International Helicopters - Offshore - UK - c1965
A close friend who was a CHSS-1 test pilot at P&WC in Montreal made the Trans-Atlantic delivery flight of S-61N, CF-OKY to the UK in May 1965 on delivery to International Helicopters.
The company was a joint venture established between Okanagan Helicopters and BEA Helicopters to operate the first offshore S-61Ns in the North Sea for Shell. Okanagan won the contract, and linked with BEA for licenses. The partnership disolved in 1966 because of the extreme differences in corporate culture, which saw helicopter bush pilots working with a helicopter company run like an airline (so I've been told) .
I'm interested in knowing more of the story of how this S-61N (became G-ATFM) was used operationally after arrival in the UK, but I don't believe any of the Canadian pilots or mechanics assigned to the Joint Venture are still alive.
For example, was it jointly crewed by OKH and BEA pilots?
Some maintenance was done at Marshalls in Cambridge and at Grawick, but have no idea what the shore base was or the offshore rig.
Are there any UK veterans of the International Helicopters joint venture still alive?
Any help or suggestion would be appreciated.
FYI - This was the start of Canadian offshore helicopter ops (if you exclude the guys from Kenting Helicopters who flew PHI S-55s and S-58s offshore for Bob Suggs in the GoM in the late 1950s and early 1960s).