ANW

Helipix

Grosvenor Aviation was an air taxi company based at Manchester Airport. Nothing whatsoever to do with the DofW and his companies. If memory serves, the last owner of GAS, was the then owner of Wolverhampton Wanderers F.C.

Aubrey.

Earl - I wondered that too. Had a front seat view watching the resident Brantly B2 returning to land and shut down at the Helicopter Museum in Weston this year and couldn't believe how close the disc is to the bubble, only just clears it!

helipixman

ANW

Thanks for the clarification, it was just a hunch, nothing else to go on just the coincidence with the name and how close it was !

helipixman

DennisK

For the 'Earl.'

The machine I owned was G-AWDU which I purchased late 1970s for exactly £2000! It was the injected B2B version. I only flew her for around 20 hours before it was sold, but the type was smooth to fly with well harmonised controls and adequate power. Interior headroom is tight for a six footer. The rotor blade cabin clearance was certainly marginal, but I've not heard of any incidents resulting other than the Graham Meyrick accident when the type shed one blade at Kidlington. A second blade entered the cabin at head height resulting in the fatality.

As is fairly normal, th PFM specifically excludes using collective to slow the rotors, but I imagine even with the double 'flapping' hinges, the higher blade angle would increase the cabin clearance until at lower rrpm when the disc was prone to blade sailing.

Elfan Ap Rees will have much more personal info on handling having operated the type for many years.

Regards to all. Dennis Kenyon.

DennisK

And oh ... I think it was Oxford's Peter Pekowsky who did the B2 flying in the 007 film with of course our wonderful 'Wingco' Ken Wallis flying his 'Little Nellie' gyroplane machine. In fact there were several 'little nellies' used on that shoot much of which was filmed in Japan.

DRK

DennisK

And coming in again ref the 206 pics. Around 1975 I purchased two Jetrangers from the then Bell distributor CSE, as a job lot being the one pictured, which I registered ... G-BBUY and a second G-BBUX. Memory is getting difficult but I'm sure I sold the BBUY machine to a certain Bill Gates who ran a chain of building supply businesses. My good mate & original mentor, Capt Bill Bailey DFM taught Mr Gates to fly from scratch, first on the Enstrom and then on the 206. Cannot recall from this range who purchased G-BBUX. Regards. Dennis Kenyon.

Savoia

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Dennisimo! Brilliant! I knew there couldn't be a post on this thread that didn't somehow relate to you!

Earl: 206's - I recall seeing the Compass 206 running around the UK as well as Dennis'/Air Anglia G-BBUY.

G-BHXU and the 'Thompson Crew' were of course a common feature throughout the UK in the early 80's. The Treasure Hunt show was awful (especially the studio component) and which was a shame as I very much liked Kenneth Kendall as a person. But, like most aviators, I would endure Rice's wobbly bottom for the sake of observing Thompson going in and out of various locations across the UK. By virtue of its association with the show 'XU' must have been one of the most recognisable 206's in the UK! Although I only got to watch a few shows I believe in one of them they landed at Rochester!

I would certainly like to know more about the French 'airlec' JetRanger - especially which vineyard she was visiting.

However, the 206 which is of most interest to me is the 'USA' JetRanger. This was in fact N50005 which was shipped to Russia in June 1978 and was the entrant for the US team at the World Helicopter Championships held in Vitebsk, Russia in July '78. As far as I recall the US team didn't collect any awards that year but I think that may have won on the next occasion?

05 was then flown to the UK (where CSE swapped her shorts for pop-outs) after which she attended the Farnborough Airshow in September '78. As far as I know, she was the first Bell (as opposed to AgustaBell) 206 III in the UK. At Farnborough she was bought on behalf of the race horse trainer Vincent O'Brien by Irish Helicopters and delivered to Dublin the same month where she was registered as EI-BFK.

I have around 200 hrs in this craft from the early 80's when she served with Vincent. In those 200 hrs I flew quite a collection of characters including Stavros Niarchos (Greek shipping magnate) who I collected from Shannon (he had arrived on his private 737 from Athens en route to the Kentucky Derby). Another regular passenger during '82 was a chap called Charlie Haughey to whom Vincent would regularly lend the craft (you know how these political arrangements are).

Though not especially liked by a number of people, I always got on with Haughey. I didn't delve into his politics - as a person he was both warm and sincere and I spent many a weekend on his private island in the Blaskets with its stark (memorable) Eastern Atlantic seascape.

Charlie was a keen sailor and I eventually convinced him to try his hand at flying the Ranger. Most people when you give them the controls of a 206 for this first time tend to enter a sort of 'pendulum' swing with the cyclic but Charlie never did. He managed to keep her on course and altitude with remarkable ease - given that this was his first time ever to control a helicopter.

While I didn't manage to inflict the flying bug on Charlie I later discovered that my 'helivangelism' had not been in vain as his son, Ciarán (who was also on board during the occasion of his dad's first lesson), was keenly interested and apparently ended up buying an aircraft.

I shall not quickly forget flying the Haughey family around the Emerald Isle during the summer of '82. There was some stunning scenery along the South West coast and some equally memorable encounters with a number of Irish characters.

