Schreiner Reunion - Big Bear Ca

[Chopper nick]

So far we have Navy Nick Ross, Ev Croes, John Desport & David Nicholson
Would be great to track down some of the other guys (HAS, specifically)
Planning for 'a weekend in August 2012'
Pass the word around...there were quite a lot of pilots/techs from US & Canada...but not restricted to them. (I am travelling from Australia)
Sadly, some of the threads we followed resulted in discovering they were deceased... Anyone remember John Murdoch?...he's one that has gone.
[email protected]

[Geoffersincornwall]

Nick

Please pass on my regards to Nick Ross. Haven't seen him for years. We were on the same course at Dartmouth and thereafter found myself one course behind as we moved along the 'pipeline'.

Finally became a 'proper' Schreiner man when I joined the Cameroon operation having previously found myself in KLM-ERA and being 'absorbed' by the Schreiner world.

Recently had Chris Rutter (old Schreiner hand) staying with us here in Italy.

Enjoy your get-together.

G. :ok:

[SASless]

Ev Croes.....ask him about the Big White Bird in the Co-Pilot's Chin bubble on a Chinook while low low low leveling down a canal in the Pine Apple area southwest of Saigon circa early '69 just before he moved to the Mule Skinners!

If it is the same Nick Ross....of Lama fame at a place called Papa Charlie east of Bandar Abbas.....I still have a photo of him giving birth to a Progressive Democrat in the Dunny in the camp. That would have been in '76.....'77.

[check]

Seeing those names brought back memories, last saw Nick in Hong Kong in the early eighties, Ev and myself ran a not for profit bistro in the staff house in Shiraz (fools). I'm still in contact with a bunch of the Portuguese pilots from Iran days.

I can't make it to the States as August ia already planned, it's a pity as Andy Campbell had a nice place up in Big Bear. Did my first langlauf skiing there with him.

When you get together say hi to all the guys, it would have been great to get together, the old Schreiner was something special.

[i am a bee too]

Why has this gone so quiet. Was there with Mr Ross ect until late 78. Mostly Awhas. Meer mech,

[spinwing]

Mmmm ...

Lester Koppe ... retired from ADA a couple of years ago ... now I hear he is often found wondering around the foothills of the himalayas ... or Vietnam ... I'm sure he'd be available ....

My regards to Nick R wherever he and whatever he's drinking ?? :D

[Chopper nick]

Nick is in Airlie Beach, leaving for Big Bear on Sunday [email protected]
is his best contact. Pass on any other names, please!
I heard from Amilcar Godinho...FAP, HAS etc He's in Portugal, 'still involved in aviation'
Cheers,
David Nicholson aka Chopper, from my SAAF-days (hence Chopper nick)

[Chopper nick]

I think he may have been with Schreiner until the bitter-end...even in Holland? I know he was originally from New Jersey. I last saw him in Jakarta - I think he was heading to Brunei with a Puma?
[email protected]

[BedakSrewet]

Dirk is retired and lives ( I believe ) in Germany but has been attending the annual pre Xmas Schreiner ( retired / retarded ) personnel gathering at the AeroClub on Rotterdam Airport.

Regretfully, I will not be able to attend.,,,,

[Rich Lee]

I still have a few copies of the HAS Daily News laying around. That should give us a few of the names for the Iranian side of the company. Next time I am home I will dig through my stuff and reprint some of the articles. I have some photos of the various places we used to work but most are on slides and it is a pain in the rear to convert them to jpeg files. That would be a good project when I get around to retiring.

As for Indonesia, Burt Rhine retired from Boeing and is living just outside of Las Vegas - still flying. Greg Ashe is retired from Boeing and is living in Apache Junction - still flying as a FAA DER. Paul Aughe retired from Hughes/MDHC and is living in Carlsbad, CA. For those who worked Iran Jaya, Jimmy "The Knife" Nakamoto is still working for MD Helicopters in Mesa. The guy is a machine. Mike Smart was living in Big Bear, happily married last I heard from him, and still flying International. Don Smith is still around, worked for Hughes, Roger Penske, MDHC, and Paul Allen of MicroSoft fame. Not sure what he is up to now. Have lost touch with Andy "Bango Man" Campbell. Not sure where Stu (Murph the Surf) Seldeen (sp) is. Pat (hover in the hanger) Bellek (sp) disappeared. Haven't heard about Doc Slager or Jan Joore (sp) for awhile. Lost track of Janos Batorfi (the mad Hungarian). Gunter from Austria? Pierre "I Will Not Fly Over Trees" Carbonne?

Is the reunion still on at Big Bear? Not sure I can make it but it would be fun if I could. "Desperate" John Desport is still alive? Thought the aliens took him in the eighties.

[check]

I'm afraid Gunter Tchernitz (sp) died quite a few years ago, Jan Joore had a stroke many years ago , but continued to work in the office, haven't heard since. I spoke to Mike Benthal about 2 years ago, he was driving a taxi at the time.

[Rich Lee]

"Mad Dog" Mike Benthall driving a taxi? Impossible, unless he owns the taxi company and it specializes in taking birds to a XXX Hen Party.

[spinwing]

Mmmm ...

