Angry Fat Farmer's Bell47 ploughing a field-A True Story
Comments
That really made me laugh Choppa. That's what you get when you deal with a Yorkshire farmer… or, pretty much anyone from Yorkshire (fingers crossed – hoping you aren't from Yorkshire).
also, it's a true story 🙂
other parts of the wreckage got turned into a garden seat and a land yacht 🙂
yeah, definitely some luck involved but he did manage to keep it from flipping though which helped 🙂
Yeah,Great for him and you and family, but, for sure he did get a big scare.😮
oh yeah, for sure, it must have been quite a surprise but over very quickly, it's weird but moments like that most of the fear comes afterwards, anyhow I thought it might make for an interesting dio 🙂
I wonder if I could make a dio of my CH-47C buried up to it's belly in a German farmer's sugar beet field, cira 1978, we suffered a dual engine failure on takeoff due to foregin object ingestion into the left engine, which promptly exploded and threw pieces of it's guts into the right engine. Now that was exciting. We hung 2 new engines, and a couple of new rotor blades on it and flew it out. A miserable job in Nov. in Germany.
Woo Cliff, that sounds hairy, sturdy helis though, was everyone Ok afterwards ?
OK, that is a great story and I am sure it will.make for a great diorama.
Cheers Don & Lex, it is a little off the beaten track so to speak, well it is set in a ploughed field😉
I'm going to try and dig out the photo today 🙂
@ Clifford, Lucky you Mate. a rush of adrenaline followed by a scared to death? 😮
@ Choppa, I hope you find it 😎
Choppa, yes everyone was ok, just some bumps and bruises. I am really thinking of trying that dio.
You should do it !
Perhaps we could do a Crashed Heli Diorama GB 🙂
After some digging around I found some photos, one on line in its old army days before it was G-BENG aka XT-831
also found a registry of helis and all the info it had was this -
XT831 Army Air Corps AAC Sioux AH.1 alt c/n was193, 05apr77 to G-BENG
G-BENG Reg to GSM Helicopters Ltd, Ripon, Yorkshire, w/o 24jun83
Strange it says 1983 as an end date when it crashed in 1980, perhaps they tried to salvage it for a few years after wards ? who knows 🙂
OK, that is just plain neat. Considering he walked away from it. Interesting subject matter. Totally looking forward to this one.
... Any landing you can walk away from is a good one😉
the epitaph he carved into the back of the rotor blade
also found some photos of a Hiller H2 he crashed through a hedge due to engine failure.
.... "Seems your father took the term 'chopper' very literally?" hahaha 😄
although on this occasion it seems he tried using the heli as more of a shovel than a chopper 🙂
Gorby, it varies, sometimes, during new moons mostly😉 😄
Cheers chaps, glad you like the story, I just hope I can do a decent job of it 🙂
........ you wouldn't be saying that if I was performing heart surgery on you Rui 😉 😄 😄 😄
Of course not, hehehe 👍
But I've lost the count on how many surgery's I've been subjected and I always trust in the professionals.
I had to...😉
Well after a frenetic weekend of modelling I've managed to make a start and I'm almost finished, ALMOST !! 😄
Thank you kindly 🙂
had a camera failure and have had to resort to using my phone and I feel gutted about the image quality, especially regarding the money shot ...
aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrgggggggggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
but with a pillow over my mouth so no can hear me cry out why oh why ! 🙂
ah well, time for a cuppa 😄
Absolutely awesome! Precisely what I have come to expect from you sir. 🙂
And I am SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO leaving the pillow over your mouth comment alone...😉 LOL
Just to be absolutely clear, I'm not biting the said pillow, no bite marks anywhere😉 😄
anyhow, cheers Don glad you like 🙂
btw Melf, it does seem nowadays that casually smoking a cigarette next to a freshly crashed heli aint normal ..
not that there is anything normal about freshly crashed helis, except RC ones maybe lol 😄
Who cares if there are some highly flammable fumes from a possibly ruptured fueltank😎
Choppa, he DESERVED a smoke right then. Hell, he deserved to chain smoke half a pack. LOL
Cheers Zybnek, glad you like 🙂
Yeah Don, I'm surprised he didn't go for a "strong" cigarette😉 😄
Martin it seems crazy today hey, remember when people used to smoke in petrol stations whilst gassing up their car ?
Anyhow took a few more photos today in better light, hopefully the quality is better 🙂
I'll be going through them shortly 🙂
Added a couple more pics, slight improvement but still not a patch on my camera though ....
Still not got a quality "money shot" though ... soon ... I hope 🙂
Kero. ??? I was thinking more along the lines of Av gas. ? being an internal combustion unit. Brave man indeed. A real nerve calmer indeed !! (Gauloises ?) The strongest ciggie I know. :-O
A great and most original dio Choppa, I am always impressed with your work. 🙂
yeah definitely petrol running that ol' tractor engine 🙂
glad you like it Kerry, something of a personal project 🙂
Luckily for this that bubble canopy didn't need to be very accurate given how deformed it was after the crash 😄
Cheers Eric, glad you like it 🙂
and yeah, the story of it still makes chuckle 🙂
What a story, great dio Choppa ! Picture 32 depicts very well the look of the aged 70s photographs with the yellow orange hue.
