David Essex - Bell 47

[tjef2808]

Evening all,

Hoping someone on here may be able to answer a question about David Essex and the helicopter he owned.

I believe it was a Bell 47 based at Fairoaks but does anyone know what the reggie was?

Cheers.

Jeff

[helihub]

G-BEWJ Bell 47G.3B.1 - From October 1984 to October 1986. His company, Lamplight Music Ltd was joint owner with drummer Kenney Jones.

[SilsoeSid]

GINFO Registration History G-BEWJ (http://www.caa.co.uk/application.aspx?catid=60&pagetype=65&appid=1&mode=reg&fullregmark=BEWJ)

http://www.caa.co.uk/docs/HistoricalMaterial/G-BEWJ.pdf

Now in Australia, Pic of Westland-Bell 47G-3B-1, VH-RCC, ex XT500 and G-BEWJ (http://www.abpic.co.uk/photo/1144334/)

[Darren999]

That looks lovely....

[kenny mac]

Hi Jeff,

I bought BEWJ from Alan Manns at Fairoaks in June 1996. It was owned I think by one company after David Essex had it. I sold it to a guy in Australia and it was shipped out there in December of 96.

It was an exciting trip from Fairoaks to the North of Scotland, very underpowered and it was a stinking hot June.

I was told by Manns, that at that time, they reckoned it was the lowest time 47 in the world. If I remember correctly, it had only about 850 hours tt. !

It is owned now by Graham Tadgell at Caloundra and used for training mostly. He did a beautiful upgrade on it a few years ago. Good man !

Cheers

[Nigel Osborn]

Graham was a good engineer but was always a frustrated wannabe pilot! I remember if you asked for the duals to be put in, he would moan but if there was a ferry flight he would always volunteer to put the duals in if he could come!! I think he still has an engineering business on the Sunshine Coast, hope they weren't flooded last week.:ok:

[outofwhack]

He sure does - Tadgell Aviation Services
and he does beautiful refurbishment work on 47s.

[Dick Sanford]

Fred Coats and I sold G-BEWJ to David and Kenney out of our company Helitech (Luton) Ltd.