Originally Posted by
Tickle
Happy 50th to the A109. I used to think Airwolf was built from an A109 when I was a little kid, I didn't know about the 222 at that time.
Kestrel had a maroon and gold (from memory) A109 operating joyflights in Melbourne and we used to skateboard down on weekends to watch it.
You skateboarding to the WTC helipad: that makes me feel a bit older as my son was (and still is) a skateboarding kid!
The maroon with gold striping A109AII was Rino Grollo's VH-LUI, which I operated for a while back in 1990-94. A mixed blessing for many reasons, it was then replaced with an A109C. Kestrel also had their share of looking after it, Dave S had his start in aviation initially managing the WTC helipad before being trained on LUI.
IIRC there was a bit of a requirement from CASA for autos during the training which meant he had to switch to a single for that section; how many can claim to have gone through PPL and CPL primarily on an A109?
