The Rotary Nostalgia Thread
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BastOn,
I went to the Westlands tent/counter to say hello to Slim. I happened to have 2 girls with me & introduced them to Slim who promptly invited the 3 of us to join him for dinner!!
Those short exhaust pipes were soon changed for the longer ones as the exhaust went straight into the passenger cabin if the door was open; not nice!
I went to the Westlands tent/counter to say hello to Slim. I happened to have 2 girls with me & introduced them to Slim who promptly invited the 3 of us to join him for dinner!!
Those short exhaust pipes were soon changed for the longer ones as the exhaust went straight into the passenger cabin if the door was open; not nice!
The thing that caught my eye in the Slim Sears photo is the throat mic. Only came across these when being pre-briefed for S&R. The mics were ex Tank driver's and were not (at that time) available through Stores. The instruction was to go to Soho ( honest, Guv!) and find one of the Government Surplus radio and electrical shops, purchase said mic (for 7/6) and take it into Safety Equipment on arrival at Valley, to have the correct plug fitted. The output for intercom and radio was such as to improve diction and enunciation considerably - otherwise no-one could understand you!
Throat mikes were still in use by Bristow well into the late 70's perhaps early 80's.
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Ciao Denissimo!
Ah yes I can see it now. The Maestro putting the WG30 through its paces (say, at Farnborough) in a series of deftly handled glissades, pirouettes and wingovers; followed by an arresting nose-high quickstop leading to the disembarkation of a trio of 'Denissimo's Angels' clad in form-fitting jumpsuits holding silver salvers above their heads as the Maestro re-enacts Charles Kaman's hovering landing (see below).
Charles Kaman test flies the K190 prototype and achieves a hovering touchdown onto three plywood squares held in place by Mrs Robbie Kaman (left) Ann Griffin (right), and one other in 1948
Of course Alan Bristow would come up to you afterwards saying "That's all very well, but how many people can you fly out to a rig eighty miles offshore with all their gear and with what sort of fuel and power reserves?"
Ahh .. what could have been !!
More WG30 here.
Ah yes I can see it now. The Maestro putting the WG30 through its paces (say, at Farnborough) in a series of deftly handled glissades, pirouettes and wingovers; followed by an arresting nose-high quickstop leading to the disembarkation of a trio of 'Denissimo's Angels' clad in form-fitting jumpsuits holding silver salvers above their heads as the Maestro re-enacts Charles Kaman's hovering landing (see below).
Charles Kaman test flies the K190 prototype and achieves a hovering touchdown onto three plywood squares held in place by Mrs Robbie Kaman (left) Ann Griffin (right), and one other in 1948
Of course Alan Bristow would come up to you afterwards saying "That's all very well, but how many people can you fly out to a rig eighty miles offshore with all their gear and with what sort of fuel and power reserves?"
Ahh .. what could have been !!
More WG30 here.
The number of times my boom mike was removed by SE during helmet servicing 'because all other rotary pilots used throat mikes' became boring. But I tried to get a throat mike for the cameraman to use 25 years later when it seemed a good option to not hearing a thing because of wind noise when filming, funny how priorities change eh?
Thread Starter
Maersk Air Bell 212 OY-HMB as seen at Esbjerg Airport in Denmark on 6th June 1980 (Photo: Erik Frikke)
Maersk Air Bell 212 OY-HMC as seen at Esbjerg Airport in Denmark on 6th June 1980 (Photo: Erik Frikke)
Maersk Air Bell 212 OY-HMC (cockpit) as seen at Esbjerg Airport on 6th June 1980 (Photo: Erik Frikke)
OY-HMC went into service with Maersk Air in 1978 but, tragically, was involved in an accident between the Gorm-Feltet platform and Esbjerg on 2nd January 1984 with the loss of all on board.
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Moonshot
Greetings Deltahot, I remember you well from my days as a student.
Pat V was my instructor and although a hard taskmaster he instilled in me disciplines that lasted all through my career. As a 19 year old student there wasn't a sight more unsettling than to see Pat, in his lightweight green Australian flying suit and big "stomping" boots, striding towards the silent Whirlwind as I sat there surrounded by a litter of spent cartridges.
I was greatly saddened to hear of his death in Vietnam.
