Mr Toad,
I take it you used to fly with BAH?
My father, a/c engineer, worked on BA's BV234s, and was never overly enthusiastic about the machine.
He once took me out to Longside airfield, to see one of them, which had diverted following engine problems. I got to spend a couple of hours looking over this fascinating machine - a pretty magical experience for a 10 year old. Can't quite believe it was 20 odd years ago though.
I remember the time a BV234 did a small flight display at the yearly fete at RAF Buchan. During a climbing spot turn (I don't know the correct term for the manoeuvre), they managed to quite literally blow away the cricket team in the adjoining playing field. I met the pilot in question a number of years later, when he was re-telling the story in the crewroom at Longside.
There is a BV234 related story that I've been told a number of times, when Max Bailey (sp?) and crew did a medivac from the East Shetland Basin with two critically injured person's, one of whom sadly passed away. I've never known if it was a semi-urban legend, but it was claimed that the machine they used was never quite the same afterwards, whether it was due to the effort of the crew to get to ABZ asap or what.
Does anyone know if Max Bailey is still around?