The Ever Growing Helo Photo Thread

[FD2]

POP!

As long as you didn't hit the water too violently the Wessex floats usually worked well enough to allow you to escape fairly easily after ditching. The system was always 'armed' when flying over water as it wasn't something you wanted to do in autorotation in the dark, or any other time really - sudden twangs when flying downwind at 150 ft on a stormy night were not welcome. The floats would then inflate when water completed the arming circuit. However, sometimes water ingress in badly sealed places might cause them to inflate in flight, which wasn't a problem unless you were flying 'fast', when it could cause a severe pitching nose down! Here's a Wessex 3 returning to Portland after inadvertent inflation:

Wessex HAS Mk III Return to Portland.jpg (123.27 KiB) Viewed 805 times

[FD2]

I used to think the Sea King was a large aircraft in my younger days but it's knocked into a cocked hat by machines such as the CH-53 and of course the big Russians. here are some photos (not mine) of maintenance on a USN or USMC CH-53E:

CH-53E maintenance.jpg (72.25 KiB) Viewed 805 times

[FD2]

In 2002, our S76A+ G-BJVX was returned from Redhill after having a major check. It was sporting a new paint job but one which it seems was not 'properly authorised' and so it remained the only one in the fleet in this livery, until in crashed off Norfolk on the 16th July 2002 with the loss of two crew and nine passengers. A main rotor blade which had been struck by lightning the previous year on another aircraft was re-fitted - it had been returned after an inspection in the States had declared it serviceable. An original fault in manufacture had allowed the lightning to cause more damage than could have been ascertained by anything other than destruction of the blade. The titanium spar fractured about a third of the distance from the rotor head and the out-of-balance forces caused the main gearbox and main rotor head to part from the fuselage in a matter of seconds, as the aircraft was descending through 500 ft.

G-BJVX New Colours.jpg (96.58 KiB) Viewed 804 times

[500N]

I didn't know Titanium was used for blades.

My father was part of the team at IMI (Part of ICI) that won the Queens Award for Industry
in the early sixties for coming up with a way to produce titanium commercially or soemthing
like that.

We have two lumps of it by our fire, overflows from the metal vat.
Same as Candle wax flows but in Titanium and multi coloured like metal goes.

Great photos.

[Airborne Aircrew]

The first thing I noticed in the Bomber2 picture was the size of the rudder... One wonders who quickly that beast could turn if it needed to...

[Airborne Aircrew]

FD2:

I used to think the Sea King was a large aircraft in my younger days but it's knocked into a cocked hat by machines such as the CH-53

It was 1986 I believe and RAF Odiham did an Air Show.... I dropped the Falcons from 10,000 on the day... But the thing that I remember most about that week was the CH-53. The bugger was huge, with three massive doncs yet, strangely, all fired up on the pan ready to ground taxi the bloody thing was quieter than our Pumas with two middle size jets..

I was impressed that day and remain so...

[FD2]

500N

Yes - titanium alloy - the sad story is here: https://www.gov.uk/aaib-reports/aar-1-2 ... -july-2002

[FD2]

AA

The rudder is pretty effective - a chum of mine was winching a sailor off a US SSBN (Polaris boat) when a large wave washed them all overboard. It was featured in the TV series 'Sailor' back in the 70s and the rescue segment itself is here on YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DBh84xPM-U0

The submarine captain gets the rudder hard over immediately which swings the stern so that huge multi-bladed propeller moves away from the men in the water. The same technique was used when an aircraft had a 'cold shot' off a catapult and ended up in the sea just ahead of a carrier- they put the rudder hard one way then the other so the ship did a zigzag around the wreckage, hopefully. I think it was Lyn Middleton, captain of Hermes in the Falklands War, who had famously been under a carrier twice when that didn't work!

http://www.fleetairarmoa.org/news/rear- ... ton-cb-dso

I never got close to a CH-53 but heard them on a number of occasions when we lived in Norfolk and it was just so different from normal helicopters that I had to rush out the house and have a goof!

[FD2]

AA:

I remember the first Bristow Pumas (SA 330J?) up at Sumburgh, Shetland - the sound was deafening 100s of yards away. Strangely it seemed to be worse in front than behind when they were running on the ground.

[Airborne Aircrew]

FD2:

Thanks for those replies... Amazed that a big ship can turn quickly at all, especially at speed.

