A few more from the first days of Bristow's setup in Shekou, or Shenzhen as it's now all called.
G-TIGN (Buckie) having her blades fitted after being craned onto the dockside. she had literally been covered in bubble wrap, slung on top of the containers and strapped down. Ian Stewart on top, John Cureton from Oz with hands on hips, Chief Eng from Oz with arms in air as Ian Robinson looks on in bewilderment, he was the greenie.
L-R Ian Stewart, John Murray behind the blade, John Cureton and Ian Robinson.
A few hours later she was flown into Kai Tak, handed over to HAECO for cleaning and access to servicing platforms. 12th Sept 1984.
The next day, 13th Sept '84 we flew from Kai Tak to Guangzhou (Canton) then returned to Shenzhen. At Guangzhou we were given a Navigator who would 'help' us return to Shenzhen, which we had flown past on the way up the Pearl River. This poor lad was totally bemused by our RNAV and HSIs, he couldn't or wouldn't use the VHF so he had problems as the HF didn't work properly. En-route to Guangzhou I called them at about 30 miles on their VHF frequency. You could hear a button keyed, then silence. Eventually they managed to find the air traffic controller that spoke English. He came on out of breath and obviously slightly nervous.
Finals to Guangzhou, a poor image, but believe me they kept slotting fixed wings in front of us all the way down the ILS.
Guangzhou Terminal.
The huge apron area at Guangzhou, they made us park miles well away from the terminal.
Finally we got to Shenzhen, to be met by Admiral Zhou the Airport Manager and Robin Hunt.
Once we had disappeared Admiral Zhou led out an entourage of the good and great to have a look at the new machines.
Just to show how things were all those years ago. This was built with bamboo scaffolding, 50 storeys plus a revolving restaurant up top.
Shekou, the Bank Of China building, and the town just about to be built.
G-Berh having her blades fitted at Whampoa dock before her trip of 5 minutes to Kai Tak.
