Sycamore
My only worry was that someone not using the right gear, and not being familiar with the job, may get hurt. As an ex Wessex chief engineer, I must have done many gearboxes, but the potential for losing fingers is always there.
The 3deg mast tilt means you cannot get a straight lift on the mast, you have to tilt the aircraft at an extreme angle. The S76 is the same, but with a 5deg tilt.

When you take the gearbox off wasn’t there a couple of cables you had to add to prevent the canopy sagging fwd.

Not to my knowledge NutLoose, but I never worked on any of the Navy versions, perhaps they had extra gear. Anyone who has read Richard Pikes book helicopter boys, will have read about the Bristow crash in Indonesia. This was an ex Brunei army Mk. 50, and it was jinxed. We spent Two years rebuilding it at Redhill, after which it went to Port Harcourt in Nigeria, after a year or so of good service it turned over due to ground resonance. It was repaired again on site, only to be finally lost after I left due to a tail servo malfunction. As for as I know its still there in he swamp.
Barney Swinton-Bland was flying a Whirlwind in PH, when he had a blade pocket lift, we rescued him as he floated merrily down the river on his pontoons. We dumped the blade, and the next time we flew over we saw that the locals had retrieve it, mounted it no tressles and were using it to cut up fish on. Who say Shell dont care for the environment.

Black `bodge-tape`(long before`speed-tape) was the answer to lifted pockets on WW.....until you flew thru` the next tropical rain shower.....or until the `Glovers` sorted the problem...eventually...

Do you remember the silver metallic tape that was stuck along the leading edges of Wessex V blades in the Far East to reduce erosion from heavy rain? All that happened was that the rain split the tape and your leading edge had all the aerodynamics of a house brick! And with all the attendant vibration................Happy days

I'm with sycamore. We always used black tape on our Whirlwinds in Borneo.

We had clear blade tape in NI in the 80's which often lifted in heavy rain causing the classic 'Wop, Wop' sound.

The tape usually removed itself if you kept flying but on one occasion it didn't and we landed and shut down to discover that one of the blade pockets had removed itself instead!

In Borneo we found that the standard Smith & Wesson .38 and 12 rounds we were issued with was useless. Shooting against a headwind you could see the bullet and if it got more than twenty yards the bullet was so far off target that you victim was fireproof.

You could tear the old black blade tape into very thin strips. One would then wrap them into the groove on the 9 mm cartridge. The enabled you to place them in the chamber of a .38 Smith & Wesson and the tape would act like the rim on the pistol's cartridge.

The difference was fantastic and with the bigger charge six shots into a fuel drum at 50 yards was easy. The only problem was that you had to poke the empty shells out with a screwdriver as the extractor would not grip the tape..

!2 rounds of II WW ammunition or unlimited 9 mm from the Ghurkas? No contest.

Couple of Wessex with head sling in place, although shouldn't really lift the head with blades attached if I remember correctly ?.
https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....5d40897c9b.jpg

Looks as if it has just been put on a cradle for transport.

z2, think that might have been a `staff` navigators `landing`...!

slight bend in rear fuselage through the serial, on a transporter back at Finningley about September 82.
https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....1b062375d1.jpg

Z2, think it was at Coltishall it happened.....

The sling" shown in the photo is not strictly a head sling but a sling capable of lifting the head and gearbox as a complete unit. It is of all metal construction (probably mild steel) and can be used to lift not only the head and gearbox unit but the compete aircraft! The head (only) sling is a four legged wire rope sling affair of altogether more flimsy construction.

With regard to the query about cockpit wire rope cables, they should be fitted to support the cockpit rear bulkhead when the longerons either side of the main gearbox are to be removed prior to lifting the gearbox. They fit between the lower forward corner of the sliding window rail and the top rear corner of the sloping bulkhead.

Incidentally the aircraft does not have to be tilted to remove/refit a main gearbox. A couple of strong guys pulling rearwards on the gearbox A frames as the gearbox is lifted/lowered will allow the front A frame legs to "clear" the base of the cockpit bulkhead.

https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....9169963376.jpg
Hill top Jambo 1965
Far East Driver, does this bring back any memories.

Gotta date Dave...? 225 Sdn `D`,until Nov`65 then 103 Sdn....

Sorry Sycamore I was never very good at keeping diaries, but this would have been Summer 1965, after the New Zealand Regiment took over the area, from the Gurkhas, I was in charge of maintenance at Simanggang. Your right about it being 225, and shortly before Sam Smiths accident, operating from Kuching.

Don`t know if you were on this ..? Your Eng.O is 2nd left ,seated...possibly Oct`65

Thanks, glad I’m not going mad and remember them even as a sooty, I even remember on the HC2 you need to put the v strut back in before removing the second engine, I saw one that they didn’t and the nose sagged, it was fixed by putting an aircraft jack on the angled eng bay decking and jacking it back up to slot one back in. :)

Not really. I was up north in Sabah, well away from the fleshpots of Kuching. XP330 was handed over to us when we left Labuan and it then served on 230 Sqn.

This might help in your rebuild


https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/RAF-RN-Ai...gAAOSwp6xfu8cZ

I bet it still smells of OX 38 !

I still smell of OX 38

Lol, me too

I preferred OM 15

I was at RAF Kai Tak, when the pylon fell off when it was being folded.

On a scale of nastiness I always rated OM15 as worst with Avtur next.
Mind you at that point I had not discovered Skydrol, gods punishment for taking up aircraft enginering.

Skydrol and VC 10, used to leak all over you when doing pump changes on the engines, nasty paintstriping stuff.

Spit..,was that due to corrosion,or incompetence ,or..other...?

A crack had developed in the Upper Hinge,as far as I remember,there was no inspection done there, had to get MARTSU out to repair it.

Spit...thanks

They brought a Mod. out to replace the single upper hinge with a double hinge, apparently the crack developed from the inside.
We had to do NDT every 5 flying hours,later extended to 10, Eddy Current was the preferred test,but if not available Ardrox.

Quote "On a scale of nastiness I always rated OM15 as worst"
OM15 = instant Dermatitis. Awful stuff. I never had any reaction at all to Fluid 41...hmmm
3D CAM.

As a Crewman, I used to wear OX38 all down my back. Straight off Top Deck down bulkhead and onto me. You could always tell the difference between pilots jackets and crewman's, forget badges just see who smelt of the stuff!

Anybody who worked on Hunters, single engine Wessex, or Belvederes will be familiar with Avpin. We had a guy on Belvederes who swallowed some, on that aircraft the Avpin tank was up high on the side of the cabin, you had to stand on a hook on ladder, and pour the stuff in from a plastic can.
This guy fell back off the ladder, and Covered himself in Avpin, the sick bay kept him in, and checked his blood pressure every few minutes, but he was OK.

It was lucky he didn't fart.

Huge 72, I used to joke that I took my flying suits home for an oil change. Hope all is well, Happy Christmas my friend :) AP

you got the avionics... well.... fuses and big clunky electrical components bay door would be a better description...

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Westland-...oAAOSwk6RfHaz9

I still have my flying jacket and stain on shoulder (still smells of oil) and I left 72 in 1980

Blue Up,

Any updates/pictures on the project?