Bristow’s photos! Great idea, which must add to the excellent Bristow web site. The one below, from the site, got my attention. Sumatra 72. I’d flown out to the Total rig site with Tony S that morning. He’d dropped me off and gone to haul fuel drums from the river. On his first return, and hover, the tail rotor drive let loose. There he was, 60 feet up, doing a rev per second. He crossed his fingers, closed his eyes, and dumped it - onto piled logs. Bits of MR blade flying everywhere and it was I then decided that my running towards it wasn’t too smart.
Anyway, the dust settled and out got Tony, broken wrist only. So there we were at a jungle site, 80 miles from base, and no comms at all. After a Pernod stiffener from the French rig crew I crawled into the wreck and ripped out the HF; the lot, racks, boxes and wiring, and sat the bits on top of a Caterpillar. A local guy climbed a tree and hung a long wire antenna. The Cat battery was connected and a few wires twisted together, those that flashed too much were ignored or disconnected, and a head-seat wired up.
Well I’ll be! Raised Djambi base at first call. I got the Ch Eng, on the line to tell him of the mishap. ‘Can’t be that bad’, he says, ‘if you’re talking on its HF’.
‘Only the HF is here. The other bits of the helicopter are between 50 and a 200 yards away’.
Can’t remember if it was Bravo Whisky or Bravo Vodka, one of the two.
