The "Bristow Ops Unst-Ninian Field 1977-1993" thread got me thinking there must be loads of interesting photos out there which most of us have not seen. www.skyweaver.co.uk is an excellent place for BHL nostalgia but has not been updated for a while and Dave says it probobly never will be.
So if you have anything interesting you wish to share post it here. Please include photos of aircraft, people & places as well as anecdotes.
Here are some of mine to get us going:
Estancia Road, Falklands
Stanley Harbour, Falklands
Spitzbergen
Barentsberg, Spitzbergen
Aberdeen Harbour
Norsk Colours
Crew Transport, Falklands
I have more if anyone is interested!
Last edited by Tail-take-off : 29th March 2008 at 14:24.
Reason: Thread title change
It was one of the first 2 aircraft to go to Norsk, an S61 and an AS332. The orange stripes were thought to be latest thing in Scandanavian design at the time. Funny enough they didn't last long & neither did the S61. It was back in Aberdeen about a year later!
Bristow’s photos! Great idea, which must add to the excellent Bristow web site. The one below, from the site, got my attention. Sumatra 72. I’d flown out to the Total rig site with Tony S that morning. He’d dropped me off and gone to haul fuel drums from the river. On his first return, and hover, the tail rotor drive let loose. There he was, 60 feet up, doing a rev per second. He crossed his fingers, closed his eyes, and dumped it - onto piled logs. Bits of MR blade flying everywhere and it was I then decided that my running towards it wasn’t too smart.
Anyway, the dust settled and out got Tony, broken wrist only. So there we were at a jungle site, 80 miles from base, and no comms at all. After a Pernod stiffener from the French rig crew I crawled into the wreck and ripped out the HF; the lot, racks, boxes and wiring, and sat the bits on top of a Caterpillar. A local guy climbed a tree and hung a long wire antenna. The Cat battery was connected and a few wires twisted together, those that flashed too much were ignored or disconnected, and a head-seat wired up.
Well I’ll be! Raised Djambi base at first call. I got the Ch Eng, on the line to tell him of the mishap. ‘Can’t be that bad’, he says, ‘if you’re talking on its HF’.
‘Only the HF is here. The other bits of the helicopter are between 50 and a 200 yards away’.
Can’t remember if it was Bravo Whisky or Bravo Vodka, one of the two.
Funny enough I only have a few pictures of AS332s but one of them is G-BTCT which was Norieaga's. Sorry about the poor picture quality - cheep camera cheeper scanner!
I wonder where she is flying now???? do you have any off those fantastic EH-101's bristow had on trial back in the late 90's????
fantastic effort mate!!
The larger sponsons are additional fuel tanks for long range ops. The aircraft is currently in Broome, Western Australia flying long sectors. Strangely enough, these sponsons add around 4 KIAS to the cruise speed of the 332L. The life rafts are not in the sponsons in the 332L, one is internal and the other is external on the co pilots side.
Forget - it was BW ! Quite exciting to have a tail rotor fail with a load of fuel drums in a net over a larger fuel dump underneath you and in a just cleared jungle site !! Very lucky to get out with two bust ribs - caused , I think, by some very enthusiastic French oil riggers pulling me out of the cockpit - God bless them !! I had two local Indonesian labourers in the cabin - they fled into the jungle and didn't come back for three days !! They shipped the Wessex 60 all the way back from the middle of Sumatra to Farnborough for a detailed investigation. For some reason, I was shipped off to Iran - Bristows moved in mysterious circles in those days !!
Hi All,
My Dad (Peter Eyre) worked for Mayne-Bristow Helicopters, which later went back to being Bristow Helicopters Australia.
Mayne-Bristow had a base at Karratha, on the north-west coast of Western Australia. They had contracts flying to oil and LNG rigs off the coast, and contracts to fly marine pilots out to ships entering the nearby port of Dampier. They also operated a Britten-Norman Islander on behalf of West Australian Petroleum (WAPET), to Barrow Island.
Some of my photos of Mayne-Bristow JetRangers, Bell 212s, and SA-330J Pumas (and the WAPET Islander) are hosted on Airliners.Net, taken at Karratha, Western Australia in the 1980s: http://www.airliners.net/search/phot...=mayne-bristow
I also have lots of Mayne-Bristow photos taken by my Dad, but I simply don't have time to scan them all at present.
Regards,
David Eyre
Perth, Western Australia.
During a nice sailing trip with another Bristow pilot a few days ago....and while re-hashing old times....we dredged up a question from Iran days.
The question is why was a humourless Scot called the "Black Sardine"?
There must be a good story there as said dour fellow gets more than a bit miffed when reminded of the name.
It is the same fellow that when it was announced within the North Denes crewroom...."XXXX" fell off a roof and hurt himself....it was greeted with a shouted response...."Nothing minor I hope!"
Can any of the "Old Gang" enlighten us about the Black Sardine moniker?
alledgedly it was a brand of Iranian tinned fish that he suggested chaps could eat when asked about an increase in living allowance, cos' it was cheaper.
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