WARBIRDS Westland Wasp

LOVE AT
FIRST
STING
What’s it like for a private owner who’s never operated an historic
aeroplane before to take on custodianship of a Westland Wasp?
WORDS: BEN DUNNELL PHOTOGRAPHY: DARREN HARBAR

John Heath at the helm of Wasp

HAS1 XT435/G-RIMM over the
wintry East Anglian countryside.

AEROPLANE MARCH 2023 www.Key.Aero 53

WARBIRDS Westland Wasp
A
ABOVE: s the UK’s airworthy classic
The Wasp’s cockpit jets dwindle, and certain
isn’t the most further types disappear,
comfortable of
environments when
so our post-war aviation
the weather gets heritage could easily have faded
colder, thanks to the away. Yet the revival of another
lack of any heating. sector, one which had long ‘bubbled
Of course, in service under’ without the recognition it
the type was often deserved, has ensured this is not
flown with doors off.
so. Vintage helicopters are in the
ascendant, bringing several once-
familiar rotorcraft shapes back to
the skies, and focusing welcome
attention on others.
The Westland Wasp began to
reappear in civilian hands as the
1990s came to a close, the former
Royal Navy small-ship anti-
submarine helicopter enjoying a
resurgence after its final retirement.
That took place in New Zealand,
after which several of the last flying
examples were repurchased by their
manufacturer and returned to these
shores. A deal involving four of them
was done with Tim Manna of Kennet
Aviation, and through that sale
XT435 was among three that enjoyed
a resurrection to airworthiness.
Now, several other owners later,
this much-travelled Wasp is in the
54 www.Key.Aero
hands of John Heath, who bases it
at North Weald in Essex. He’s the
very essence of the enthusiastic
private owner-pilot, someone who’d
hankered after these characterful
steeds for years. But what’s it like
for an individual such as him to
take the plunge from wanting one
to actual custodianship? After all,
“
I had to go for
it — I’d got to own
a Wasp if at all
”
possible
the commitment — not to say the
expense — is considerable.
“I always wanted to fly helicopters”,
says John. “I’ve actually got a very
slight disability — I’ve got very mild
cerebral palsy down the right-hand
side — but when I was five or six
years old I saw the [Army Air Corps]
Blue Eagles helicopter display team
flying and I thought, ‘That’s what I
want to do’. I wanted to join the Royal
Navy, and at that time in the ’70s the
Wasp was still being used on frigates.
I remember seeing one take off at
Chatham Navy Days back when I was
a sea cadet.
“Unfortunately, for medical
reasons I couldn’t join the navy,
and I ended up owning my own
publishing company. I got a PPL(A)
to begin with, but couldn’t afford to
fly helicopters. On my 40th birthday,
I thought I’d just give it a try, to see
if I could hover. It’s like all of these
things; at the time I reckoned I’d
just do five hours, and, of course, I
became hooked. I got my licence
in 2007 and flew Schweizer 300s to
begin with. I joined a syndicate of
owners down in Gloucester and did
quite a number of hours over in the
West Country, which was absolutely
fantastic. But then I saw an advert for
a Wasp for sale. I didn’t even know
there were any still flying. I had to
go for it — I’d got to own one if at all
possible.”
The previous owner was Graham
Hinkley, now heavily engaged in a
series of Lynx projects. He kept it at
North Weald, which is where John
AEROPLANE MARCH 2023
went to see him in 2018. A deal was
done for G-RIMM soon afterwards.
“To get a rating on a Wasp, it’s a
10-hour rating as opposed to a five-
hour. When the CAA first put them
onto the civil register, it thought
that, being an ex-military helicopter,
it would take a bit more than five
hours. You had to go down to Bourne
Park airfield near Andover, which
was the only place you could do a
Scout and a Wasp rating at the time.
John Beattie [former Royal Navy
helicopter pilot and well-known
historic aeroplane flier] was my The Rolls-Royce Nimbus engine has proved very reliable, though
instructor for the 10 hours. there have been recent problems with the reduction gearbox.
“I loved it. It has its own quirks.
When you get into the Wasp, the
smell is like you get in an old classic
car, all oil and leather. You sit in it
and you’re presented with an array
of analogue dials and this smell. It
gives you a sense of true aviation,
together with its naval history and
deployment. After all, how many
modern helicopters you fly have a
missile eject button?

❖
“Because the tail folds, there are a
lot more pulleys involved in the tail
rotor control, so it’s a lot stiffer. You
need the left leg of a rugby player
to control it. Compared to other
aircraft, there’s a lot more input
involved than on, say, a Robinson
or, indeed, a Schweizer. It’s got a
crosswind limit of about 25kt, which
is not too bad. The Schweizer tends
No comparisons with supermarket
to be a little bit friskier in crosswinds.
trolleys, please… The castoring
If you take the hydraulics off, the wheels can be locked in place, but
Wasp goes up and to the left quite are not suitable for taxiing.
severely, and you need quite a lot of
strength — 40lb force — to keep it
straight and level. The folding tail, a feature
“Other than that, it’s a beautiful incorporated to allow easier
aircraft to fly. It feels relatively stable stowage of the Wasp in the
in flight. In auto-rotations, it sinks confines of a ship.
like a brick, with a descent rate of
1,800ft per minute, which is quite
steep, really. Although the maximum
speed is 100kt, it likes to fly
comfortably at 90kt. It does burn fuel
like there’s no tomorrow — about
500lb an hour or just under, which is
all but a gallon a minute. By the time
you get down to half-tanks it does
pick up speed a bit. You do notice
the difference, especially if there are
only two of you on board.”
The four-wheel castoring
undercarriage, of course, is among
the most distinctive Wasp features.
Intended to allow manoeuvring even
on a heavily-pitching ship’s deck,
the wheels can be locked if required,
though hover-taxiing remains the
standard procedure at all times.