Lots of them in my childhood photoalbum... 😄
Thanks Hanno 🙂
Pic 32 is very out of focus and will be getting a do over once I've got my camera sorted out 😄
The original was taken on one of those old Poleroid cameras, I've got a bunch more too😉
Tempted to do a couple more Bell 47's depicting G-BENG pre crash and another of it in XT831 colours when it was first made, just for the complete hat trick 😄
"A small piece of big artwork"
what a lovely compliment, thank you Martien 🙂
A good idea to combine family history and modelmaking with this amazing work and diorama. Excellent work Choppa 👍 👍 👍
Warm words well received, thank you all for such encouragements,
most humbling that this weekend build should receive such high praises,
most grateful to you all 🙂
Very nice idea and great implementation. 👍
A great source of inspiration. Thank you for showing.
Really good one Choppy! I like that sense of humor - Standing with a cigarette at the crash site! LOL 😄 What can go wrong?
"What can go wrong?"
haha, I think the worst bit had already happened lol 🙂
but yeah, that cigarette just adds to the irony of the situation.
No doubt once he climbed out he checked over the wreckage for fuel leaks etc. Bell 47's are pretty sturdy as helicopters go though, but yeah, not something you would see these days after such a crash 🙂
Anyhow, cheers Holly, glad you like it bud 🙂
Hi Mate,
You did a great job as usual 👍. I was expected no less. Really like the twisted metal. Congratulations Choppa.
I don't see blood. Did you father manage to get out without one single scratch?
Incredible, that was a Great Landing hehehe.
Cheers
Thanks Rui 🙂
.. a few minor bruises and scratches, no open wounds or anything
Well he did walk away from it, so it was only a good landing,
However, had he kept it the right way up that would have been a great landing ! 😄 😄 😄
That he did every time, less adrenaline and not so spectacular hehehe😉
Ok, great side landing, hahaha 😄
and he also manage not to burn the harvest so well depicted in your Dio. 👍
The funniest thing about it was the farmers reaction to it all as it was his helicopter that went bang then bent, apt registration though G-BENG, bent and bang all in one word 🙂
hehehe, it was destined 🙂
Once I had a CBR 600cc Honda motorcycle and the license plate was some numbers with a "BX". "She" attracted such bad luck sometimes that almost everything that could go wrong, happened. I realised that it was because the word BruXa in Portuguese means witch. and so "she" was sometimes, hehehe😉
Hello Choppa Nutta
Ingenious idea and excellently implemented
Class details and voiced damages 👍 👍 👍
Thank you Jens 🙂
there were a number of details I wanted to add but didn't due to me leaving it right until the last weekend 🙂
such as the seat belts, head phones, fuel tubing and control cables etc.
plus a clear coat before weathering would have been helpful haha😉
For the pilot plows the field and not the farmer, it is absolutely worth seeing 🙂
Great result! Sheldomly we depict something real from the civilian sector.
Thank you both 🙂
never thought about that before Maciej,
and now that I think about it I don't think I've seen a civilian subject in a crash diorama before ...
interesting idea for a GB 🙂
I'm pleased to say I've won the Most Original for the Genessis Models Where You From GB 😄
Well Done to Gnarkill, Timbo and Bill for winning the serious end of things 👍
Standard of this comp was pretty high all round to be fair, anyhow the vid with winners and a gallery of all the other contestants 🙂
Youtube Video
Well. I am so pleased to say that this is a most deserved win Choppa. 🙂
My hearty congratulations mate. 👍
Congrats Choppa! 🙂 You deserve it, dio looks really nice. Love the background story 😄
Ok... that's simply fantastic. What a great idea... a great implementation and a great presentation. Something to aspire to.
Well deserved! But you guys really need to learn how to pronounce decals correctly.😉
Album info
On the 9 of September in 1980 on Barmby Moor in Yorkshire a Bell47G crashed whilst crop spraying at 50 knots and 4 feet of altitude due to a collapsed intake pipe from the airbox to the carburettor causing the "donkey" to stop.
Shortly afterwards Geoff Mason, the farmer and owner of the helicopter whose fields were being sprayed, waddled over as fast as he could angrily shouting at my father as he pulled himself out of the mangled wreckage with only minor bruises and scratches only to be received by the words -
"I told you to fucking spray it not plough it !"
In the first photo are a couple of mementos from the wreckage, the registration tail fin and a section of the rotor blade. This project will be an ode to that day in plastic, either in 1/35th or 1/48th scale as I have yet to decide 🙂
I also have a photo of the crash which I'll dig out soon, I just need to root through a few boxes etc. etc. etc.
anyhow, this is an idea I've been playing with for a few years now (not 37 years but maybe a 3 or 4 years)