Sycamore to fly at Yeovilton Air Day

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CharlieOneSix
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Sycamore to fly at Yeovilton Air Day

#1 Post by CharlieOneSix » Fri Apr 13, 2018 10:42 am

The following has been lifted from the blurb about the Yeovilton Air Day on Saturday 7 July 2018:

The uniquely airworthy Bristol Sycamore will also be delivering some RAF100 zest to the show. Entering RAF service ahead of all other British-designed helicopters, the Sycamore was a real rotary pioneer. It was first flown in July 1947, barely two years after the end of WW2. Less than a dozen Sycamores now remain and this one, as the world's only flyer, brings distinction and rarity to Air Day.

Now that is something I would like to see as I've never seen one in flight. Two of my former bosses, Sox Hosegood (featured in the video below) and Bob Smith, were two of the Bristol test pilots who flew the prototypes. Sox also took one to the Netherlands in 1953 to help out when the North Sea flooded parts of the country. It was an appalling training helicopter as it only had one collective lever which was on the fuselage centre line and shared by the two pilots. Inevitably there were accidents due to this arrangement, especially during demonstrated practice engine off landings if the instructor in the left seat during the critical few seconds of the flare forgot that unlike the controls in the right seat his left hand controlled the cyclic and the right hand the collective and he tried to flare with the collective instead of the cyclic =)) .

The other problem the Sycamore had was that its main rotor blades were made out of wood. This wasn't too much of a problem in the UK but when the type was deployed to Malaya there were many accidents due to blade delamination and failure due to the humidity - a problem similar to that experienced in earlier years by the Mosquito and Sea Hornet.

For a short while I used to fly an early Bell 47J which had wooden blades before I moved on to the 47J2 which had metal blades. We made sure we tied down opposite wooden rotor blades each night on the two bladed system if the helicopter was parked outside overnight. This was to reduce the amount of water running down to the tip of the tied down blade and causing rotor imbalance when the rotors were started next day. People tend not to believe me nowadays when I said we had to do that! It was more of a problem with the Sycamore which had three blades. The subsequent water induced rotor imbalance combined with an oleo undercarriage made the type prone to ground resonance.

This YouTube video is just under 10 minutes long but worth watching. Towards the end it features the Sycamore which will be at Yeovilton under the Flying Bulls banner:

The helicopter pilots' mantra: If it hasn't gone wrong then it's just about to...
https://www.glenbervie-weather.org

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Re: Sycamore to fly at Yeovilton Air Day

#2 Post by Cacophonix » Fri Apr 13, 2018 4:59 pm

Charlie One Six is there any specific reason, apart from advertising hyperbole, that the Air Day organisers would describe the Sycamore as "uniquely airworthy" unless they are just evoking the Sycamore seed which is truly a wonderful metaphor, and name, for a helicopter?

Talking of names, who wouldn't want a soubriquet like "Sox" with a surname like Hosegood. I do remember you describing this gentleman's impressive, eventful and adventurous career on another thread with a great deal of interest and personal enjoyment.

Am about to settle down to watch the video thus ending my day in further indolence and self indulgent idleness!

Edited to say what an impressive duo those two test pilots appear to have been on the basis of the video alone.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obitua ... tuary.html

https://thetartanterror.blogspot.co.uk/ ... ilson.html

I post a video of only airworthy Sycamore being displayed...



It is a remarkably modern looking helicopter.

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Re: Sycamore to fly at Yeovilton Air Day

#3 Post by Cacophonix » Fri Apr 13, 2018 5:40 pm

I couldn't resist adding this one with Mr Hosegood flying the remarkable looking Bristol 173 helicopter...




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Re: Sycamore to fly at Yeovilton Air Day

#4 Post by CharlieOneSix » Fri Apr 13, 2018 10:39 pm

Caco - at 1:22 in the video immediately above this, isn't that person shaking hands with Sox the Minister of Whore, John Profumo, chief protagonist in the Keeler affair?

The next video which came up after your last was "Helicopter Party 1958". It was an annual party given by Charles Hughesdon and his actress wife Florence Desmond. They can be seen greeting the crew of the white Skeeter at the beginning of the clip. The party was at Hughesdon's country house in Ripley, Surrey. I was fortunate enough to be invited to the party in June 1970 and flew in with my late 1st wife in a Bell 47J2 helicopter.



Charles was involved heavily with aircraft insurance and lived to the ripe old age of 104. He lead a fascinating life as can be seen from his obituary.
Charles Hughesdon - Obituary
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Re: Sycamore to fly at Yeovilton Air Day

#5 Post by Cacophonix » Sat Apr 14, 2018 12:56 am

CharlieOneSix wrote:
Fri Apr 13, 2018 10:39 pm
Caco - at 1:22 in the video immediately above this, isn't that person shaking hands with Sox the Minister of Whore, John Profumo, chief protagonist in the Keeler affair?

