mentioned much but great to see the old girl flying again.
I'm sure this will spark off a few posts about WIWOW :)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0bUeWNB76No&list=UUgcEz-y6zzkh6ueBQH6Qvzw&feature=share

[tucumseh]

Brilliant. Well done. First aircraft I ever worked on, a HAR9. Is this one a Mk10?

[Evalu8ter]

It clattered its way over Eval Towers this morning; lovely sight and sound.

[Martin the Martian]

tucumseh:

It is indeed, formerly XJ729 c/n WA100.

I had no idea one was flying. Hopefully I'll catch up with it soon.

[Tankertrashnav]

The one and only time I ever took the controls of a helicopter was when I attempted to hover a 28 Squadron Whirlwind at Kai Tak in 1968. Made a complete and utter pigs ear of it!

Still, it gave the 28 Sqn guys looking from their crewroom a laugh at least!

[Bill4a]

Great to see her flying again! Well done to the team of enthusiasts who maintain her.

[lmgaylard]

As some of you may know, I am in the process of writing an article with the new owner of XJ729.


As far as I know it is now re-registered as XJ729 and the owner intends to participate in a number of air shows this year.


Back in May I was lucky enough to accompany the 'Whirlybird' to a local fundraiser and take some air-to-air photos of it. She looks just great.


If anyone is interested, I will let you know when the article is published.


KR,
Lewis

[Oldlae]

lmgaylard, please check your PM's.


Oldlae.

[Dysonsphere]

wonderfull good too see 1 back in the air again.

[Old-Duffer]

Were I the emotional, nostalgic sort of chap, there would have been a lump in my throat as I watched the video above.


My last 'go' in a Whirlwind was precisely 40 years ago at RAF Upwood. An old friend flew over from CFS(H) to look at a Skeeter, which adorned the place I worked, and agreed to give me a flip around the local countryside. The monochrome photograph I took of XP405 that afternoon now has pride of place in the downstairs loo (how posh to have more than one!!!) and next to and slightly below the framed photo of a Tonker, with which the current Mrs O-D had some association.


XJ729 used to be owned and was originally restored by a mate. I'm glad to see it flying again and congratulate those who made it possible.


Old Duffer

[pedroalpha]

Brilliant! The film takes me back to my last flight in a Whirlwind 10 some 42 years ago.

Pedro 45

[Mushroom_2]

Great video - brings back some good memories, My last flight was 36 years ago and I had forgotten how long it took to get them going. I'm sure we had some shortcuts on SAR sorties.

[RedhillPhil]

This interests me. There seems to be some time after the engine(s?) is/are started before the blades start turning.
What is the power-plant type and how is the drive transmitted?

[Bill4a]

It's a RR Gnome probably 10101 drives a power turbine to the main gearbox on top and the tail rotor shaft.
It doesn't usually take that long to fire up, but then it is getting on a bit! My first was at Odiham 1964!

[Fareastdriver]

It used a conventional R.R. Gnome with a free turbine. This drives a reduction gearbox that finally changes the angle of drive from horizontal to the angle required to connect to the drive shaft that was original powered by a radial engine.
Dreadfully inefficient. The S62, using the same engine and rotor system had a 1.000lbs advantage in payload.,

[Bill4a]

The S62 had a bigger Gnome 1200 Shaft horse as I recall, and had 2 of them! Not a fair comparison!

[aerolearner]

She's happy too. Look at that smile!:O

[BEagle]

Westland Whirlwind flying again? For a brief moment I thought...."Crikey!"

But no, 'twas just a Humphrey. Good to see an historic aircraft flying again though!

[Bill4a]

Why is it that everything I've worked on flown in or walked past is now either historic or in a bloody museum? :}

[ShyTorque]

It gets even worse when they replace the those museum exhibits and gate guardians that you used to fly with newer aircraft types!

Now, when I was on Whirlwinds....first rotary winged flight at the SAR flight RAF Leconfield 1977. Got a couple of chances to pole the aircraft as well as being their "duty survivor" which inspired me to ask to be re-streamed rotary wing. Last flight @ RAF Shawbury May 25th 1979. Oh happy days! It was a big aircraft as a basic trainer, especially as they made us do solo engine offs to the ground in it as mere basic students!

[Cornish Jack]

Oh!! the joy and nostalgia:D
I'm sure we had some shortcuts on SAR sorties.
I have a feeling that we managed a record 'bell to wheels-off' time at Thorney in the 60's. It was AOC's and we KNEW that we'd get a practice scramble so we were poised on the blocks, so to speak. Bell went and so did we and memory says it was 53 seconds to wheels off. Jack Burgess (M Nav) was W/Op and once we were out of the circuit we (Skip and I) started discussing where we would go for a sight-seeing. Jack , quite forcefully, told us to shut up and get organised - it was a 'for real' not a practice and there was a standard issue 'grockle' to be hauled from the 'oggin'. AOC missed our demo of 'derring-do' but damp grockle was returned to terra firma.
Valley, Thorney, Manston short det., Valley again, Tern Hill, Akrotiri plus Whirly 10, almost unbeatable!

