Airfix

[PR19_Kit]

James' site is full of all sorts of good stuff about hovercraft, well recommended. 

I've doctored the Airfix instruction sheet to show the walkways in red. When I worked on them they were the much longer Mk IIIs and they'd changed the walkways somewhat, but they were pretty similar.

[PR19_Kit]

And here's a pic of the two Mk IIIs in the Lee on Solent Museum, the walkways are the black rubberised lines along the roof.

And for interests sake, on the left is the sole UK owned BH7 hovercraft, and on the right side is the unique twin-prop SRN6.

[Weaver]

James' site is full of all sorts of good stuff about hovercraft, well recommended. 

I've doctored the Airfix instruction sheet to show the walkways in red. When I worked on them they were the much longer Mk IIIs and they'd changed the walkways somewhat, but they were pretty similar.

Ah right. I saw those, but I didn't think they could be the walkways because they pass much closer to the propellor tips than they need to. Why don't they go straight down the centreline?

[Weaver]

I wonder how the RN would have organized the crew for an MCM(H)?

The bridge/cockpit of the SR.N4 is pretty small, and seats the pilot, the engineer and the navigator. The pilot is the captain of the craft, just like in an aircraft, and that's fine for a 35min trip from A to B. However minesweeping and minehunting are far more ship-like activities, and while I'd expect the captain to be in the CIC during combat ops, they generally divide their time between the CIC and the bridge. Would the navy insist on having an "officer of the watch" position on-the-bridge/in-the-cockpit and how would that be accomodated?

Related: does anyone know what the crew of a civvie SRN.4 was? None of the references seem to say. They all claim three in the cockpit, but how many more were knocking about looking after the car deck, the engines, the passengers etc? Hunt class MCMVs had a complement of 45 (6 officers & 39 men) but they had a much greater endurance, so they needed enough to operate a three-watch system, provision for a galley with a cook or two, and more engineers to do more on-board self-maintenance.

[PR19_Kit]

Ah right. I saw those, but I didn't think they could be the walkways because they pass much closer to the propellor tips than they need to. Why don't they go straight down the centreline?

It didn't matter how close they went to props as no-one was allowed on the upper deck with the engines running anyway. I expect the roof structure wasn't all that strong in the other areas, just like 'No Step' areas on aircraft wings.

They had maybe 15+ 'house staff' aboard the Mk III I worked on, but I also noted that some got off just before they closed the doors. Maybe the car handling people stayed at the bases as they weren't needed during the crossing itself.

[Weaver]

Ah right. I saw those, but I didn't think they could be the walkways because they pass much closer to the propellor tips than they need to. Why don't they go straight down the centreline?

It didn't matter how close they went to props as no-one was allowed on the upper deck with the engines running anyway. I expect the roof structure wasn't all that strong in the other areas, just like 'No Step' areas on aircraft wings.

They had maybe 15+ 'house staff' aboard the Mk III I worked on, but I also noted that some got off just before they closed the doors. Maybe the car handling people stayed at the bases as they weren't needed during the crossing itself.

Yeah that makes sense: they seem to roughly follow the lines of the internal walls, plus I've just been reading about how the cockpit ladder was changed from folding to fixed in part in order to act as an extra brace for the roof!

[PR19_Kit]

Yeah that makes sense: they seem to roughly follow the lines of the internal walls, plus I've just been reading about how the cockpit ladder was changed from folding to fixed in part in order to act as an extra brace for the roof!

I was pretty darn flimsy, and it's a long way down too.   

The cockpit was very 'friendly' with four of us in there. The nav's position, right at the back, is over to one side as all his nav kit take up half the wall on the starboard side. At least the Captain and First Officer have the sort of room you'd find in a small airliner, or a helicopter, but there was precious little room anywhere for a 'supernumerary hydraulics engineer'! 

Having said that, I only got one ride across the Channel up there, all the rest of them I was down in the APU bay taking samples, and very noisy and cramped it was too.

[Weaver]

Yeah that makes sense: they seem to roughly follow the lines of the internal walls, plus I've just been reading about how the cockpit ladder was changed from folding to fixed in part in order to act as an extra brace for the roof!

I was pretty darn flimsy, and it's a long way down too.   

The cockpit was very 'friendly' with four of us in there. The nav's position, right at the back, is over to one side as all his nav kit take up half the wall on the starboard side. At least the Captain and First Officer have the sort of room you'd find in a small airliner, or a helicopter, but there was precious little room anywhere for a 'supernumerary hydraulics engineer'! 

Having said that, I only got one ride across the Channel up there, all the rest of them I was down in the APU bay taking samples, and very noisy and cramped it was too.

In the kit, the nav sits facing sideways, but I noticed that in one of the pics on Jame's website, there are two seats in the back of the cockpit facing forewards. One of them is clearly the nav position, since it has the two radar screens, but there's no explanation of the other one.

Perhaps since an MCM(H) would have an ops room, the nav could be moved down there, leaving room in the cockpit for an Officer Of The Watch? I can't imagine the Navy being okay with not having an officer on the "bridge" so if that's not possible then they'd have to follow aircraft practice and the pilot would have to be an officer at least. That kind of makes sense given the amount of training and responsibility involved, actually. That in turn implies at least six officers on the crew (one in the cockpit, one in the Ops room, three watches), so maybe the MCM(H) would have a higher ration of officers to ratings that the MCMV, which has five and 39, respectively.

Were the engine rooms manned during a trip?

[PR19_Kit]

Were the engine rooms manned during a trip?

Noooooo! 

They had enough problems getting permission for me to be in the APU bay. They could monitor the main engines very well from the cockpit, as I saw it anyway.

[Weaver]

It strikes me that we're hijacking the Airfix thread here, and when it inevitably moves on to new things, all this info will get buried. To that end, I've started a new "British Hovercraft" thread here: https://www.whatifmodellers.com/index.php?topic=54913.new#new

I suggest we continue this discussion there.

[NARSES2]

Bit late now, but I could have split the topic for you.

Mind you it probably wouldn't of been to some time next week

Chris

[PR19_Kit]

It's Airfix's fault, they're the ones who re-popped the SRN4. 

[Weaver]

Bit late now, but I could have split the topic for you.

Mind you it probably wouldn't of been to some time next week

Chris

Didn't want to mither you. Anyway, I've compacted tidbits from many posts into just a few there.

[NARSES2]

Bit late now, but I could have split the topic for you.

Mind you it probably wouldn't of been to some time next week

Chris

Didn't want to mither you. Anyway, I've compacted tidbits from many posts into just a few there.

Yup, I noticed 

[NARSES2]

Anyway latest re-pop in the Vintage Classics range is the old Short's Skyvan.