Twas me.
I was AM first customer for the 109.. The first in the Country !! That much I recall
I started the aviation department of Barratt Developments. Ended up with two twin fixed wing, Golden Eagle and Navajo plus one A109, and a twin Squirrel the F1 version (not very good too heavy and no payload) But the first heli I bought for the company was the 206 - Re G-BEKH ... I flew the arse off it... that in a very short period of time.. some 1200 hrs inside the first 2 years ! I featured with this helicopter twice a night in short 30 second tv commercials. Literally twice a night on national TV. The company spent million on TV ads. Considering the 206 was a simple VFR machine that is some going. I suggested to the Chairman the machine was too slow and not upto the job. Sir Laurie Barratt said to me ' You are an officer of the company come up with a suggestion and fix the issue' By chance I think someone from AM asked if I would be interested in a Demo ? I said yes but you need to bring the machine here to Newcastle. A factory pilot turned up with an Italian registered machine doing a UK tour. After flying it for only 30 or 40 minutes and after a coupled approach and testing the cruise speed, I was sold on the product. I told the Chairman the problem is resolved... I placed the order and the rest is history. I asked how would you like it painted... Answer .. you chose ... Ok says I, and that's how it ended up with no design input at all, a green stripe ..that sit.. I didn't really care... so long as it was fast. I chose the registration and was proud of it. Being the very first in the country lead to issues. One was educating (in a way) ATC. They had no experience of a helicopter approaching in the descent from flight level 110 doing 168 knots. So very enjoyable. One night in a great storm I took off from Bristol heading for Mac's at Luton; leveled off at just 3500 feet for this short hop, S/L indicated speed 152 knots. Ground speed 230 knots... A giant tailwind if ever ! I never saw such a tail wind ever again .. not once in the next 41 years. I attended the factory course in 1979 I sold my 109 MK2 in 2020 so 41 years in the saddle flying 109's - 49 as a professional pilot. I started young. I flew both this 206 and the 109 over the Alps from the Agusta factory in winter, I purchased the 206 from Oxford - CSE not AM not sure if AM was the distributor back then, think it was CSE ?.. this 206 was later damaged after an in house fellow pilot did a great job landing the heli after a total engine failure. I had three in my career. One lycoming B47 engine, two Allison C20B ~ Re this machine the pilot (ex SAS) was a quiet fellow and capable. A good friend. AM Helicopters did a great job looking after me and I thank them for that. I still own the UK largest Heliport, but sure as hell not the busiest !! I sold my helicopters and now spend far too much time now on Youtube riding horses and riding my Goldwing 2018 type, full digital machine and glorious... I am very pleased to say the vast majority of visiting helicopters to my heliport are (95%) are 109's ... I saw back in 79 what real speed would mean to helicopter aviation, I was not wrong. I came across this site quite by chance. Somewhere I might have a whole bunch of photographs I will dig out and share...