I shared your dislike of the height climb or "Moonshot", always shown on the flying programme as D18 with an arrow pointing upward.
When I returned as a QHI in 1968 I had all my "idiot cards" from CFS describing the various dual exercises, except of course for D18. So I copied all the salient points from the Instructors Manual.
I set off with my first ever student on D18 and during the climb managed to cover all the points: Temperature lapse rate, full throttle height, diminishing effect of controls, reducing volume on the throat mic etc. On reaching 10,000 ft any rate of climb we had remaining was probably more to do with the curvature of the earth rather than aircraft performance and Vmin and Vmax seemed to have coincided at about 40 knots.
Havings completed most of the exercises I came to the last two. Retreating Blade Stall and Vortex Ring State. I briefed Bloggs, took a deep breath and gently increased speed to 60 knots, initiated a right turn and pulled a little collective. The Whirlie immediately snapped left and I had to lower the collective immediately to recover a level attitude. I now had Blogg's full attention.
Trying to appear unshaken I gave Bloggs control and told him to set up a descent to a field we could see 10,000 feet below. As the sight picture inevitably steepened I told him to reduce airspeed to recover a normal "picture" The rate of descent started to increase rapidly so I told him to increase power. The dear old Whirlie started to roll, pitch and yaw and would not respond to cyclic input. I took control, lowered the lever and shut the throttle to contain the Rrpm. After a few seconds the pitch attitude responded to the cyclic and we regained airspeed and control. We were now at about 6700 ft.
"That's Vortex Ring" I said. Blogg's eyes like saucers.
With me desperately trying to appear unshaken, Bloggs flew us back to Culdrose where I left him to complete the shutdown while I stormed into the Instructors station. The Senior Pilot, Ted M-W was on duty.
Me: That D18 is bl***y dangerous.
Him: What's the problem?
Me: Retreating Blade Stall and Vortex Ring.
Him: You didn't demonstrate it did you?
Me: I did exactly what it said in the Instructors Manual.
He reached for a handbook from the shelf, opened it at the relevant page, placed it in front of me and jabbed his finger at the appropriate paragraph.
After all the other air exercises it said,
"DISCUSS Retreating Blade Stall and Vortex Ring."
Pat V was my instructor and although a hard taskmaster he instilled in me disciplines that lasted all through my career. As a 19 year old student there wasn't a sight more unsettling than to see Pat, in his lightweight green Australian flying suit and big "stomping" boots, striding towards the silent Whirlwind as I sat there surrounded by a litter of spent cartridges.
I was greatly saddened to hear of his death in Vietnam.
I shared your dislike of the height climb or "Moonshot", always shown on the flying programme as D18 with an arrow pointing upward.
When I returned as a QHI in 1968 I had all my "idiot cards" from CFS describing the various dual exercises, except of course for D18. So I copied all the salient points from the Instructors Manual.
I set off with my first ever student on D18 and during the climb managed to cover all the points: Temperature lapse rate, full throttle height, diminishing effect of controls, reducing volume on the throat mic etc. On reaching 10,000 ft any rate of climb we had remaining was probably more to do with the curvature of the earth rather than aircraft performance and Vmin and Vmax seemed to have coincided at about 40 knots.
Havings completed most of the exercises I came to the last two. Retreating Blade Stall and Vortex Ring State. I briefed Bloggs, took a deep breath and gently increased speed to 60 knots, initiated a right turn and pulled a little collective. The Whirlie immediately snapped left and I had to lower the collective immediately to recover a level attitude. I now had Blogg's full attention.
Trying to appear unshaken I gave Bloggs control and told him to set up a descent to a field we could see 10,000 feet below. As the sight picture inevitably steepened I told him to reduce airspeed to recover a normal "picture" The rate of descent started to increase rapidly so I told him to increase power. The dear old Whirlie started to roll, pitch and yaw and would not respond to cyclic input. I took control, lowered the lever and shut the throttle to contain the Rrpm. After a few seconds the pitch attitude responded to the cyclic and we regained airspeed and control. We were now at about 6700 ft.
"That's Vortex Ring" I said. Blogg's eyes like saucers.
With me desperately trying to appear unshaken, Bloggs flew us back to Culdrose where I left him to complete the shutdown while I stormed into the Instructors station. The Senior Pilot, Ted M-W was on duty.
