Savoia

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Tarman: This is an interesting development!

I had always assumed (erroneously it now seems) that Peter had bought his 206 new from CSE in 1977 but, your information seems to place this aircraft as having first been sold to Germany.

How intriguing, given our most recent unearthing of helicopter history, that both Charles Hughesdon and Peter Cadbury should have bought their Jet Rangers from Deutschland!

It also seems that Peter faithfully reproduced HMAC's colour scheme from that displayed in your photo (albeit in navy blue) even maintaining the rare white border following the circumference of the windshield.

Thanks for this contribution.

Deutsche PPRuNers: You are needed! Not only to assist with information about D-HJFF while in the service of Baron von Furstenberg c.1977 but also in assisting with information about D-HMAC which seems to have been in Deutschland about the same time c. 1976/7. I should like to discover the identity of HMAC's owner.

Danke schoen.

Newforest2

Jetranger c/n 1125 was D-HMAC, G-CHOC, ZS-HJH, 3B- ??, ZS-HJH. No information on owner, yet.

long box

Fantastic thread, sorry I have joined so late, the pictures and comments on registrations certainly prompted memories! I worked for Thamesdown Helicopters whilst at school and when I left, we operated G-RODS, G-ROGR and also had G-NORM ready to be re-built. The maintenance was carried out at Skyline, where I first met the likes of Tony Clarke and Dennis, where we occasionally borrowed G-WIZZ, whilst she was owned by Hubbards. I can remember being told to keep away from G-JOKE whilst being too nosy when it was parked near us one day. We also used to work with Jonathan Palmer when he owned G-AWOL, I remember her when she was yellow with blue camels. After leaving Thamesdown I have remained in the industry and have flown the following Jet Rangers mentioned in the thread G-ONOW, G-WIZZ, G-BUZZ, G-BLZN (which the EOR posted a dash picture, how sad I recognised it!) G-SHCC, G-SHRR. I still operate and fly the 206, fantastic helicopter, there is also a picture of the dash of the Alton Towers 206L, we have an identical 206L1 with IFR kit onboard and the dash is identical. Although I was only just beginning when most of this was mentioned it was certainly the key that made me want to work in the industry. I will put some pics up.

DennisK

How nostalgic to see all those reggies. The SHs for Starline Helis, (the company I established at Biggin Hill after Skyline) the oft quoted G-WIZZ ... then G-BLZN bought from South Africa with over 10,000 hrs on the airframe and which was later pictured on the front cover of the car book 'Cherished registrations hovering above my Jag E ... and of course the infamous G-BUZZ that landed too close to a second rotary on the Skyline helipad at Booker. Exit the Virgin team!

Does anyone recall the oddities of G-RODS when the pilot carried out his 'full & free' check on the cyclic which promptly snapped off at the base of the control!

God bless you all contributors out there and as the wonderful Bob Hope of the 'Road to ... films' once sang. "Thanks for the memories."

Dennis Kenyon.

paco

Yes, I do, (it was me) and it would have been interesting trying to get down had that happened in flight!

I'll see if I can get some piccies of G-RODS.

Phil

long box

Poor old Phil, snapping cyclics, dogs, pigs, goats, chickens! but looking back it was a memorable experience, I have pictures of you Phil with poor old ROGR I will post them up for you. Incidentially in later years I flew G-WLLY for many hours and I never recognised her as G-ROGR!

Savoia

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Long Box: Welcome to the thread!

Never flew WLLY, RODY or ROGR but .. I did meet Roger Woodward (Direct Rentals now MD of Cars Direct Group) a number of times at his apartment-cum-office which I think was somewhere in the Mayfair district. My godfather was looking to lease his aircraft for a season.

When Roger bought the aircraft is was registered as G-AXMM and its original owner (if memory serves) was Freddie Wilcox of Autair who acquired the craft back in 1969 making this one of the early 206's.



G-AXMM 'resting' in the hangar at Luton 4th December 1977 a year or so after being purchased by Roger Woodward.



Roger re-registered the aircraft to G-ROGR and re-painted it as seen here on 7th July 1984 at Cranfield. ROGR had one of the first sets of 'coloured coded' pop-outs which came into vogue for a short spell during the 80's.

S.

bolkow

according to g-info the aircraft ROGR has been destroyed some years ago.

wiganairways

ROGR later became WLLY , G-INFO has dereg date 23/06/06 as Destroyed, the sad accident happened on the 21st December 2005, near Coupar Angus, Tayside, ' the vertical stabiliser detached in flight, causing the tail rotor & associated gearbox to separate', from Griffin Helicopters accident data base.

long box

Great pictures of ROGR, I first saw her when she had crashed at Brands Hatch, chasing a car round the track I think, it was then sent by Rod Crook to Canada and re built, it came back looking fantastic, until it fell of a building a few years later and was once again re -built, before running out of fuel on a pleasure flying event and crashing on a golf course, only to be re built again, poor old girl, would love to see any pictures of RODS

Earl of Rochester

Great to see the image of G-CHOC as well as those of D-HJFF/G-BTWA.



G-RODS Manchester (Barton) EGCB 28th May 1989 still wearing the colours of the SONY Corporation who sponsored the aircraft while it was registered as G-NOEL. As with ROGR, RODS also wore colour-coded pop-outs.

Earl

vfr440

S
the second first (of course!) You will know I am sure that Freddie Wilcox disappeared to the big bar in the sky two weeks ago. Finally he ran out of steam, and died peacefully in Oxford, RIP. I worked for him in Africa for a few years; absolutely wonderful pilot. Good boss too, on reflection. A gentleman and not so many of those around.

