What is it about the Wessex that makes people so fond of it?
Join Date: Dec 2001
Location: Gold Coast, Queensland
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Our rad alt had 2 scales, 0 to 500 for low level work, great for night EOLS!. 0 to 5000 to make sure you were above 3000 to be safe from small arms fire. You just pushed a button I think to change the scale. The bug was set in the usual way. A very accurate rad alt as we did EOLS without looking out, just did it on the rad alt.
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1 was taken on board Albion with 848 & ended up in Labuan. We used to go to the International Hotel on the sea front to have dinner & drinks on the 7th floor restaurant. Somehow the Tina went up 7 flights of stairs & managed to leave tire marks while doing wheelies on their nice shiny parquet dance floor! The management were not amused! There were more pilots injured falling off those Tinas than in helicopter accidents!
Democritus - that is the same rad alt as Wessex 2 so I don't know where the traffic light one came from.
Georg1na - saying we needed a countdown to a sports afternoon is like saying the Navy need a countdown for an early Friday stack
Georg1na - saying we needed a countdown to a sports afternoon is like saying the Navy need a countdown for an early Friday stack
Join Date: May 2020
Location: Clyst Honiton Devon
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Hi All Unusual request for help. Just trying to use this link to see if anyone is still on this site or any other that was on 707/848/829]707/848/829/845/846 NAS Sqdns roughly between 1966 and 1972 I was an Aircrewman and went from Culdrose day after receiving wings to join 848 in Hong Kong thro' to making recruitment films in the Virgin Islands and many other fantastic places from the start of Clockwork to working with US Marines in Puerto Rico Would be great to find anyone is still around. Am now at Exeter as Passenger Service Agent. Many thanks
Neil (The Noo) Chandler [email protected]
Neil (The Noo) Chandler [email protected]
Avoid imitations
Am 89.999+% sure that the HU5s that were loaned - along with their senior maintainers - to 2 FTS in 1977 had the traffic lights atop the coaming. Unfortunately I only took to photography in 1978 so have no visual evidence. Annoying as they were, they didn't take up anywhere near as much space as the DECCA nav in the HC2s.. for short-@rses like me, most trips involved much more IF than they should've.
Now, for Sports Afternoon try the AAC - especially after the Wednesday Curry Lunch in the Middle Wallop OM (ISTR the only time flying suits were permitted to be worn in the Mess). The only Wessex connection here, though, was the nose-door that followed a certain officer around wherever he was posted, including his tour(s) as DCI at the School of Army Aviation.
Now, for Sports Afternoon try the AAC - especially after the Wednesday Curry Lunch in the Middle Wallop OM (ISTR the only time flying suits were permitted to be worn in the Mess). The only Wessex connection here, though, was the nose-door that followed a certain officer around wherever he was posted, including his tour(s) as DCI at the School of Army Aviation.
Avoid imitations
Thud, I am intrigued - who was that DCI (I served at Wallop on exchange for several years) but not as DCI so it wasn't me
Nope - if you say "je suis Dave" to anyone who was on the Corsica detachment (he and his crew had arrived at the FFL base and were seeking to gain entry, so he decided to talk to the fella on the gate. Turned out the guard was that rare bird, a Brit in the Legion) they will know of whom I speak.
The nose-door saga started when - as a Flight Commander on 72 in SH Det days - he was flying LHS on a sortie which finished on Omagh's square. That's the square which has a distinct slope. Handling pilot shut the aircraft down, part of the process including holding pressure on the footbrake (RHS pedals only...) while applying the pinch-together parking brake gadget on the centre console. Dave had a bit of post-flight admin which kept him slightly longer than the HP (who'd already climbed out), after which he took off his bonedome and prepared to lower the armour and climb out. Problem was, he'd put his bonedome on the centre console, where it tripped the spring-loaded parking brake 'off'. Cue slow-trundle runaway Wessex, with Keystone Kops antics from Dave and remainder of the crew (I think it rolled-over or flattened the folding chock) trying frantically to get into the RHS to apply the brakes. They were unsuccessful, but more serious damage was averted by the nose-door bringing the aircraft to an expensive (but not quite as expensive as the aircraft falling onto the lower carpark) grinding halt on the kerb around the edge of the square. The nose-door was presented as an ornamental keepsake, which Dave tried to leave behind on posting... several times. It always found its way home, helped by willing hands who knew the story.
The nose-door saga started when - as a Flight Commander on 72 in SH Det days - he was flying LHS on a sortie which finished on Omagh's square. That's the square which has a distinct slope. Handling pilot shut the aircraft down, part of the process including holding pressure on the footbrake (RHS pedals only...) while applying the pinch-together parking brake gadget on the centre console. Dave had a bit of post-flight admin which kept him slightly longer than the HP (who'd already climbed out), after which he took off his bonedome and prepared to lower the armour and climb out. Problem was, he'd put his bonedome on the centre console, where it tripped the spring-loaded parking brake 'off'. Cue slow-trundle runaway Wessex, with Keystone Kops antics from Dave and remainder of the crew (I think it rolled-over or flattened the folding chock) trying frantically to get into the RHS to apply the brakes. They were unsuccessful, but more serious damage was averted by the nose-door bringing the aircraft to an expensive (but not quite as expensive as the aircraft falling onto the lower carpark) grinding halt on the kerb around the edge of the square. The nose-door was presented as an ornamental keepsake, which Dave tried to leave behind on posting... several times. It always found its way home, helped by willing hands who knew the story.
Last edited by Thud_and_Blunder; 29th May 2020 at 16:41. Reason: stray apostrophe - don't you just hate those?
Thud, I can think of 2 Daves that might fit the bill - one (DG) known for his eyebrows and the other (DLM) more suave and sophisticated
Actually just thought of another (DW).
Actually just thought of another (DW).
Thud - roger out