Have not seen Amilcar Godinho since UK 1981 .... glad to hear he's doing Ok ...
:D

[John Eacott]

Would be great to track down some of the other guys (HAS, specifically)

So, HAS only?

[Rich Lee]

Okay, I promise not to tell any of our Far East, Africa, and South American Schreiner brothers. My lips are sealed.:8

Bummer about Gunter. Would love to see Jan again. I thought Pierre's name was Carbonne, but it could have been something else. The one I am thinking of lived with his wife and dogs in Shiraz.

[check]

Rich you are correct with regard to Pierre

[SHortshaft]

As I am going to be in the USA during the last weekend of August and meet the tight parameters to qualify for the 'reunion' I would be interest to know what the exact dates & venue might be?

[BedakSrewet]

Regret to inform you that Doc Slager, Rinus Both, Jan Joore and Janos Batorfi have passed away.
Janos' son Zsolt is retired from KLM ( went from KLM rotary to planks ) and lives in Holland and Gijs van der Stelt lives / retired in France.

No idea where Pierre ( Zer are no treez, zer are no treez ) Carbon is.

[Chopper nick]

Andy in Big Bear (Nick Ross there, too, at present. Ev still not far from where he worked @ Stanford Lifeflight. Derperate John is around....lives up on a mountain in Idaho, I think. Ev is in contact with all of them. John Murdoch has, sadly, succomed to The Big C, we believe. Gunther Tschernitz, I 'heard' had died in Balikpapan (???) my email [email protected]
I live in Australia...haven't flown since IAT in early '79!!
David Nicholson
The date for reunion is 'pretty loose'....I shall fly over from Oz if we can get enough.

[Chopper nick]

Its still pretty loose...email me @ [email protected]
Sorry about the deceased....Pierre & Janos were certainly amongst the Helo-legends!
David Nicholson

[Chopper nick]

I guess 'ex-Schreiner'....and slightly 'bush-whacked'...to 'qualify'!
David

[Rich Lee]

BedakSrewet-Thanks for the updates, sad as the news might be in some cases. I still owed Doc Slager a payback. At an HAI in Las Vegas one year a few of us old Schreiner pilots met up with him. I arrived late and when I walked up to him he seemed not to know me - which, considering our past was hard to reconcile. Then he made a big show of looking behind me and then said "A yes, Rich Lee, the asshole." I have a number of Jan Joore and Janos Batorfi stories. They are most certainly old school legends. Does anyone ever remember having a conversation with Janos where he communicated in only one language? Jan, well, many of his most memorable stories are not suitable for a written forum. I don't have any really great stories about Rinus Both - he always seemed to fly under the radar.

Mr. Nicholson-I am pleased you are still in possession of most of your faculties and, it would seem, extremely knowledgeable concerning the whereabouts of the more entertaining of our fellow reprobates. Real bummer about John. Would like to have met up with him again.

My schedule these days, and internet access, can best be described as random and eclectic, however if I am around on the days a reunion might take place in Big Bear, I would certainly make a serious attempt to attend. Are any possible dates been being considered? Where are you in Oz?

Regardless of our ability to meet in person, when I am next in Phoenix I will scan the HAS Daily Mail back issues and post them for the enjoyment of all. I will even include the bonus issue that got the attention of SAVAK or whatever the secret police were called when our spy radio controller reported them because he thought the articles were real.

[Chopper nick]

I'm on Gold Coast...send me an email [email protected]
Where are you? Still flying? My last flight was in Balikpapan for IAT in early '79...
funny, I had mates @ high school whose dads had been pilots in WW2...but had not flown since - I thought they were crazy!!!
Any idea where Wayne Hughes is? I last heard of him flying for a SAfrican mob, managed by Aat Slot....subsequently flooged-off to B.A.M.S!
Loved the one about Janos flying into a whiteout up the 42" gasline that ran up to USSR...he was travelling at very low speed & stacked it! It was actually 'my' helo...'his' was u/s...I got a call from Agha Jari Tower..."Capt Batorfi may have some problems!" I asked for details "he said Mayday....what does this mean?" Pierre (My Dear) flew up from Gach Saran, bottle of Vodka for Janos!! He pulled them all out (under v.difficult circumstances)...Janos, still in shorts...a little blue, kissed Pierre...Pierre gave him the vodka, which he sculled on the way bak to AJ!!!

[Chopper nick]

Any significance in your nom de plume?!!!
No date, as yet....we want to make it a worthwhile gathering (numbers-wise) End of Aug could work....email me [email protected]

[bogey@6]

Greg De Guzman here.. ex-Schreiner Philippine opns in the 80s during the time of Jan Joore. Worked with Tony Rezendes, Renato Prosper, Jean-Paul LeDour, Vandenakker, Godinho, Peter Schabel,Charles DeManoury.. the Engineering guys Hermann The German, Peter Weiss, VanderSpoel, etc. Acquaintance with Doc Slager, VanLeuwen(F/W), Egbert Vandergrijp(marketing). Now based in the Philippines as 139/109 driver.. regards to all and nice memories..

[Rich Lee]

Well, I was going to post a PDF file of the HAS Daily news but it seems I am not able to post attachments. Any ideas?

[Andre Ros]

My father worked a long time with Janos. I even called him uncle! Ad Ros worked as the Aloutte 3 engineer from 74 till the revolution in Agha Jari.