World Wide Helicopters
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Cyrene
Cyrene is an ancient Greek city to the east of present day Benghazi. It is a fabulous ruin and part of it is under the Mediterranean so a great place for divers.
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Far East
I haven't been that far east, Tripoli was our area.
We did have a trip into (or should I say onto) the plateau, where we stayed in a very old hotel. It was out on the ridge, overlooking the coastal plain.
I remember when we stayed there we had a huge Gibli, which made shutters and doors rattle, while the wind howled underneath our door.
No need to tell you we got very little shut-eye that night, especially since we were the only guests!
Oh, by the way, sent you a mail to the address you gave, but I'm not sure it went off allright?
We did have a trip into (or should I say onto) the plateau, where we stayed in a very old hotel. It was out on the ridge, overlooking the coastal plain.
I remember when we stayed there we had a huge Gibli, which made shutters and doors rattle, while the wind howled underneath our door.
No need to tell you we got very little shut-eye that night, especially since we were the only guests!
Oh, by the way, sent you a mail to the address you gave, but I'm not sure it went off allright?
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I use two email addresses. You can try either [email protected] or [email protected] . I didn't get anything at either address from you and I checked to make sure there wasn't anything in "junk" either. I have been in a couple of Gibli's where I just landed the Beaver and waited it out. They were ferocious! The pressure drops so low that sand is just sucked right into every crack and cranny including airplane parts. It takes a lot of cleaning after being in one in an airplane or helicopter.
Regards....ed
Regards....ed
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e-mail
Resent it (e-mail) to the second address again, seemed to go off allright so hope it reaches you.
I remeber the first Gibli, which was early in the morning. Woke my mother because you could only see yellow sand out of the window. I'd never experianced anything like it. Also as you said, there was sand everywhere, blown through the cracks and openings under the doors. My mother didn't know what had hit her, she'd just cleaned the house the day before!
And when it rained (and that wasn't often) it really poored!
The garden was completely flooded to my amazement and the lightning terrifying.
Regards,
Jan Wim
I remeber the first Gibli, which was early in the morning. Woke my mother because you could only see yellow sand out of the window. I'd never experianced anything like it. Also as you said, there was sand everywhere, blown through the cracks and openings under the doors. My mother didn't know what had hit her, she'd just cleaned the house the day before!
And when it rained (and that wasn't often) it really poored!
The garden was completely flooded to my amazement and the lightning terrifying.
Regards,
Jan Wim
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World Wide Helicopters
Hi Sillohed and everyone else on this thread which I have only just come across (after all these years). I joined WWH as a 27 year old pilot in Tripoli in 1958, flying their 3 British registered EP9s and 5 American registered Beavers. Manager was Ken Howard and our main contract was with Esso Libya. Other pilots at that time were Kees Bos, Chris van Riet and Jan Mante. Later additions to the fleet were a Cessna 170 (for communications work and vastly underpowered, which made for some interesting desert take-offs), a Twin Bonanza (delightful aircraft) and then the two Conrads (N102S and N8181H) which were a good idea in theory but turned out not to be in actual operation. A growing family (I married Elizabeth, a Yorkshire girl, at Tripoli in 1959) resulted in our finally leaving WWH in 1965.
In the winter of 1958/59 I also had a six-months detachment to the WWH operation at Chittagong in what was then East Pakistan, flying two PBY5A Catalinas in the Bay of Bengal for Pak-Shell. The manager was Wal Rivers, and one interesting visitor during that time was Douglas Bader who was at the time the boss of Shell's world wide aviation operations.
I have lots of pics of all of these aircraft but see that some guys are having difficulty downloading. I will explore further and in the meantime would be glad to hear from other ex-WWHers either here or at [email protected].
Regards to all,
'Doc' Watson
In the winter of 1958/59 I also had a six-months detachment to the WWH operation at Chittagong in what was then East Pakistan, flying two PBY5A Catalinas in the Bay of Bengal for Pak-Shell. The manager was Wal Rivers, and one interesting visitor during that time was Douglas Bader who was at the time the boss of Shell's world wide aviation operations.
I have lots of pics of all of these aircraft but see that some guys are having difficulty downloading. I will explore further and in the meantime would be glad to hear from other ex-WWHers either here or at [email protected].
