New British Caledonian Helicopters Ltd

[Mary]

Anybody heard of them?

[FLY 7]

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f8/British_Caledonian_Helicopters_S61N.jpg

[TeeS]

Queen of the Sky - Happy Days :-)

[Geoffersincornwall]

I think PF was our fourth S61 and was inherited from BAH (BIH?) when they decided not to extend the lease from the South African company that owned it. If I recall it was the aircraft that had a wiring fault in the u/c system and was inadvertently dumped on its belly whilst returning to dispersal.

G

[TipCap]

Didn't BCal have 214ST's too but not on the LHR - LGW route. When I was at Lee SAR, our CE used to work on the link

TC

[terminus mos]

All of the Bristow 214STs came from BCAL after the buyout as well as a couple of S-61s (wasn't one based in Lee?) and the S-76 G BIBG.

[FLY 7]

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/74/British_Caledonian_Helicopters_Bell_214ST.jpg

[Steve Stubbs]

TIPCAP

BCAL Helicopters did not operate the LHR-LGW airlink. It was operated by BAH using their S61s and pilots / engineers on their AOC and in their colours.

BCAL (the airline) provided the ground handling and the hosties in the back.

[TeeS]

Not sure about that Steve, I was at BCal when the service ended and we were operating it then. You gave me a job shortly afterwards, just after we got sold off to Bristow :-)
Thanks, best move I ever made.
TeeS

[212man]

Isn't the OP asking about a 'New' BCal :confused:

[Non-Driver]

Isn't the OP asking about a 'New' BCal :confused:

That's what I thought but can't find any evidence of it being re-established on't interweb. Where's the rumour from ?

G-LINK was definitely a BCalH machine, I thought BAH provided the maintenance cover airframes only and the staffing was joint.

[Democritus]

TIPCAP

BCAL Helicopters did not operate the LHR-LGW airlink. It was operated by BAH using their S61s and pilots / engineers on their AOC and in their colours.

BCAL (the airline) provided the ground handling and the hosties in the back.

Steve's memory is a little like mine on occasions:). I never recall G-LINK being in BAH colours - it was in a pseudo BCAL livery but had no 'lion'. See below when BCAL Helicopters operated the LHR-LGW airlink.

.....
G-LINK was definitely a BCalH machine, I thought BAH provided the maintenance cover airframes only and the staffing was joint.

Sorry, but G-LINK was never a British Caledonian Helicopters machine, but it was registered to British Caledonian Airways from 1978.

BAH provided pilots and maintenance until 1984 when they increased their prices so much that British Caledonian did not renew the contract and British Caledonian Helicopters then operated and maintained the service from 1984 until it ceased in 1986.

For anything historical to do with Airlink have at look at Bill Ashpole's site - the Airlink Manager and in BAH days the Airlink Chief Pilot: Gatwick/Heathrow Airlink 1978-1986 (http://www.ashpole.org.uk/gatwickheathrow-airlink-2/)

[Steve Stubbs]

Clearly I had forgotten that the last stages of the Airlink were flown by BCAL (H) replacing us in BAH, and although I flew the link quite a lot on various detachments from the Norf Sea I had forgotten its unique colour scheme and am only sorry I don't have any photos of me flying it. Bill Ashpole's stuff is a delight in memories, now I have been away from the helicopter world for coming up to 18 years!

[Mary]

Hi Guys, can someone help me, I have heard that BCal Helicopters is starting up again, can anyone give me a heads up? I have looked for a website but no joy, anybody know anything about it?

[ifonly]

If you really need to know pay the fee and download the documents.

https://en.datocapital.com/uk/companies/New-British-Caledonian-Helicopters-Ltd.html

[TipCap]

Hi Steve

nice to hear from you. Like you my memory of the "old days" is a bit dimmed!!

Interesting to see my age change from 68 to 69 today

TC

[Rotors]

I P2-ed G-LINK into the UK from France on its delivery (strike at Southampton); I thought the machine was actually owned by the BAA?

[Self loading bear]

If you really need to know pay the fee and download the documents.

Even without paying the report you can Google on the address and then Google some further.
The company is of an experienced (ex?) CHC pilot.
If you Google further you can even give him a phone call (could be his wife number).
However I have NO clue if this is going to be a helicopter Operating company. Could very well be an advisory company or so.

Bristow also has a subsidiary limited company "Caledonian Helicopters" director is Mike Imlach.

Cheers SLB

[inditrees]

I wonder if they will recruit some of the pilots that have been made redundant by the old companies up there, assuming that Aberdeen is where they want to base operations, plenty to choose from. Anybody know anything?

[heli1]

Interesting to see that Andrea Pardi of Italiana Elicotteri is also shown as CEO of British Caledonian Helicopters in current listings...Was the name sold last year by BIH?

[retreating blade]

Achieved my first civil command on B Cal S61 in ‘86 I think. We had just three of the type and the flight instrument layout was different in each one. Strangely, it was not a problem; strap in and adopt G-BIMU or other presentstion as required. I think that the torque gauge on one of them was hidden behind the cyclic!
pedro

[reza.goudarzi2018]

Andrea Pardi had cheated many companies and then change his company to find new bait.

He cheated me 250K in Euro on 2011 and he never refund.

Highly recommended that nobody do business with him directly or in-directly.
If you need more details, please contact me by email:
Here is my email address: [email protected]