How sad to hear that Bob Innes has died. I've been trying to contact him on my last couple of leaves and was rather worried that something may have happened after I failed to get a Christmas card from he and his 'mummy' last year. If anyone knows how to contact Doris, please PM me. Bob and I flew 58Ts together when I first joined Bristow and served together on many operations over the years. He was always such an enthusiastic pilot and I always remember sharing a 'schlafwagen' with him when we were on the Prakla Seismos contract in Iran. He would always have difficulty negotiating the way to the ladder for his top bunk, so sometimes slept on the floor for an hour or so first before wetting the desert and then going to bed. He slept flat on his back and on waking sat up straight always exclaimed, "Seisshaus mouse, it is so good here and the lumpy is magic!". His command of German was legendary and I'll always remember his explanation to Herr Ochse, the Prakla manager as to what the problem was with one of our helicopters - "Ah her Ochse, the helicopter is abgefuched!".
Only 2 years ago he had bought a new BMW motorbike, but skidded on a roundabout on the ice and broke his collarbone. His 'mummy' said it was time he stopped riding bikes, but he was just cross because he'd scratched the expensive paint job on the fairing!
RIP old friend
I've done quite a few ferry flights to and from Nigeria in a variety of helicopters and I'll try and find some of my old photos as all the ones I have done in the last few years have been for Schreiner and Caverton. Even though it's not a Bristow photo, did you see this island in a lake in Mali Rosh? It's not marked on the old TPC maps I've always had, though it's on my Michelin motoring map! It's pretty much on the direct track between Banjul and Bamako:
I really liked your vid Rosh and wish I had something like it. I hope I'll one day have a final chance of another ferry or two before I reach my sell-by date. It looks as if you had to make quite a few fuel stops. I was lucky on my first S76 ferry when I brought the first 76C+ to Africa as we had the Schreiner ferry kit with 4 drums of fuel in the cabin and pumped fuel through the modified aft cabin bulkhead direct into the tanks via another modification in the baggage compartment. The flight was from Stockholm, Arlanda to Lagos. We had a few trials and tribulations along the way as 45 minutes south of Stockholm, IMC with a faulty autopilot and GPS we had an MGB chip warning, necessitating an emergency landing in Skavsta. We also had to spend a few days in Helsingborg for a turbine module change as one engine was consistently failing PA. After that we routed to Osnabrück for fuel and on for a night stop at Troyes, near Reims. The next day we got to Perpignan non-stop but had a problem with oil consumption which had to be sorted before continuing. We wanted to try the ferry kit the next day and made Perpignan to Malaga via overhead Barcelona (when it seemed our transponder had failed) in one go. Next day we went direct to Marrakech but as Western Sahara was closed in those days, had to route direct to Fuerteventura for our next night stop. We had the fuel to route from there direct to Nouadibhou for fuel and on for a night stop in Banjul. From there direct to Bamako was another long leg, followed by a shorter one to Ougadougou for a night stop. The leg from there to Lagos seemed very short! I still like that route better than the long drag we used to have to take across the Sahara.