Regards to all,
'Doc' Watson
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Tripoli
Hi 'Doc' Watson,
Nice to hear from you.
There's not a lot on WWH on the net which is easy to find.
I have been looking for some years and it's only since recently that this seems to change gradualy. I also came accross this thread and became friends with Ed ( Sillohed ). Like myself there are some next generation WWH members (sons of actual employees). The problem seems to be that most of the earlier WWHers have never taken to computers (my dad also never gave it a trie...).
Chris van Riet was a friend of my fathers and I have met him several times.
According to my dad he had a great sense of humor and was a fun guy to be with. He bought a farmhouse in Brabant ( Holland ) where he lived with his wife ( he married late in life ). Unfortunately he also is no longer with us...
You may have read about my photobucket account. Please don't hesitate to visit, as there are photo's of Lybia.
Regards,
Jan Wim
Nice to hear from you.
There's not a lot on WWH on the net which is easy to find.
I have been looking for some years and it's only since recently that this seems to change gradualy. I also came accross this thread and became friends with Ed ( Sillohed ). Like myself there are some next generation WWH members (sons of actual employees). The problem seems to be that most of the earlier WWHers have never taken to computers (my dad also never gave it a trie...).
Chris van Riet was a friend of my fathers and I have met him several times.
According to my dad he had a great sense of humor and was a fun guy to be with. He bought a farmhouse in Brabant ( Holland ) where he lived with his wife ( he married late in life ). Unfortunately he also is no longer with us...
You may have read about my photobucket account. Please don't hesitate to visit, as there are photo's of Lybia.
Regards,
Jan Wim
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Wal Rivers, now that's a name from many years ago! Wal ended up flying for Helicopter Utilities in Australia & PNG. He flew the Beagle 206 in PNG & a variety of helicopters. Sadly he died quite a few years ago.
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World Wide
Doc,
I was happy to see that you made contact with us. As you can see there are few of us left apparently. I was on the Glomar 5 flying a Bell 47 for a short while and then went to Benghazi to fly the Beaver. That was in the winter/spring of 1964. I had been in Ameland on the Shell operation there the previous summer.
I started a facebook page for a bit more intimate contact between us and I have sent you an invitation to that site as well.
I am very interested in your PBY operations. I had heard there was a PBY operation in that area but did not know who it was. I would be very interested in hearing the story. After I left WWH in the summer of 64 I spent many years flying aerial survey including a couple of stints in PBY's in India and Central America. We only flew airborne survey and not waterborne which I understand you were flying. From what I heard you were doing something similar to what we were doing in the North Sea with helicopters.
I look forward to your input with interest as I am sure the other guys do as well.
I was happy to see that you made contact with us. As you can see there are few of us left apparently. I was on the Glomar 5 flying a Bell 47 for a short while and then went to Benghazi to fly the Beaver. That was in the winter/spring of 1964. I had been in Ameland on the Shell operation there the previous summer.
I started a facebook page for a bit more intimate contact between us and I have sent you an invitation to that site as well.
I am very interested in your PBY operations. I had heard there was a PBY operation in that area but did not know who it was. I would be very interested in hearing the story. After I left WWH in the summer of 64 I spent many years flying aerial survey including a couple of stints in PBY's in India and Central America. We only flew airborne survey and not waterborne which I understand you were flying. From what I heard you were doing something similar to what we were doing in the North Sea with helicopters.
I look forward to your input with interest as I am sure the other guys do as well.
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World Wide Crew
Hey Nigel,
Do you know Doug Morrison? He is an old aerial survey hand/historian down your way. I am in regular contact with him as we worked for the same survey company for many years. I also understood that Hank Hendry went to work for Helicopter Utilities as well after he left the North Sea operation of World Wide Helicopters about the same time that I left there in the fall of 63. I tried to locate him but to no avail.
Do you know Doug Morrison? He is an old aerial survey hand/historian down your way. I am in regular contact with him as we worked for the same survey company for many years. I also understood that Hank Hendry went to work for Helicopter Utilities as well after he left the North Sea operation of World Wide Helicopters about the same time that I left there in the fall of 63. I tried to locate him but to no avail.
