MPR: You are quite right, the JCB 206 is departing Battersea the corner of the old pre-fab terminal building just visible on the left. I think Carl Beaman may have tried to re-furbish it, if not then Noel Edmonds.
Low Flier: This image of Crewdson seems to be inconsistent with what I was told about him - in that he was always portrayed as 'fearless' when it came to such things and so for him to hand over the work to Marc seems extraordinary but, I believe you, for I did not know the man personally. My godfather always spoke well of John and I think that HH ended up buying at least one aircraft from Ferranti.
Speechless: The Rhodesian operation seems to have been quite comprehensive (by any standards). Could you shed some more light on the op, how many aircraft in total, for how many months, which aircraft (and how many) were used to transport the 206's etc.
It looks like there are two aircraft from Air Hanson. Do you happen to know who the blue 206 belonged to?
Dennis: You were one of my boyhood hero's! I first met you when I was ten (it was at the Biggin Hill Airfair) and I pleaded with my godfather to let me meet you which we did at the Enstrom tent. Needless to say, I was enthralled by your wingovers and 'bucket carrying' displays which I came to see many times over the years.
My godfather had nicknames for everyone; you were 'Dennis the Menace' and which I found comical given that back then you were flying G-BENO, Beano of course being the publication in which DTM featured! The fact that DTM's jumper and G-BENO were black and red only added to the fascination (I was 10 remember).
It is because of you that my godfather (he of the white gloves) sent me to Skyline to do my PPL. You were there when Col. B dropped me off but then you seemed to be away for some time (working on some project) but, you left me in good hands, in this case those of the late Anthony 'Nobby' Clarke who one day asked me to look closely at the side of a recently painted 206 and posed the question 'do you see anything wrong?' to which I initially replied 'no' but seeing the disapproval in his face promptly re-examined the aircraft and eventually spotted the double 'ii' painting error to which you referred.
You created no small havoc naming all the aircraft 'SKY' because everything in the circuit soon became 'KY' and which caused the control tower and surrounding zones to accept the first letter only and the balance read as the word sky! TALY for example became 'Charlie Sky' over the airwaves.
Please tell me that after all these years of promoting Enstroms that Enstrom Corporation have given you your own mount to park on your lawn!
After I finished with Skyline I left the UK and was told that Richard Branson was going to set up corporate helicopter operations at Booker - did that ever happen?
Dennis Kenyon aka 'Dennis the Menace' during his display at Biggin Hill on 14 May 1977.
G-BENO at an unknown location in 1978
The Beano comic depicting Dennis the Menace and reflecting the same colours as G-BENO!