Me: That D18 is bl***y dangerous.
Him: What's the problem?
Me: Retreating Blade Stall and Vortex Ring.
Him: You didn't demonstrate it did you?
Me: I did exactly what it said in the Instructors Manual.
He reached for a handbook from the shelf, opened it at the relevant page, placed it in front of me and jabbed his finger at the appropriate paragraph.
After all the other air exercises it said,
"DISCUSS Retreating Blade Stall and Vortex Ring."
Avoid imitations
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I was trained on the Whirlwind 10 (I hated those throat mikes). We also went to 10,000 feet for that "demo". We wore parachutes. The reason was that if the aircraft went on fire at that nose-bleed height, we might burn to a crisp before completing an autorotation to earth.
As a good (i.e. usually scared) student I pre-read the parachute abandonment drills in the FRCs, which required the pilot to apply the control frictions, fully open the cockpit window, unstrap and sit on the window sill. Then to roll out of the aircraft backwards and at the same time kicking the cyclic to the left.
All quite exciting!
Even more exciting was the note below which went along the lines of:
"WARNING!" Objects jettisoned from the aircraft in autorotation may go up through the main rotor disc".
Er - that might be me, then....
As a good (i.e. usually scared) student I pre-read the parachute abandonment drills in the FRCs, which required the pilot to apply the control frictions, fully open the cockpit window, unstrap and sit on the window sill. Then to roll out of the aircraft backwards and at the same time kicking the cyclic to the left.
All quite exciting!
Even more exciting was the note below which went along the lines of:
"WARNING!" Objects jettisoned from the aircraft in autorotation may go up through the main rotor disc".
Er - that might be me, then....
D18 was the one time that we wore a parachute in a helicopter. M'larky Jim took 45 minutes for D18 with a blissfully ignorant Midshipman taking little or no notice of the pearls of wisdom being imparted as the view was far more interesting. To think I'd regularly fly my BK at 9-10,000ft 30+ years later and even cruise my 206L at 10,000ft between Melbourne and Sydney to avoid a refuel at Canberra!
ICO, we didn't fly together but I have a few of your compatriots listed in the 12E before I settled into being M'larky's last stude before he moved on. The one that he wanted to see through to wings, as all his previous studes were chop cases that he was given as an A1. A minor detail he didn't mention until 4-5 years later in casual conversation of a pint, but was traumatising to young bloke fresh from Linton who had been advised by the previous course "don't get M'larky, he chops all his studes"
ICO, we didn't fly together but I have a few of your compatriots listed in the 12E before I settled into being M'larky's last stude before he moved on. The one that he wanted to see through to wings, as all his previous studes were chop cases that he was given as an A1. A minor detail he didn't mention until 4-5 years later in casual conversation of a pint, but was traumatising to young bloke fresh from Linton who had been advised by the previous course "don't get M'larky, he chops all his studes"
Thread Starter
SA341G Westland Gazelle G-BBSI as seen at Battersea Heliport in April 1977 (Photo: Brian Bickers)
This aircraft, at the time of the photo, was owned by McAlpines and, prior to that, Westland Helicopters.
Sadly, this craft was written off just days after this photo was taken:
SEVEN OR EIGHT MINUTES INTO THE FLIGHT THE ENGINE OIL CENTRAL WARNING LIGHT ILLUMINATED AND THE OIL GAUGE SHOWED ZERO PRESSURE. AN AREA WAS SELECTED FOR A FORCED LANDING AND THE ENGINE SET TO MINIMUM. AT 200-300FT AGL THE AIRCRAFT YAWED RIGHT, THE PILOT ASSUMED THAT THIS SIGNIFIED AN ENGINE FAILURE AND WENT FOR AN AUTOROTATIVE LANDING. THERE WAS INSUFFICIENT HEIGHT FOR THIS TO BE ACHIEVED SUCCESSFULLY AND A HARD LANDING RESULTED. INVESTIGATION SHOWED THAT INGESTION OF METAL DEBRIS INTO ONE OF THE ENGINE OIL SCAVENGE PUMPS HAD CAUSED THE COMMON DRIVE SHAFT TO SHEAR RESULTING IN ENGINE FAILURE. THE DEBRIS HAD COME FROM A FAILED COMPRESSOR BEARING HOUSING. A MODIFIED HOUSING AND A SCAVENGE PUMP SCREEN IS TO BE INTRODUCED AT MAJOR OVERHAULS FOLLOWING THIS OCCURRENCE. (AIB BULLETIN 8/77).
