Righty oh!

Here she is, chaps. The Augusta Westland Wasp. A punchy, manuverable little attack and recon whirlybird job.

My first heli building project and the culmination of valued input from the esteemed ChiChiWerx, Tang0five and others, Im acually quite happy with this old girl.

First flown in the spring of 1998, she was planned to be an accompanyment to the more heavily armoured Apache; the Wasp woud call the shots, the Apache would knock them down, much like the US Army and their at that time planned Commanche attack / scout heli.

As time went on, it was realised that the Wasp could serve as an anti armour asset in her own right.

This is that whirlygig that you see before you kow; the Wasp GRA.1.

She dispenses armour for manuverability. I.e. She isnt too durable. Best not to let the buggers see you coming. Which is good, as she will top 220mph on the deck. Just look out for her tendency to sink at high angle of attack on the rotors. She is very nimble, too.

The stats;

Crew; 2 Pilot/Gunner
Engines; 2x Rolls-Royce/Turbomeca RTM 322 turboshafts, generating 2250shp each.
Weapons systems;
BAe Systems Sentinel nose turret with 1x12.7mm six barrel minigun for anti infantry / soft targets. 2xBAe Systems Stilleto Mk.3 RPG launchers, firing 30mm hi explosive rocket projectiles (7 per launcher)
Six stub wing hardpoints capable of carrying Brimstone agms (14 in this trim) Rocket pods (not installed) stinger sam packs (4 carried in this trim) for a2a defence).
Other air to ground munitions can also be carried ranging from additional gun pods, to guided bombs, iron bombs, various agm systems and directed energy weapons.
Top speed (220mph)

Controls;
AG1 - lights
AG2 - not used
AG3 - not used
AG4 - drop stores
AG5 - activate rotor head trim (use this to auto cruise)
AG6 - activate nose turrets (cam 1 for turret viewfinder, pitch and roll to control)
AG7 - activate pilto controls (pitch, roll and yaw are all actively blocked by turning this off. It allows you to control the turret without lurching all over the sky.
AG8 - the cheaty, cheaty gyro. Leave this on.
- Vtol controls rotor revs. Vtol to neutral for 0 revs, vtol up for max revs.
- Throttle controls the rotor blade pitch. This determines how much you climb or descend.
- Trim (turned on / off by AG5) allows for fine control of the rotor head attitude. It essence if you put trim all the up, the kite will enter hsnds off forward flight. Auto cruise, if you will.

Now, look out for using the pitch controls together with trimming the rotor head. You might end up clipping the fuselage with the blades. That would be bad.

Also take care to heed the overspeed warning. If you get ths, increase blade pitch (throttle up) and decrease rotor revs (vtol down).

She is not an easy bird to get along with at first, but once you learn the ground rules, it should be plain sailing.

Pip pip!