Tony Clarke

[teejat]

I am sure that any old and bold helicopter pilots out there will fondly remember Tony Clarke, Sadly he passed away on boxing day . Any way I have passed on my condolences to his family and am reminded of him being my Mentor for many years,

[Dennis Kenyon]

Such sad news ... a lovable character and highly professional rotary handler who was my CFI when I had Skyline Helicopters. How well I remember him being a trifle miffed when I arranged for him to teach one of my Enstrom 28A customers. The buyer was a certain Dick Hampton. Could you make it up?

'Twas Tony who put me through the FI course so many moons ago with his famous "Are you hot to trot" to begin each lesson. God bless you up there dear Tony. Forever in my happy memories cabinet. Dennis Kenyon.

[flight beyond sight]

Dennis he also taught me to be an FI and be politically correct !!

He was true inspiration to us all and will be sadly missed.

Leon

[heli1]

I oft tell the tale of doing autorotation practice with Tony in an Enstrom .He always slammed the collective down so hard the helicopter jumped in fright and was equally fierce rolling back the throttle ,but one time the engine stopped for real. He put it down in a field of standing corn so smoothly that the ears of wheat were standing upright poking through the engine louvres. I swear when we took off again the only sign we'd been there was a small patch of flattened corn under the belly.
Great character who started off on Dragonflys if I remember.

[Buttocknurdler]

Is this the same Tony Clarke who was Chief Pilot at Skyline Helicopters around 1989/90?

[flight beyond sight]

The very same

[Hughes500]

My first taste of civi flying in 1990 at Skyline, that and flying an R22A :uhoh:
What a guy, I cant believe he taught Leon to be PC ;)

[Dennis Kenyon]

Not a chance ... as good as Tony Clarke was, there was never a hope of getting the infamous LS to be P correct. Never a finer pilot though for either of them. Just DRK tattling along.

[Buttocknurdler]

I remember a mountain flying course many years ago. Tony Clarke in the left seat of an R22, me, a rather rookie PPL in the right seat.

Ready to lift from the Seiont Manor, I started to raise the collective and came upon my first problem; the distance between the collective levers in a dual-controlled R22 is only so much; Tony being somewhat portly, was so much plus a couple of inches. It was virtually impossible to raise the lever past Tony, and keep hold of the throttle twistgrip. He gave me a look as only Tony could, so I grasped the throttle as firmly as I could and somehow found a way to roll off the throttle as I raised the lever (pre-governor days!), when the mechanics of the situation was trying to do exactly the opposite.

Rather pleased with myself, I continued increasing power until I reached the maximum permitted manifold pressure for the current conditions. The helicopter remainded resolutely on the ground! After a few seconds, Tony slowly turned his head to me and bellowed "You're ****** well gonna have to over-pitch it, or we're not going anywhere!". My rookie brain attempted to rationalise this with everything I had been taught over the preceding 12 months, but Tony's expression and x000's of hours experience won the day and we duly lifted-off.

Happy days!!

[Michaelobrien5]

I too have very fond memories of Tony.

I bought my first helicopter (R22) from Mike Wilds at Skyline.
Included in the price was instruction.
I remember seeing Tony in his office lambasting some poor student and thinking to myself "God, I hope I don't get him as an instructor", but I did. It was one of the most fortuitous things to have happened to me.
Not only was Tony a fantastic instructor he was a brilliant ranconteur.

Going solo for the first time was a frightening experience. All my flights up until that time were with Tony, and I did not appreciate just how light the R22 would be without him on board. I scared myself senseless when I raised the collective and went like a champagne cork out of a bottle to 200feet plus, in the blink of an eye. He knew that was going to happen but he didn't warn me the rotten b*****d.

God Bless you Tony your memories will live on.

[Dennis Kenyon]

Mods ... I have a nice picture of Tony at what was originally my Skyline business at WAP. Can someone list an idiot's guide for me to post the pic on here please? Regards to all ... and fly them skies Tony. DRK

[Senior Pilot]

Dennis,

This (http://www.pprune.org/1523233-post1.html) post should help you along the way, but you need to have your photo hosted online to be able to link.

Good luck, and we're looking forward to seeing your pictures :ok:

[timprice]

I did my night rating for my FI with Tony at Oxford in an Enstrom F28A, he was a true gentleman. RIP:D