AEROPLANE MARCH 2023 www.Key.Aero 55

WARBIRDS Westland Wasp
ABOVE: “It’s all very simple”, says John.
John found the Wasp “From a safety perspective, it’s a very
reasonably easy to robust undercarriage. You can bring
convert to, but, for
the private owner,
it down quite positively. In flight, the
operating economics two rear wheels point inwards, so if
may be the limiting you land on a slight slope it doesn’t
factor. roll away. Trying to do a running
take-off is a bit trickier, perhaps, than
on skids which slide along the grass,
but you don’t tend to do them that
often.”
The maintenance of G-RIMM,
like many other Wasps and Scouts
on the UK civil register, is handled
by North Weald Heritage Aviation.
For a private owner, this aspect of
operating such a machine is among
the larger burdens, so handing it
over to type experts makes a lot of
sense. The spares situation needs
a watchful eye: “You’re always
looking out for extra bits to buy”, John
remarks. “When I bought it, I did so
For more details, with a spare engine and spare rotor
go to blades. But with the life-limiting
flight426.co.uk components, it’s constantly in the
56 www.Key.Aero
back of your mind that if they fail for
whatever reason, could I get a new
one? You’ve got to be mindful of that.”
Asked what sort of problems he’s
experienced so far, he adds, “It’s
actually grounded at the moment
because when an oil sample from
“
It’s a very robust
engine and I’ve had
no issues with it
”
whatsoever
the tail rotor gearbox came back,
the amount of metallic deposits
in it was too high. North Weald
Heritage Aviation is trying to source
a new tail rotor gearbox for me.
Just before Christmas, the oil seal
on the reduction gearbox, which
sits directly behind the engine, was
leaking quite a bit, preventing the
rotor brake from working properly,
so I asked them to change that. They
managed to do it, but using the last
oil seal they could source. It’s things
like that: if that goes wrong again,
what happens then?”
The Nimbus engine itself,
however, has proved highly
dependable. “Rolls-Royce tended
to over-engineer things”, says John,
“and it was obviously designed for
field use because the Scout uses
it as well. When insufficient air
goes into the turbine it will surge,
and I have had a couple of those
while practising auto-rotations if
I flare too aggressively. There are
always oil leaks somewhere, but
they’re contained. It’s a very robust
engine and I’ve had no issues with it
whatsoever.”
Operating costs will never be
cheap, and this is especially the
case given the effect of recent world
AEROPLANE MARCH 2023
 Bringing XT435 in to land
at a private site.

events. “I think, when I bought the

helicopter just over four years ago,
the price of fuel was about 78p per
litre. Now, since the war in Ukraine
started, it’s £1.25 per litre. It’s north
of £300 an hour just on fuel alone.
I decided then that if I could take
people who want to go flying in it
and they could contribute towards
the cost, that would be greatly
appreciated”. Cost-sharing flights in
the Wasp are thus offered, taking in
a variety of destinations in the south
and east of England.
Event appearances help, too. There
was Shuttleworth’s Fly Navy show
last July, with a display alongside
two other Wasps — XT435 being an
associate aircraft of the Navy Wings
organisation — and a families’ day
at Odiham, while looking back to
2021 the prestigious invite to the
Goodwood Revival brought third
place in the Freddie March Spirit of
Aviation concours d’elegance. This
May will hopefully see a return to
the Abingdon airshow. Everywhere
it goes, the type is bound to attract
attention.
“You’ve got to be a certain kind of
person to want to fly a Wasp”, John
reflects. There’s the cost of keeping
it going, the technical challenges,
and certain other traits such as
the very cold cabin on a chilly
day, thanks to the lack of heating.
Yet the pleasure outweighs all the
frustrations. “It’s not just the flying
of it, but the owning of it and
the appreciation. It really is a
dream come true.”

LIFESPAN OF A WASP
B
uilt by Westland at its Yeovil spent a period painted overall red for
plant in October 1965, peacekeeping duties in Bougainville,
Wasp XT435 served first Papua New Guinea, where a civil war
with the Royal Navy, was fought against a separatist
specifically with 829 Naval Air movement from 1988-98. That
Squadron — the type’s primary deployment was made aboard the
front-line operator, which had under Leander-class frigate HMNZS
its control the Wasp-equipped ships’ Canterbury.
flights right up until their retirement On being phased out by the RNZN
during 1988. However, by then, in April 1998, NZ3907 was sold first
XT435 was already long-gone. In to Westland and then to Mark
1983 it had been part of a batch sold It was impossible to miss NZ3907 in the colour scheme Grimshaw, who registered it as
applied for peacekeeping operations in Bougainville, Papua
to the Royal New Zealand Navy, with G-RIMM. He had it restored to flight
New Guinea, as part of Operation ‘Belisi’ in 1997. NZDF
whom its service — as serial NZ3907 by Kennet Aviation, painted once
— could have been rather short. On more as XT435. Graham Hinkley
12 March the following year, the helicopter suffered engine failure at acquired the Wasp in 2008, after which John Heath took ownership
RNZAF Station Hobsonville, part of RNZAF Base Auckland, its home towards the end of 2018. Today it flies in the markings of an 829
with No 3 Squadron whose Helicopter Support Flight operated the NAS Wasp flown from HMS Arethusa, another frigate of the Leander
navy’s Wasps. The resulting damage was serious, but components class. XT435 was once assigned to Arethusa’s ship’s flight, but
from two other machines made possible a return to flight. NZ3907 never actually deployed aboard it.

AEROPLANE MARCH 2023 www.Key.Aero 57