Some abstract linking; G-BHXU belonged to Castle Air (Roy Flood). My godfather's company sold Roy his first 206 (G-BAKX) which had previously been owned by Mohamed Fayed. 'KX' was then sold to Ireland in August '79 (a year after Roy had bought it) and became EI-BHI which I also flew - but that is another story!

S.

long box

EoR I love seeing some of the old 206's, the ones I know are BBUY which became G-HMPH, which was owned by Ray Flowers of Direct Helicopters, and operated by Aeromega, I have flown that one a time or two, it is also in the picture with HRAY carrying our pleasure flights for Southend Air Show from the promenade, can you imagine being able to that now! I have flown HRAY, which has become OMDR, which is now owned by Castle Air. BAUN became OAMI, which spent a bit of time with Elite Helicopters and finally BEHG bacame LSPA and then INVU operated by Burman, I have also flown her as well.

helipixman

Here are a couple fo shots of G-STEF from my collection (mentioned earlier in thread).

Helipixman..

Tarman

G-EYEI was imported from America by Clyde helicopters around 1987. The colour is the old livery from Barr's Irn Bru which, at the time, was not well known out of Scotland. It was repainted silver around 1989.
George Muir (RIP Wee Man) flew her daily for Radio Clyde's "Eye in the Sky" traffic reports that were sponsored by, you've guessed it, Barr's Irn Bru.
The photo is taken from the hangar door area at the Heliport in Glasgow probably around the time of the Garden Festival in 1988 when the City Tours were at their peak.
Sadly the machine was involved in a fatal accident early in 1990 when the engine stopped during a snow storm.

Tarman

Savoia

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Earl: I didn't comment on BAVI because I imagined there may be others with first hand recollections of this craft and her demise.

Regarding Trent, both Mike Strangways and David Dixon are gone now and as sad as that is - so is the story of BAVI. I don't recall all the details so apologies beforehand if there are any inaccuracies but BAVI's incident was fairly well known in the 70's.

From what I recall BAVI had only been in the Trent stable for a matter of weeks before it was involved in a crash with fatalities to all on board, pilot (I don't remember the name) plus 3.

I do remember that it was a Farnborough year '78 and that it was around Spring that BAVI went down over the Channel (apparently in poor weather).

Perhaps there are others who recall the incident with more detail including the pilot's name.

S.

paddyboy

That's G-FLCH. Also operated by Aeromega.

Brilliant Stuff

I found sitting in the B2B like sitting in a sun lounger, well comfy.

Love the paintjob on G-AWDU, well done that design.

Newforest2

G-BAVI

Little to report, accident was 29/5/78.

ASN Aircraft accident 29-MAY-1978 Bell 206B Jet Ranger G-BAVI

DennisK

Another "Oh my Gawd" simply because the colour scheme on Brantly G-AWDU is as she was when I owned her in the 1970s but presumably since repainted ... And just checked my log book to find I bought her on 10th October 1977. An entry shows I later demo'd her in March 1978 to a certain Wing Commander Cobb who I think was the buyer. I delivered her to the customer at Battersea.

The 'full & free' check did not produce a blade contact with the bubble and I seem to recall that the actual clearance was in the order of 9 inches or say 225 mm in old money.

Here's another for the memory boxes. Did anyone on here fly the Helicopjet? I think she was registered F-HMSX or similar. I did a 'tethered' air test at Issy heliport on the 'Periferique' around 1976 ish. The type was a four-seater built from two Panhard CT24 cabins (floor and roof panels) with four 'tip thrust' blades ... a la Fairey Rotodyne ... driven by a the Djinn jet engine. I recall the engine was started by a hand pull on a cabin interior mounted 50cc 2 stroke engine! I've got a picture somewhere if people become interested. I believe only one was built and it was orange!

Just another titbit from this mine of useless information.

Regards to all 'Nostalgia' addicts. Dennis Kenyon.

DennisK

Oh and Pete Pekowski was one of the BEAS pilots at Oxford late 1960s and early 1970. I never actually met the guy but his reputation certainly preceded him. Wasn't there also a 'Bunny' Austin flying at the time?

Dennis K

DennisK

And for 'S' ... I've got an idea the pilot was 'Larry' Lamb who I believe had his family on board when he flew into the sea in poor viz. DRK

John Eacott

Since Barry's name has been invoked, he took delivery of a 109C at Essendon Airport many years ago: the box it arrived in was big enough to sell to the third world as a housing estate!





A lovely bloke, I could always expect a call whenever a bike race was on at Philip Island, usually along the lines of "Maaate, have you got a spare seat?" Having his own 109 only marginally reduced the calls

Terrible loss to the bike and helicopter community, we remember Baz every year with a Memorial Ride from Bairnsdale to Philip Island for the MotoGP

Plank Cap

Cranfield, 1988 and my old training mount G-AZMB. Both Mike and Sue Strangways were regularly in attendance and instructors Stan Sollit, George Warren and Joe Wright passed on many decades of wisdom. Happy days..........

Earl of Rochester

B206 G-AYTF at Redhill 1978




Gilles Villeneuve lands his AB206 at the 1979 German Grand Prix held in Hockenheim. No registration details sadly.



Notice the pitch on the blades aka collective 'braking'!



Villeneuve at the '79 German Grand Prix where Colin Chapman was also present

'James Anthony McCaughey'.



G-JAMI unknown location c. 1980