At to the Puma noise, I remember being on Salisbury Plain when I was in the Regiment and we had CVRT, (Light tanks), and were doing our "learning exercises".. An Army AT Lynx started stalking us as we formed up in a wood on the peak of a hill. It was bloody un-nerving because you could hear it, you knew exactly what it was but discerning it's direction/location was all but impossible. I'm sure that if the mast sights had been available at the time it could have had a merry time with us before we could have formed a cohesive defense against it.

[probes]

The first "CH-53E maintenance" would make a good Caption Competition"!

[CharlieOneSix]

FD2 - your shot of the Wessex 3 with floats inflated reminded me that I had a photo in my logbook of a similar event but only one side went off - caused quite a bit of yaw! I can't remember now but shouldn't both sides have gone off if one was activated? I have my conversion notes in the loft somewhere but no idea where....

[CharlieOneSix]

I didn't know Titanium was used for blades......

Not only for blades - the Bolkow 105 helicopter main rotor head consists of a solid titanium block to which the four blades are bolted. Not my photo:

That head is a thing of beauty and the 'rigid rotor' system made control responses immediate and powerful - it was a joy to fly although I never attempted anything like what is shown on this video of the Red Bull display.....

[bbvideo=560,315]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EvlvpkNYh-0[/bbvideo]

[CharlieOneSix]

Found another photo - this is of Wessex 3 XM834 when we were doing Mk44 torpedo drop trials in Falmouth Bay range in 1967. You may have noticed that the pilots' side windows are invariably slid back open in all the Wessex photos - it was one thing less to do if/when the one and only engine stopped.....nearly all our flying was done over water at 150ft or below:

[CharlieOneSix]

I wasn't sure if this would work as I've had to convert the film and put it in Dropbox....

This is a 5 minute clip - no sound - mainly of the 815 Squadron RFA Tidespring detachment in late 1965. It's 8mm home movie standard so don't expect too much! The film was made by Peter Taylor, one of our Observers (Observer n. = Navigator and anti-submarine tactician extraordinaire). Of interest to our Oz friends will be the Sydney Opera House under construction. The liner Canberra is in shot berthed in Sydney. There are also brief shots of our time in Hobart, Fremantle, Mombasa, Jasons Bay Malaysia, and of preparation for a Mk30 torpedo drop at Gan with a panning shot of the runway which is the length of the island.

At 2:49 FD2 will see Wessex '55' landing on Tidespring - this is XS862, his Antrim helicopter in its earlier life as a Mk1 Wessex.

8mm film - 815 Squadron 1965-66

[FD2]

Wow! Many thanks CharlieOneSix - talk about down Memory Lane with the sequences at sea, though I think all the Mark 1s had been replaced by 3s in front line service by the time I finished training in '72 (apart from SAR). Martyn was my flight commander (second, after John N-R) in Antrim - you can see him giving Lance Tickell a good Yorkshire stare in those photos from Torishima. Many thanks!

[FD2]

CharlieOneSix:

We just went to the cinema yesterday to see the latest James Bond film 'Spectre'. People were gasping at the Bolkow 109 stunt sequence filmed over Mexico City!

Spectre 1m.jpg (121.82 KiB) Viewed 775 times

Spectre 2m.jpg (16.95 KiB) Viewed 775 times

[FD2]

Exciting as the Spectre sequence was though, it was nothing compared to that display at Leeuwarden - that definitely made me feel a little queasy! The first helo barrel roll I saw was the Westland naval Lynx demonstrator when it visited St Mandrier in 1972 when we were disembarked at Toulon. The normally undemonstrative French Navy crowd gasped when the aircraft was rolled, as we all did.

[CharlieOneSix]

FD2 - Martyn has disappeared off the face of the earth - he was one of the few I couldn't find for our annual 815 Squadron reunions which I started 12 years ago. Our final one, organised by 'hico-p' and 50 years after we disbanded, is to be held next June if you're reading this Martyn!!

I never knew John N-R but bumped into him three years ago when I was having lunch in a pub near Sturminster Newton with my wings course mate Terry T, former Capt of Culdrose. Don't get 'Wessex' on the subject of your first Flt Cdr as it will get his blood pressure up...

Photo below was taken on 11 July 1967 when we all went out in 700(H) Mk3s to HMS Hampshire to carry out deck landing trials at Maximum All Up Weight...

[CharlieOneSix]

Photo below is again of MAUW landing trials, this time on HMS Lofoten on 16 March 1967. For those not in the know, look at the pilot waiting his turn to fly - as well as the standard Mae West we used to wear a one man dinghy on our backs. The knife on the survival suit leg was there for several reasons, one being to stab the dinghy if it inadvertently inflated whilst you were strapped in your seat.....