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Hi, have only just discovered this site!. Fascinated by the 'World Wide' messages. I spent several years as 'Company Radio Engineer' based in Tripoli (2 years) and then Benghazi (1 year) - visiting the Doha Helicopter base for radio problems - staying with Dave Thrippleton - manager. The manager in Libya was Wal Rivers, the chief Engineer was Jim Dean. Pilots Ernie Howlett, Chris Van Riet, Tom Stoney, Max Popp among others flew the Beavers and a twin Bonanza N565MR. The Beaver regs. are a bit hazy, but N1397N and N6676C - ring a bell. We also had the Catalina parked on the grass(!!) opposite the Hangar and I remember the day when Jim Dean fitted the batteries and started the engines (after she had been standing for years) and taxied across the field so that the local scrap man could cut her up for scrap - very sad. Frank Parker was one of the engineers. The Beavers were moved to a disused strip close to Benghazi town and operated from a compound there. I anyone is interested, I will probably remember more details!. The local manager and Chief Pilot in Benghazi was Andy (surname escapes me!) who was an ex Navy Pilot.
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World Wide
Aviation is such a small world. I was with World WIDE late 50's in Pt. Moresby when the S-58's arrived in large crates, we also had a Catalina. Bob Wilson, Frank Minjoy, Bob Larder, Frank Tarr, Bruce Evans, Joe Clarke, Jin Dean were a few of my co-workers. We took 2 amphibious Catalinas to Chittagong (East Pakistan then) That is where I met Doc. Watson (refer his post) After Chittagong I went to Seria to the S-55's, ( John Woods the boss, Andy McLeod C/E, Jack Greer, Rudi Cortenbach to name a few, then later back to Port Moresby and the Catalina (Whisky Charlie). I left WWAS in 1960 to start a flight engineer career but that is another story.
I can remember when a WW S58 crashed in Brunie. I think Brian Danger was flying it and another S58 crashed rescuing him. Eventually I saw them at Labuan in the back of an S62 being medevaced back to Singapore.
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Well known names
If any one is interested we have this small face book group World Wide Helicopters, started by Ed Steward (sillohed). Just a few members, but Doc Watson is one of them. Would be great to exchange info and/ or photos. So please drop in, there's plenty to see and read.
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Hi Folks,
Have just discovered this WWH thread.
Great to see Wim's photographs of his father's time with the company. Frits and I spent many years together especially after we set up and ran Abu Dhabi Helicopters
Have just discovered this WWH thread.
Great to see Wim's photographs of his father's time with the company. Frits and I spent many years together especially after we set up and ran Abu Dhabi Helicopters
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I worked with WWH in Airwing, Berakas Camp, Brunei, from August 1983 to July 1985. Great times and memories! Returned to Brunei in April of this year and was astonished at how things have changed since then.Would go back tomorrow!
Tony Buckley (Avionics)
Tony Buckley (Avionics)
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World Wild operations Doha
I've followed this thread with intrest, since my father Frits Hasselman belonged to World Wide, later Abu Dhabi Helicopters. Unfortunately he passed away 11 october 2011....
As a small boy and later in life I've met some of his colleagues, and know some others by name.
He has left quite some photo's which includes the one in Nes.
My mother recalled a number of the people, Rudi Cortenbach (7th from left),
John Wood (on his left), Dick te Groen and Sjors Strolenberg (end of topline), Ted van Capelle (squatting-bottom row left) Dennis Gilman (one but last squatting).
Would you know any of the others?
If you are interested I could post some of the photo's of Libya.
Regards
Jan Wim
As a small boy and later in life I've met some of his colleagues, and know some others by name.
He has left quite some photo's which includes the one in Nes.
My mother recalled a number of the people, Rudi Cortenbach (7th from left),
John Wood (on his left), Dick te Groen and Sjors Strolenberg (end of topline), Ted van Capelle (squatting-bottom row left) Dennis Gilman (one but last squatting).
Would you know any of the others?
If you are interested I could post some of the photo's of Libya.
Regards
Jan Wim
I knew your father in Doha when i was assigned there for one year.Would you have any photo detail of the S62 helicopter operations that i can use for my library
Kind Regards
Charles Newport