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Hello,
I see a picture of Heli Union UK G-ALWC Alouette II in this thread. In fact, there is the source of that picture : Zenfolio | Pierre GILLARD | United Kingdom - Heli-Union (U.K.) Ltd | 004878
Copyright strip has been removed ... This is not really fair as I spent hours in cleaning old pictures. You may use pictures from my website, but please leave the photo credit !
Pierre.
I see a picture of Heli Union UK G-ALWC Alouette II in this thread. In fact, there is the source of that picture : Zenfolio | Pierre GILLARD | United Kingdom - Heli-Union (U.K.) Ltd | 004878
Copyright strip has been removed ... This is not really fair as I spent hours in cleaning old pictures. You may use pictures from my website, but please leave the photo credit !
Pierre.
I see a picture of Heli Union UK G-ALWC Alouette II in this thread. In fact, there is the source of that picture : Zenfolio | Pierre GILLARD | United Kingdom - Heli-Union (U.K.) Ltd | 004878
Planemike
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Some Chinese oldies :
Other pictures taken at Datangshan here.
There is also a single Alouette III on display inside the cavern :
At the Civil Aviation University of China in Tianjin :
And at the Shenyang Aerospace University :
Click on the pictures for more ...
Pierre.
Other pictures taken at Datangshan here.
There is also a single Alouette III on display inside the cavern :
At the Civil Aviation University of China in Tianjin :
And at the Shenyang Aerospace University :
Click on the pictures for more ...
Pierre.
Thread Starter
Just to add some information to the photos posted by Pierre ..
The top photo is the Chinese-produced Harbin Z-6 which was a turbine 'interpretation' [read reverse engineered] of the Mi-4. Less than 20 examples were built (though reliable information is scarce) as Harbin were unable to achieve any improvement in performance over their Z-5 (see below) which was a Chinese produced version of the Mi-4.
The second photo, as indicated, is an Alouette III and which was part of a small number delivered by Aérospatiale in the 1970's. Licensed production in China was discussed but never pursued.
The third photo is the Harbin Z-5 which, as mentioned, was a Chinese-built version of the Mi4 (aka "The Russian Chickasaw"). In 1979 Harbin fitted one of their Z-5's with a Pratt & Whitney TwinPac but, sadly for P&W, the development went no further.
The bottom photo is the ubiquitous Mi-8.
The top photo is the Chinese-produced Harbin Z-6 which was a turbine 'interpretation' [read reverse engineered] of the Mi-4. Less than 20 examples were built (though reliable information is scarce) as Harbin were unable to achieve any improvement in performance over their Z-5 (see below) which was a Chinese produced version of the Mi-4.
The second photo, as indicated, is an Alouette III and which was part of a small number delivered by Aérospatiale in the 1970's. Licensed production in China was discussed but never pursued.
The third photo is the Harbin Z-5 which, as mentioned, was a Chinese-built version of the Mi4 (aka "The Russian Chickasaw"). In 1979 Harbin fitted one of their Z-5's with a Pratt & Whitney TwinPac but, sadly for P&W, the development went no further.
The bottom photo is the ubiquitous Mi-8.
Thread Starter
Buongiorno Zis!
I've enlarged the photo to get a closer look but the image remains a little blurred however .. it appears to me to be the emblem of the Air Squadron.
Can't say much about the Squadron other than Ken McAlpine was a member (and which is probably why it was painted on BBSI) and also that my late-godfather was friends with some of their members including Tony Everard and Johnny Moss.
I've enlarged the photo to get a closer look but the image remains a little blurred however .. it appears to me to be the emblem of the Air Squadron.
Can't say much about the Squadron other than Ken McAlpine was a member (and which is probably why it was painted on BBSI) and also that my late-godfather was friends with some of their members including Tony Everard and Johnny Moss.
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Thread Starter
I have no details for this image other than it is supposedly taken during the 1987 British Helicopter Championships.
If anyone has any information, such as a location and those pictured, I would be much obliged.