Skeeter Pilot

Tail Bloater - I'll see if I can dig up a few names - they will be old friends of Francis'. I'm sure the museum will have a full list.
A name you may be familier with is Mike S-Rayner. Sadly Mike died last year. Like Francis he had owned and flown his own Skeeter privately until Francis bought it from him in 97. Francis had three Skeeters in a museum in Suffolk. He and I built up the museum called the Skeeter Heritage Trust over about 10 years. It was closed down in 2001 and now non of his machines are airworthy. Thankfully a friend of Francis' who was the only other person to own an airworthy Skeeter offered to continue what Francis had started using his machine, hence the Skeeter Heritage (without the trust).

I don't suppose you kept a pair of T/R blades as a reminder.

Do you know what happened to the 10 Skeeters that the Potugese military purchased in 1961? Apparantly they never operated them?

Head Turner - Pumping the lever is an often used technique when Skeet flying and it's suprising how effective it is!

Head Turner

The Portugeese Skeeters were mothballed and did appear for sale in early 70's but I don't know if any were purchased. The Bundeswehr also had Skeeters and I think one at least in in a museum located to the west of Minden and one at Buckeburg, the name of the small town evades me. Parts of Skeeters were littered around a private collection/museum down to the west of Bournemouth.
And of course there are Skeeters at Middle Wallop.
It would be wonderful to see any Skeeter airbourne.
XL814, XN346, XM554, XL736.XM528 are a few I remember.

Skeeter Pilot

Head Turner:

Thanks for your reply. I would like to trace the Portugese Skeeters if possible. I have traced all the others in this the UK. The 10 that the Porugese bought were ex German Mk50 & 51's that the airforce and navy operated. If you have any more info. at all could you please pass it on? Francis Chamberlain always said that they were taken out to sea and dumped but I have not heard this story anywhere else.

If you would like to see our Skeeter fly, let me have your email address (you can contact me via the Skeeter Heritage site) and I will let you know when and where we are going to be in the coming months.

XL814 is the HAF's "flyer" although it has not for the last 5 or 6 years and looks like it will not anymore! I have flown XL812, XN355, XL809 & G-APOI (MK8)

Kind regards

Head Turner

How many of you out there have flown this product of Westlands. I did my first military duty on this machine and learnt more than enough about flying with this during 650 hours? I just have retired and spent a few hours looking through my log books and wondered if there were still some around with Skeeter experience.

007helicopter

Skeeter Pilot well done for keeping this Machine airworthy.

Did you have any problems getting, or keeping a type rating current?

Bravo73

FYI, Mike Green (the Helicopter Services one) does the LPCs.

heli1

I am surorised that nobody on this thread has raised the grounding of all Skeeters by the CAA last year...on the grounds I believe that the fatigue tests on the head and blades don't meet modern requirements.

Whirlygig

All SKeeters? There was only one left flying!

Roy Baylis at Sterling does/did the LPCs now (for the only two Skeeter rated pilots! who both live in Norfolk).

Cheers

Whirls

hatters united

Hi,
In my days at Cranfield during the 1990's there used to be a Skeeter turn up for fuel, don't recall the registration thou, it was owned by a guy called Pete Nerwiki ( not sure on the spelling, but sure the pronuciation is correct).
He was based just north of Bedford somewhere ( possibly Clapham ) and he claimed to have a mass of spares as well as another Skeeter shell.
Any one out there know any info / history of this machine, is it still flying ?

jamesstables

Hope I'm not hijacking the thread in anyway, but I'm part of a Skeeter restoration project and we have recently launched a website at Skeeter Restoration Project: we are also keen to hear from any ex-Skeeter crews, we would be very keen to hear from people with a connection to our two, XL738 and XL763, but any Skeeter related stories are of interest.

