Helmets

[kgwilson]

The Mach 3 was pretty lethal but I survived. The power came on at around 4000rpm & was neck snapping up to about 6000. I had no fear then. I used to pull ot to pass a car doing about 90 kmh, drop 2 cogs & scream past on the back wheel leaving a huge bue smokescreen in my wake. Until I got leather pants I would slide back to the hump at the rear of the seat fully outstretched so I couldn't turn the throttle down but always regained control as the revs went past red line. It had awful handling with a frame that flexed like a rubber band but I eventually mastered it & could out ride most of my mates on winding hill climbs. I took the centre stand off as I kept digging that into the road on corners.

 

My flatmate had a Norton Commando 750 which was a beautiful bike to ride. We swapped bikes for a ride one day & I lost him & had to go back. After an expletive filled tirade about my bike he got his Commando back & we never swapped again. Mine was the blue one, the last with drum front brakes which worked well...Once.

[Bruce Tuncks]

Funny how we had no fear when we were young. The army always knew this and so they recruited 20 year-olds. Insurance companies knew it and charged more if you were under 25. Recently scientists have found the brain is not fully developed until 25. The last bit of the brain? The part that processes risk.

So just when we should be happy to take more risks on account of having less to lose, we become more fearful than when we were kids.

I reckon over 70's should take jobs as hit men. Gosh if you were caught you couldn't have much time to serve huh.

[old man emu]

15 minutes ago, Bruce Tuncks said:

reckon over 70's should take jobs as hit men

There's precedents:

The Lavender Hill Mob 1951 - Alec Guiness

The Over-the-Hill Gang 1969 - Walter Brennan

[willedoo]

16 hours ago, kgwilson said:

The Mach 3 was pretty lethal but I survived. The power came on at around 4000rpm & was neck snapping up to about 6000. I had no fear then. I used to pull ot to pass a car doing about 90 kmh, drop 2 cogs & scream past on the back wheel leaving a huge bue smokescreen in my wake. Until I got leather pants I would slide back to the hump at the rear of the seat fully outstretched so I couldn't turn the throttle down but always regained control as the revs went past red line. It had awful handling with a frame that flexed like a rubber band but I eventually mastered it & could out ride most of my mates on winding hill climbs. I took the centre stand off as I kept digging that into the road on corners.

 

My flatmate had a Norton Commando 750 which was a beautiful bike to ride. We swapped bikes for a ride one day & I lost him & had to go back. After an expletive filled tirade about my bike he got his Commando back & we never swapped again. Mine was the blue one, the last with drum front brakes which worked well...Once.

I remember a mate having a Mach 4 and he said it had better handling than the Mach 3, and also a broader power band. On the subject of handling, another mate used to race bikes back in the 70's, and he was very good at it. He seemed to be double jointed at the hips and threw himself all over the bike in corners. He thought handling was over rated and used his body to tame anything he rode. No fear helped as well.

[pmccarthy]

Still have my helmet bought on 1971 when it became compulsory in NSW. Sometimes it gets an excursion, though I know it probably isn’t sound. Specially since I painted it in 1973.

[kgwilson]

7 hours ago, willedoo said:

I remember a mate having a Mach 4 and he said it had better handling than the Mach 3, and also a broader power band. On the subject of handling, another mate used to race bikes back in the 70's, and he was very good at it. He seemed to be double jointed at the hips and threw himself all over the bike in corners. He thought handling was over rated and used his body to tame anything he rode. No fear helped as well.

A friend of mine had a Mach 4 and although it had similar performance it was all done with far better torque at lower RPM and a much wider power band all round due to the extra 250ccs more refined carburation and tuning. The frame was also stiffer. The Mach 3 was supposed to have the quickest standing 1/4 mile time of any bike in the world at the time at 12.4 seconds. 0 to 100k was 4 seconds. I had mine up to 125 mph (200kmh) on the beach at low tide. I was pretty hard on it & the first chain and rear sprocket wore out in 5000km. I replaced the chain with a good Reynolds chain & new sprocket & that lasted till I sold it to my younger brother.

