Nigel, thank you for that feedback. It was indeed tragic.
I would concur that the accident appears to have been a mechanical failure (the footage, to me, certainly seems to support that) and I think it was extremely cowardly (but not altogether unsurprising) of Fairchild to level the blame at the driver.
Yes, there was a low overcast that day, but this did not have any bearing on the abrupt change in attitude which G-AVTG experienced.
Denissimo - its been a while since I last heard from you! I suppose you recall the tragic accident (above) involving Nigel's former RN flying instructor at the Paris Air Show?
A friend emailed me a scanned copy of your article in this month's 'Flyer' - well done!
In the article you make mention of Ferranti's Meteor so .. here she is:
Armstrong Whitworth Meteor 14 outside the Ferranti Flying Unit at Edinburgh's Turnhouse Airport in 1971 (Photo: Lorence Fizia)
Ferranti donated this aircraft to the Museum of Flight at East Fortune Airfield in Lothian although I am not sure whether she is still there.
Terry Macdonald was a super chap - been there done it and ended up teaching little prunes like Nigel and myself to not hit the ground in the wrong attitude.
Famous also for calling a particularly unpleasant pilot - he will know who he is - "trackless" and when asked why he said because he was so low that his bum rubbed out his tracks in the mud.
Bast0n; I don't suppose you have a photo of the late TM in your superb collection?
Some great 80's nostalgia from Garry Lakin and Adrian Batchelor. (My thanks to both gentlemen for their contributions).
All the craft featured are familiar to the Nostalgia Thread, but its great to see these new additions to our collection:
John Laing's AS355F1 TwinEcureuil G-JLCO departs BAe Hatfield on 5th July 1986 (Photo: Garry Lakin)
With this photo Garry has traded places with Adrian because the thread's best photo (to-date) of the Laing Ecureuil was from Adrian's collection and which can be seen on page 76. JLCO nows flys as VONF but there is further info back on page 76.
SA341G Gazelle G-BBHW at Leavesden following her respray in 1981 (Photo: Adrian Batchelor)
BBHW makes her debut on Nostalgia on page 39 wearing her red and white scheme inside a hangar at Glasgow in the 70's while she was with McAlpines. Then on page 57 is a photo from Anton Heumann (the Swiss photographer who took a shot of one of my favourite LongRangers .. the Monégasque registered 3A-MSX which can be seen on page 58) of 'HW' at Luton three years after Adrian's shot.
BBHW's history began (briefly) with Bruce Fletcher Contractors of Leicester in 1974 after which she went to McApline who kept her until 1991 (so we are told). She then goes through a string of owners until she ends up with 'Cropspray Ltd' of Marksbury in Bath. I've never seen a Gazelle spraying crops!
Bell 206B G-BBBM at Leavesden in 1983 (Photo: Adrian Batchelor)
G-BBBM was an ex-Ferranti managed 206 which began life wearing a pleasant two-tone red and brown scheme (see page 13) but which went on to accommodate a variety liveries including those for Rothmans (page 40) and the Daily Express (page 43). She wore several other schemes too!
Glad you enjoyed my piece on the G;oster Meteor in FLYER magazine and I'll be a regular contributor for the forseeable future ... although while occasionally writing articles on fixed wing, the plan is to mostly cover helicopters. The current 'Summer' issue will have my X2, X3, X4 story and the future for hi-speed helicopters. August will be UK Flying Training.
Thanks Savoia for posting the picture of Meteor 14 G-ARCX displaying her so-called red 'Mentadent' stripe, but being an awkward old sod when writing, I occasionally include the odd deliberate error. The true COFs on here may recall the 1950s toothpaste advert wasn't about Mentadent at all. The actual jingle went ... "You'll wonder where the yellow went ... when you brush your teeth with Pepsodent." Somewhere along the line, the Mentadent/Pepsodent nomenclature got reversed and Ferranti obviously didn't notice. How quaint! Regards to all. Dennis Kenyon.
Helping us maintain the Clyde theme .. this kind contribution from Derek Heley:
Bell 206B G-EYEI at Glasgow on 6th February 1988 (Photo: Derek Heley)
Some will recall that this craft met her demise (with tragic consequences) at Giffnock, near Glasgow during police operations in January 1990 having inadvertently entered a snow storm.
TRC is (as always) correct. The little songbird (ARIA) did in fact start out as a 'D' model later being up-graded to a G1. I saw this craft many many times as a wee lad accompanying my father (as opposed to godfather) where, for a handful of years he kept a plank at Biggin.
Mushroom: We are indebted to the small army of photographers whom I constantly 'hasstle' to provide us with unwatermarked copies of their handiwork to post on PPRuNe. Over the past year or so several of the photographers have become keen followers of the Nostalgia Thread and which of course is great. To them we say a big thank you!
Brilliant: Have yet to read the biography but will doubtless pick-up a copy when I next visit the wetlands (Blighty). Yes, Beaverbook (what an amazing chap) did have a rather rudely registered craft - one I was planning to do a piece on at some point - so, your mentioning of her may well hasten this! One can only assume that the ribbing he received was a pain in the **se!
The aviation connections with the Beaverbrook family are many; his daughter, for example, the Hon. Janet Kidd had her own Bell 47. Whether she was a flyer or had her own driver I am not sure (perhaps Denissimo recalls!). And there are further connections which, with Senior Pilot's approval, I shall post for they do deviate somewhat off-course, lol!
The Agusta-built Bell 47G-2 G-AWSK as seen at Farnborough in September 1970 (Photo: Mick West)
Above; Janet Kidd's Bell 47 attending the 1970 Farnborough Airshow. Just visible in the background is G-AWOL the Bell produced 206 belonging to David Brown Tractors of Huddersfield.
PPRuNer Savoia parks Rotorwork Hughes 500D P2-AHN outside Manum Island Catholic Church, Papua New Guinea, in 1988
I feel for the SAR boys hammered for picking up a side of beef and I do confess that I am guilty of many such misdemeanors in times past!
To be fair though .. while I didn't request permission from 'The Dick' (Anderson) I did tell him that I had used the craft to attend Mass .. and for the simple reason that there wasn't any other available transport - and which was true!
His response .. "You can buy me a beer" .. which I duly did at the Hagen Aero Club.
RAF Westland Whirlwind HAR10 XP403 as seen at Cullercoats on 8th April 1972 (Photo: Albert Gilmour)
Albert Gilmour is a new contributor to Nostalgia and receives our thanks for this wonderful shot of an RAF Whirlwind from the early 70's.
My first 'encounter' with Cullercoats was in 1980 when it appeared in the lyrics to 'Tunnel of Love' on the album 'Making Movies' by Dire Straits (read Mark Knopfler). The verse included the phrase "From Cullercoats and Whitley Bay". Back in those days there was no internet return an instantaneous answer - one instead had to access an atlas of the UK and trawl through the index and, if the name didn't appear, you were left with the task of randomly searching through those map sections you felt were most relevant. All great fun of course!
A member of HMS Cardiff's helideck crew takes a break atop the stores carrier of the ship's Westland Lynx during the Falkland's conflict in 1982
Immersion suit, ready to fly: aircrew.
Probably the Lynx observer: he looks familiar! Pilot was Lt Chris Clayton: later Rear Admiral Clayton. They had a few 'happenings' during the Falklands campaign, notably two Daggers tried to take out the Lynx after jettisoning their external tanks and engaging with cannon