Head Turner

Tail Bloater this is Head Turner.
We were in Gutersloh together, I was the tall guy with the German wife. Please identify yourself and we can chat about those wonderfully frightening moments when we had to get the Squeeter up and over those horribly tall buildings that surrounded the pad. And other aspects of the experiences we had together with 5 Field RA and 40 Field RA.

vfr440

James Good morning
Tho it is 2 1/2 years since your posting, thought I might contact you; do you still need any spares for your restoration projects? I am aware of the grounding order, but you may still be working towards a 'concourse' museum static display?

If so, I can advise that the late Francis Chamberlain bought 3 x Skeeters and variously a HUGE quantity of spares. I built G-SARO for him in the late 70's; it was a success of the first order (tho we changed a lot of clutch/primary g/box seals - LOL). Francis' widow has been in touch and needs to dispose of the spares that are taking up a disproportionate amount of space, around 2 x barns at teh last count! They are not catalogued and I suspect that many will be irelevant now they may no longer fly. However, military spates provision being what it is there may well be 2 or 3 boxes of 'left handed woggle pins' for which you would kill for just one.

If this is of interest please get in touch, if no-one is interested I have recommended that she scrap theme all - sad but a fact of life

Best ~ VFR

piggybank

We are all showing our age here. Skeeters were phasing out when I did my training on Austers and Skeeters in 1966. I do remember seeing (Colonel) Somerton Rayner flying one at Wallop to show what it could do with its ultra low inertia main rotor blades, very impressive.

vfr440

Hi PB
Yes Mike S-R had a great technique, but didn't avail himself of our modification to G-SARO which would have improved things even more. During the re-build (for which he kindly hired us his engine change trolley, and withot which the entire project would have stalled) I stripped out 15lbs (!) of redundant wiring, removed that ridiculous massive radio (PTR-70?) leaving just the cosmetic 'outers', and then took the battery case, stripped the innards and installed a motor-cycle battery in its place. Net result was 60lbs weight saving. Improved performance no end, to the extent that the ballast weights at the end of the tailboom were replaced with look-alike blocks of balsa wood. Against that of course we had to carry several boxes of starter cartridges!

I also used a Chadwick-Helmuth Vibrex (177M); with expert instruction compiled a track/balance graph and got rid of 'stick-stir' in one hit.

Ah, nostalgia isn't what it used to be. Happy (& safe) flying ~ VFR

SAROSKEETERMAN

Hi there. I have just been told of this Skeeter thread by a good friend of mine. My nephew and I have a Mk.12 which we are(very) slowly returning to a static display condition. We would be most interested in obtaining some spares if they are still on offer - please don't let them be scrapped!!
Incidently, I met Francis a few times down at the Weston-super-Mare "Helidays," but that was before we aquired ours. Latterly of course it was Peter Nowicki with his co-pilot William Walker(in G-BLIX/XL809) who were regular attendees at "Helidays" before the grounding. A sad day for all who remember the lovely sound of that Gypsy engine bursting into life!

floatsarmed

All you ex Skeeter AAC types may find a few 'old' mates on Army Aviation

alwynhartman

Does anyone have any insight regarding the Skeeter's flight characteristics? Anything that was particularly troublesome or strangely well mannered?

vfr440

Can't speak from a flying perspective, but from an engineering standpoint, 'stick-stir- was an irritation (until the advent of the Vibrex - see my note above) together with the original 25hr requirement to lubricate the M/R head, and associated migration of grease to the friction elements of the dampers. Then you had stick-stir and all sorts of complications with trouble-free operation. The solution was straightforward; as on G-SARO, we elected to grease only at 100hr intervals or (lightly) after flight through rain. Simples! - VFR

Neville dennerley

My dad built the sketer at Saunders Roe and I have the manuals in my posession ,would this be of interest to you ?
Regards Neville Dennerley

heli1

Hi.Lot of water passed under bridge since the previous posts. The Skeeters that Chamberlain owned went to the Helicopter Museum at Weston super Mare,together with all the spares. I am sure they would take the manuals you have to be used in future rebuilds. Email [email protected]