[willedoo]

Picked up a nice rare gem this week. It's a NOS, mint ZSh-3 flight helmet dated 1965. It's been warehoused all this time and after 55 years it still smells brand new. The new smell of the helmet and plywood carry case is so strong, I don't think it's spent much time out of the box.  It's complete with the carry box, paperwork and helmet and visor covers.

 

This model was only in production for four years from late '61 to 1965, so there's not too many around. Any that are, are usually in a fairly poor state, so it's rare to find one like this in unissued condition. It's the only new one I've ever seen, so it comes with bragging rights.

 

 

[willedoo]

Quite a few years ago when I first started collecting flight gear, I acquired a small amount of U.S. gear. The American gear was a bit of a side interest until it became difficult to find U.S. sellers to sell to foreigner, due to their paranoia about ITAR regulations. Well founded paranoia in some cases. I soon lost interest in the U.S. gear as it's hard to maintain a scholarly interest in gear that you can't physically collect.

 

Following on from that was a decision to unload the U.S. gear (mainly USN, USMC) except for enough to kit out a display mannequin representing a Vietnam War F-4 Phantom Navy pilot. The only thing I'm not sure about is a mint, fresh out of the box SPH-4 helicopter helmet, dated 1986 if the memory is correct. It has the original packaging, manual and accessories.

 

Question is, how do you part with something like that. Mint, boxed helmets are hard to come by and just as hard to let go. I guess it will hang around the man cave until I croak and the relatives can flog it on evilBay.

 

 

Edited December 20, 2020 by willedoo

[old man emu]

3 hours ago, willedoo said:

I guess it will hang around the man cave until I croak and the relatives can flog it on evilBay.

Remember:

Gather ye Rose-buds while ye may,
    Old Time is still a-flying:
And this same flower that smiles today,
    Tomorrow will be dying.

 

You know that the helmet is valuable to another collector, but your family doesn't. If they sell it on line they will surely lose its value. I suggest that you are better of putting it into a militaria auction where people who know its worth will pay for it.

 

https://www.lawsons.com.au/content/show_dept.asp?id=10

[willedoo]

Back when I bought the SPH-4 helmet the ITAR regulations banned exports of gear made after a certain date. From memory it was in the 80's and this helmet was about a year older than that date. I've communicated on the subject with some American collectors and have been told that the government amended the regulations so that it's now a grey area and can be interpreted as including any military gear. So I can understand American sellers being wary of foreign sales. The U.S. being the U.S., the penalty can be decades in jail if convicted.

 

I think most of the SPH helmets used in the Vietnam war were the earlier SPH-3 model. They had a fault in that the headsets were harder than the bones on the side of the skull, so could break the skull with a significant side impact. This SPH-4 model addressed that issue with a design change of the headphones.

[old man emu]

Willedoo,

The simplest way to solve your problem is to write to the US Embassy in Canberra, Melbourne, Perth or Sydney depending which one is closer to you. All you have to say is that you wish to sell an SPH-4 ex US military helmet to a collector in the USA. Are there any restrictions on a buyer in the USA importing what is essentially a collector's item.

 

Get teh answer straight from the horse's mouth, then you will have documented approval if teh import into the USA is allowed.

[willedoo]

3 hours ago, old man emu said:

Willedoo,

The simplest way to solve your problem is to write to the US Embassy in Canberra, Melbourne, Perth or Sydney depending which one is closer to you. All you have to say is that you wish to sell an SPH-4 ex US military helmet to a collector in the USA. Are there any restrictions on a buyer in the USA importing what is essentially a collector's item.

 

Get teh answer straight from the horse's mouth, then you will have documented approval if teh import into the USA is allowed.

Apologies, ome, I might have confused you a bit. There's no problem selling it to anywhere in the world from my point of view. The issue is for Americans wishing to sell gear like this to a buyer residing outside the U.S.. They could be breaking the law by doing so, and that's why most American eBay sellers will only sell within the U.S. these days.The regulations control the export of U.S. military equipment from the U.S. to second countries.