Secondly, and possibly connected. Yes Autair (aka Court Line if you look at G-INFO) bought the aircraft, but the S/N plays games with my (rapidly diminishing) detail-memory. Was this perhaps subsequently the converted-to-206B standard and registered in Zambia as 9J-RIX for the Tazama pipe-line contract? If 'ole' Roy Neep ever read this thread he would correct me I am sure. It was in the days when J P Martin (John Percy to his friends, including Roy - but not me, I was FAR too junior!) was the 'guvnor', Roy also, the late Peter Hooper, and others. And right at the bottom of the pecking order yours truly, who invariably had the 'privilege' of buying the drinks for these icons of the industry to which I had enslaved myself. Man those boys could shift some beer - I HAD to return to the bush to get enough money together to live. Expensive if invaluable experience-curve.

Anyway, I digress. I wonder of MM was indeed RIX? Can tell you of one particularly embarrasing incident with her that taught me a lot....... But we've all been there, right? ~ VFR

Savoia

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VFR: I wasn't aware that Freddie had recently gone RIP as you say.

A gentleman he was and an enterpreneur too!

AXMM and RIX are, I fear, two seperate aircraft. AXMM's serial no. was 405 whereas RIX's was 331. They were however both Bell's (as opposed to Agusta-Bell) and both started out as 'A' models.

Freddie Wilcox is in many ways responsible for me buying a home (which I still keep) in East Africa.

S.

paco

So that was the reason for those colours on G-NOEL. Noel flew that into Alton Towers when he was being courted to replace Terry Wogan on the adverts.

Yes, long box, those were good times, and Rod had a thing about rebuilding aircraft, didn't he? I believe Carol's jet is still sitting at Cranfield - wouldn't want to pay the storage fees on that!

Found a piccie of the JCB longranger the other day - will try to remember to post it when I get back out of Dubai.

Phil

Earl of Rochester

- Paco

When Noel Edmonds bought this 206 (c. 1980) he was presenting a BBC programme called 'Swap Shop'. The show had impressive ratings and largely captured the Saturday morning children's/teens audience. Resultingly, Edmonds had (by the Beeb's standards) a fairly impressive presenter's salary but .. even for a successful presenter the cost of acquiring and operating a helicopter made some significant financial demands.

Edmond's manager set about seeking sponsors to help offset this cost and, with Edmond's contacts in radio and television production, was able to secure sponsorship from Sony UK.

On one occasion when Sony's worldwide president was visiting the UK he came into Battersea from LHR on a McAlpine AS355 when G-NOEL was departing and later made a comment to Sony's UK MD stating: "I didn't realise we had a helicopter here!" Sony's Japanese offices at the time owned several corporate aircraft including helicopters.

When Edmonds up-graded to a Squirrel (G-NOEI) his manager again 'successfully' secured sponsorship, this time from Phillip Morris who were already sponsoring, albeit it indirectly, the Team Lotus JetRanger.

This second sponsorship was not without its problems though as before long negative PR began to surface questioning the 'appropriateness' of Edmond's bold promotion of Phillip Morris' products (in this case Marlboro cigarettes) and, unsurprisingly, the sponsorship offer was soon thereafter declined.

Edmonds, across the years, has been a friend to the helicopter industry (even operating his own charter business at one point) but, as with his career, was dogged with bad luck on a number occasions and which marred his aviation experience.

Of those I've met who knew him - they all say that at the peak of his popularity, and while he was flying about the country in his various aircraft, he was the epitome of a down-to-earth, approachable and affable chap!



G-BCWN purchased from Alan Mann by Noel Edmonds and re-registered to become G-NOEL



G-NOEI (ex-G-BHIU) at Brands Hatch 6th October 1985 wearing the colours of Edmond's mid-80's sponsor Phillip Morris

Earl

paco

I had the pleasure of transporting a lot of celebs at Alton, and I can confirm that Noel is indeed an affable chap - as is Terry Wogan and many others, of course. However, the one that really sticks in my mind, though I never met her, was somebody that all the other celebs going into Hold Tight (a Granada TV program that was broadcast from there) said was a thoroughly professional and nice person - Toyah Wilcox.

Phil

long box

Phil I have haunting memeories of that jet, poor old Lansen, being put down the intake with rope round my feet, paint brush and WD40 to clean the first stage, deep joy, only to discover that Rod had disapeared for lunch in the club house and I was stuck in there. I remember G-NOEL later to be G-RODS being delivered to Lillybrook when Rod purchased her, lovely Jet Ranger in her day, complete with a bar in the back, huge white leather seats and floats! heavy girl

Earl of Rochester

Before we entirely depart the subject of Alouettes ..



Commandant Henry Tessier congratulates test pilot Jean Boulet after he successfully broke the world altitiude record on 6 June 1955 achieving a height of 27,000ft in this Alouette II (Serial No. 2).

The previous record was held by a Sikorsky S-59 which achieved a height of 24,500ft on 6 October 1954.

Earl

heli1

Was Thamesdown operating from near Swindon towards the end ?I seem to recall the heli Museum collecting some battered JetRanger fuselages from a field near there a few years ago.

long box

Thamesdown were always based at Lyneham, I think Rod Crook has sinced move on, G-ROGR became G-WLLY and G-RODS is stil flying, not sure what happened to G-NORM, but Rod always had bits of Jet Rangers laying around, like the tail boom from Gaddaffis Jet Ranger that ended up on ROGR! so it is very likely