[Mushroom_2]

Crikey - I could have given Shy his first Whirlwind flight!

[Ant T]

The S62 had a bigger Gnome 1200 Shaft horse as I recall, and had 2 of them! Not a fair comparison!

Pretty sure the S62 was single-engine. I remember there was the hulk of one sat outside the Gulf Helicopters hangar in Doha in the mid to late 1970's, when my Dad was working there.

Also remember the Bristow Whirlwind at Redhill doing engine-off landings while the only two (I think) current pilots at the time were doing each others licence renewals, when I was on my course there in 1985/86. It was still being used on a commercial contract for Marconi at the time, with some kind of test equipment bolted on the side.

[Lynxman]

Bill4a, the Sikorsky S-62 was indeed single engined.

[Bill4a]

Always prepared to be wrong, :\ I didn't realise Sikorsky built another single engine helicopter after the S55. However comma I was right about the engine!

[RAFEngO74to09]

Bill,

Don't forget that Sikorsky also produced the single piston engine S-58 which Westland built as the Wessex with the twin Gnome turboshaft engines:

Sikorsky H-34 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sikorsky_H-34)

Westland Wessex - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westland_Wessex)

[Bill4a]

In my defence, never had a lot to do with Sikorsky, only the Westland variants. I don't think we even trialled the 62 which I think was based on the S55.

[Roland Pulfrew]

I was with BEagle when I read the title and thought WOW :eek:

To see one of these flying agian would be awesome......

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8b/Westland_whirlwind.jpg

Now what did I do with that EuroMillions ticket........

Congratulations to all those dealing with the 2nd Westland Whirlwind though :ok:

[Cornish Jack]

Why the extra hole in the nose door??

[Rigga]

Bloody Marvellous!
I'll have to meet it...somewhere? Where's it based?
1st aircraft I was let loose on as an LAC Rigga at Tern Hill 1975 and moving to Shawbury with them in 1976 where the wheels seemed to touch the tiles on our Married Quarter at Chapel Close (or was it Chapel Square?)

[Fareastdriver]

Bill4a. Must do better.

The S62 had the General Electric T58 gas turbine, the one that the Rolls Royce Gnome is a copy of. It is derated to 730 horse power for the same reason that the Gnome is derated in the Whirlwind; the main gearbox input pinion.

So there you have two helicopters with the same power available, the same rotor system, but one can carry 1,000 lbs more than the other and is faster.

The S62 entered US Navy service in 1962, about the same time as Westlands were rehashing the Whirlwind.

Note: I have 1,500 hrs on Whirlwinds, so I'm not slagging them. I just happen to have had a first hand comparison between my Whirlwind 10 and a S62 that belonged to World Wide Helicopters in Borneo 1966.

[chopper2004]

@Fareastdriver - you mean entering service with the USCG :) as they were the only operators of the 62 :) for the next quart of century.

Cheers

[Martin the Martian]

Also used by the Japanese military in small numbers as well:

Photos: Sikorsky (Mitsubishi) S-62J Aircraft Pictures | Airliners.net (http://www.airliners.net/photo/Japan---Air/Sikorsky-(Mitsubishi)-S-62J/0852731/&sid=e68d2c30f722c0fb43f0fbccfd2c2278)

[foreverarefour]

Just seen this post, does anyone know how to get hold of the current owner - i.e. how we would go about inviting them for an airshow or display?

Thanks

[Rigga]

You could try for an address on G-INFO at the CAA.

[Hueymeister]

Who's flying it?

[flyingrupert]

If you're still looking to contact the owner of the Whirlwind, let me know what you want and I can help.

[Boudreaux Bob]

Sikorsky built the S-51, 52, 55, 58, 59 and 62 models as Single Engine Helicopters.

The 51,55, and 58 Models were built under license in the UK and were known as Dragonflies, Whirlwinds, and Wessex's.

The Wessex and S-58T were both Twin Engined Turbine versions of the S-58 with the Wessex being the only version with a single Turbine Version as well.

Why is it that everything I've worked on flown in or walked past is now either historic or in a bloody museum?

Because they were old and worn out when you were flying them.....just like you are today!

I know the feeling when I visit the US Army Aviation Museum at Fort Rucker, Alabama.

I see one of my Chinooks on display then look around at all the young nubbin Aviators with their shiny new Wings and I begin to want to set them on my knee and tell them how it was in the Old Days.

Hard to imagine it was 47 Years ago I started my Helicopter Training.

[Bill4a]

Boudreaux Bob, Sadly I think you're right about the old age bit!
As to the youth of shiny winglets, a colleague remind me that Leonard Cheshire was a Group Captain at 21! :}

I've never even heard of a Wessex with a single turbine every one I worked on had 2.

[Boudreaux Bob]

When they added the second engine....they added one just like the first one and gave the Wessex true Single Engine Capability as compared to the S-58T version with the Twin Pac Pratt and Whitney setup.

The 58T with the -6 Engines did quite well although still not in the class of the Twin Engined Wessex during OEI operations.

http://www.aviastar.org/helicopters_eng/west_wessex.php