 

I purchased this helmet a few years back before they amended the regulations which scared the American sellers off. Back then it was 100% legal for the U.S. vendor to sell it to me and ship it offshore. Now the regulations have changed and are no longer black & white but mostly grey. Accordingly, the vendor could be charged depending on the discretion of the authorities and their interpretation of the regulations.

Edited December 22, 2020 by willedoo

[old man emu]

Yes, it is confusing. If you are the one selling, why can't a US citizen buy and import it into the USA? 

 

And give eBay a big miss. An item like that needs to be sold in a specialist militaria auction where the bidders all know what's what and the price of it. They would all be following the reputable auctioneers. Why don't you contact Lawsons? 

[willedoo]

56 minutes ago, old man emu said:

Yes, it is confusing. If you are the one selling, why can't a US citizen buy and import it into the USA? 

They can. As above, the regulations control the export of goods out of the U.S.. Funnily enough, eBay is actually one of the best places to sell an item like this. Virtually every serious flight gear collector in the world spends a significant portion of their life on eBay and there's a lot of competition buying. It's where probably 80% of their collections come from, the rest from collector to collector privately. But you're partially right, you can forget eBay Australia. For flight gear collectors it's as handy as a hip pocket in a singlet. U.S. eBay would be no.1, followed by the European eBays, then the Brits. Australian eBay is ok if you want to buy a toaster or a hair dryer.

 

But to be fair to eBay Australia, a helmet like this would probably sell well in Australia regardless of there only being a handful of collectors here. For an Australian buyer, there would be a big saving on postage compared to buying one from Europe or the U.S.. It would have limited interest from U.S. buyers, partly because it's the country where they make them and also because of our high postal rates.

 

As an example, a few years ago I received an item in the post from the U.S.. Postage was about $45 from America. Out of curiosity, I asked at the P.O. what it would cost to post back. Answer - $160.

Edited December 22, 2020 by willedoo

[willedoo]

ome, we might be on different wave lengths with this helmet, I think. The logistics of selling it is not an issue. I can get rid of it in a heartbeat for a good price within the helmet nerd community. The issue I was talking about in the OP is whether I can part with it. Even though my interest in U.S. gear has waned, this one is really nice (and mint). I'm selling off most of my U.S. gear, but this one will probably be a keeper.

Edited December 22, 2020 by willedoo

[willedoo]

This Dutch AF photo could quite easily fit in the Silly Picture Thread. It looks like a costume for a squadron fancy dress party but it's a pilot getting a custom made helmet liner. He's wearing a neoprene protective skull cap and the stuff that looks like pizza dough would be an isocyanate foam compound at a guess. They say the head gets a bit hot from the chemicals.

 

 

 

 

[onetrack]

What happens if you get a swelled head after receiving your pilot wings? Do they need to cast a new helmet? 

[Jerry_Atrick]

Nah.. that's memory foam.. It will remind you of how small your head originally was 😉

 

[willedoo]

Not quite a helmet, but related. Yesterday I took delivery of test pilot Georgiy Mosolov's VKK partial pressure suit, 1958 dated. Georgiy Mosolov was a close friend of Yuri Gagarin and in his time was one of the Soviet Union's top test pilots. As the MiG design bureau chief test pilot, he flew the MiG-21 prototype as well as other types. The suit has some damage that I'm hesitant to repair. Reason being that the damage is consistent with the injuries he received in his career ending crash of the MiG-23 prototype. Best to give it the benefit of the doubt and leave it as is.

 

 

[willedoo]

I don't know this young lady, but I do have a helmet just like hers. I think she needs to try another partial pressure suit; there seems to be a problem with the zipper on this one.

 

 

[willedoo]

And while we're on the subject of helmets, this is what happens when your mum is not there to dress you.

 

 

[Marty_d]

1 hour ago, willedoo said:

I don't know this young lady, but I do have a helmet just like hers. I think she needs to try another partial pressure suit; there seems to be a problem with the zipper on this one.

 

 

The suit looks just fine to me.  Now if we could just get her to do a few other Putin poses...

[pmccarthy]

On a horse, topless.

[onetrack]

If Aero girls all look and dress like that, where have they been hiding?? There's none like that, in my neck of the woods!

[facthunter]

There's NONE HERE either. Nev