The next video which came up after your last was "Helicopter Party 1958". It was an annual party given by Charles Hughesdon and his actress wife Florence Desmond. They can be seen greeting the crew of the white Skeeter at the beginning of the clip. The party was at Hughesdon's country house in Ripley, Surrey. I was fortunate enough to be invited to the party in June 1970 and flew in with my late 1st wife in a Bell 47J2 helicopter.



Charles was involved heavily with aircraft insurance and lived to the ripe old age of 104. He lead a fascinating life as can be seen from his obituary.
Charles Hughesdon - Obituary
CharlieOneSIx I watched that Bristol 173 video twice all the way through and was struck by the familiarity of that man's face and couldn't initially place it, That chap is John Profumo! Well spotted and recognised!

While watching the fascinating Helicopter Party, so kindly posted by you, I also knew that I had heard of Hughesdon before and, of course, it was through his adventures in the Schlesinger air race, infamous for having only two out of a small field of 14 aircraft complete the course, two pilots having being killed, between Portsmouth and Rand Airport (just outside Johannesburg). The race was being led by a long margin at one stage by South African Stan Halse, before he crashed heavily in Rhodesia in his Percival Mew Gull. The race of attrition was eventually won by Englishmen Scott and Guthrie.

Stan Halse was the CFI at the famous (and now sadly defunct Baragwanath Flying Club) during the 50's. He was also much admired by Alex Henshaw who soon after went on to make the Mew Gull even more famous during his record breaking return flight from Gravesend to Cape Town .

Another South African that flew in the Schelsinger air race was Victor Smith who lived not far from my family's holiday cottage near the Wilderness in the 70's and whose book Open Cockpit over Africa is well worth a read. If I am not mistaken, Tom Campbell Black, a would be entrant in the Schelsinger air race, who was killed in a collision at Speke airport (and presumed to be the ghost that haunted the old control tower there) and lover and flying instructor to Beryl Markham, was married to Hughesdon's wife Florence Desmond, before he was killed.

Aviation was a very dangerous game in those days but it has never ceased to be a very incestuous one worldwide with less than the supposed 6 degrees of separation normal in society as a whole, even today!

As a result of reading the Hughesdon's obituary and looking at the wonderfully full (and amorous by the looks of it) life Hughesdon led I am apt to buy his book.

Fascinating thread (as ever).

Caco

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Re: Sycamore to fly at Yeovilton Air Day

#6 Post by Woody » Sat Apr 14, 2018 7:50 am

I remember being told the Captain Black ghost story, whilst in the Cambrian Ops room at Speke, didn’t sleep a wink that night :-ss

http://www.a-e-g.org.uk/the-ghost-of-speke.html
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Re: Sycamore to fly at Yeovilton Air Day

#7 Post by CharlieOneSix » Sat Apr 14, 2018 8:13 am

Fascinating article, Woody - thanks for posting that.
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Re: Sycamore to fly at Yeovilton Air Day

#8 Post by Cacophonix » Sat Apr 14, 2018 9:08 am

Woody wrote:
Sat Apr 14, 2018 7:50 am
I remember being told the Captain Black ghost story, whilst in the Cambrian Ops room at Speke, didn’t sleep a wink that night :-ss

http://www.a-e-g.org.uk/the-ghost-of-speke.html
Woody many years back, I flew up from Cardiff Roose to Speke (now Liverpool John Lennon, as you know :) ) to drop my then boss off to pick up his new Socata TB9 Tampico and while there I spoke to one of the old ATC folks who had worked in the old Tower (which is now part of a nearby industrial park) and he clearly believed the ghost was real and he told me that he had known people who refused to walk or work alone on the site, particularly at night. Chinese whispers, superstition or the real thing? I don't know and keep an open mind.

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Re: Sycamore to fly at Yeovilton Air Day

#9 Post by Woody » Sat Apr 14, 2018 9:40 am

I think everyone knows the story, but it was told to me by an Evertonian who was trying to get me to change sides :((

Thankfully he failed.
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Re: Sycamore to fly at Yeovilton Air Day

#10 Post by Cacophonix » Sat Apr 14, 2018 9:56 am

Woody wrote:
Sat Apr 14, 2018 9:40 am
I think everyone knows the story, but it was told to me by an Evertonian who was trying to get me to change sides :((

Thankfully he failed.
You definitely don't want to bat for the wrong side Woody! Wrong sport, wrong game, wrong altogether! =))

Sides it would upset the charming Mrs Woody mightily! :))

I jest, I jest! :YMPARTY:

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Re: Sycamore to fly at Yeovilton Air Day

#11 Post by Cacophonix » Sat Apr 28, 2018 12:54 pm

In addition to the date at Yeovilton so kindly noted by C16 above, the Sycamore and the Bolkow Bo105 will also be display at the RAF Cosford Airshow on the 10 June...

Another excuse to post an amazing display of control and flying in the Bo105!



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