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Earl, VFR, Long Box .. you are all in fact correct - as explained below:
Heli56 the registration is correct as are the details proffered by
Earl on this aircraft. Hopefully someone who flew LRII can give us a few stories.
While LRII was an early LongRanger, it was not the first in the UK.
The UK's first LongRanger was delivered to Ferranti Helicopters in April of 1977. My godfather ordered the aircraft through CSE on behalf of his client an Egyptian businessman called Mohamed Fayed (later to become known as
Sheikh Mohamed
Al Fayed).
Mr Fayed had been a loyal Ferranti client since 1972 and, inspired by what he experienced with Ferranti once told my godfather
"I might start a helicopter business of my own". That was to take some time but in early '77 my godfather sold Mr Fayed his first helicopter a Bell 206, G-BAKX, which had been bought, if I recall correctly, from a builders outfit.
Mohamed Fayed saw the Bell publicity for the 206L in my godfather's office at Gatwick just weeks after having placed his order for G-BAKX and promptly added the LongRanger to the order. The aircraft was registered as G-BFAL and wore pale yellow and light metallic brown over white.
There are photos of my godfather (Col. Smith) and myself with BFAL at Farnborough '78 and at the home of Sy Rose who used to host a Farnborough 'after party' for rotary wingers. These images are at Martyn Fiddler's office at Stansted and which I need to have scanned next time I visit the UK.
BFAL wore various registrations, including G-TBCA, but ended up as G-OLDN and still flies, so I understand, using a C20 variant!
Of the early LongRangers, B-BFAL was the only aircraft to remain in the UK. Also, all of the UK's first 206L's were Bells as opposed to Agusta-Bells and which for Ferranti, even with a managed aircraft, was something of a break with tradition. Quite why Agusta never sold any of the initial 206L's into the UK I don't know.
The second LongRanger to arrive in the UK was Pat McHaffey's (ever competing with my godfather) G-BFTR which arrived somewhere in the middle of '78. This aircraft was eventually sold to Sweden.
The aircraft which is often cited as being the third 206L in the UK, G-BFYG, never was! That registration was identified for Agusta's first UK 206L demonstrator I-CDVM but, when the aircraft came to the UK in '79 (via Manfred Mann) it demonstrated at the Cranfield Airshow where a customer from Austria bought it and so the craft went straight to the Austrian register and the registration G-BFYG was re-allocated.
Agusta demonstrator I-CDVM at the '79 Cranfield Airshow where it was bought by an Austrian client. This aircraft would have been Mann's first UK 206L had it remained in the country.
Those who attended Cranfield '79 might recall the team from Agusta, it comprised of this aircraft plus a 109A. Agusta were still having trouble with lateral oscillations on the 109 in those days and to which problem my godfather had earlier recommended Ferranti's SAS system. Agusta did in fact resolve this problem with SAS (albeit not Ferranti's).
The Agusta team had allocated two pilots for I-CDVM (one of whom may well have been a Manfred Mann pilot) and were operating demonstration flights for would-be LongRanger customers. I mention this because throughout the show they employed an interesting landing technique involving lengthy run on landings which would slide the 'L' model up to Mann's allocated parking area alongside the 109 which would wheel its way there. It amused spectators if nothing else!
Additional early LongRangers included:
G-JAMI: James McCaughey. Delivered March '78. Re-sold to Sweden.
G-BFTR: Delivered to CSE in May '78 and bought by Air Hanson in November '78. Re-sold to Sweden.
G-DWMI: Glenwood Helicopters. Delivered February '79. Re-sold to Germany.
G-LONG: Air Hanson. Delivered May '79. Re-sold to the US.
Heli56's G-LRII which, as Earl pointed out, was delivered to CSE in May '79 and then to Castle Motors in August '79. LRII was eventually returned to the US. Castle Motors owner, Roy Flood, was also a Ferranti client, similarly buying his first aircraft from my godfather - G-BAKX, Mr Fayed's JetRanger!
G-WARM: Warmco. Delivered in April 1980. Re-sold to the US. This replaced Warmco's existing Bell 206 G-HEAT.
G-HBUS: Willowbrook. Delivered in November of '80. Re-sold to the US. Served for a season with the Toleman Group replacing their 206 G-TPTR.
G-JLBI: Alton Towers. Delivered in December 1981 (imported from Germany, formerly D-HBBZ). Re-sold to France. This aircraft was flown by both my godfather and PPRuNer
Paco. JLBI's call sign was 'Alton 1'.
G-BKGG: Alan Mann. Delivered August '82 . Re-sold to Italy in August '83.
G-LIII: Air Hanson. Delivered in December '82. Re-sold to Australia. Became G-CJCB while in the UK.
G-BMKJ: Air Hanson. Delivered January '83. Re-sold to the US in June the following year.
Terribe trivia, but there we are!
S.