419 has clearly sniffed to much aviation fuel/aircraft oil. Well they did use it to pack the sand down around the airfields in Doha.
I can still smell in now.
Thank you all for your kind words. the information on this thread has been valuable and glad to see ur all still going. Yep dad did'nt expect to go either.
I'm sure he had some great stories but I obviously cant ask him.
He had just been on training courses in USA for the Bell spirit if I remember correctly when he passed away. Worked to hard I think, and burst a gasket so to speak. Since I was a kid when He died I was trying to piece his journey through life. He left behind a lot of very interesting paper work. I still have all the old Westland 55 and Bell maintenance manuals as well as life jackets etc from that time plus a very interesting log book which includes biafra. Great old stuff. It was amazing to see the image of the camo Riley Dove 5N-AGF. I have the instruction manuals for that aircraft and a photo of my dad and another posing in what looks like pilot uniforms in front of it when it had a Bristow Livery. In his log book the evac flights are there for this aircraft so he was clearly on board up to no good not listening to the authorities. My mum was pregnant with me at the time so I was not born in Nigeria like my brother as...well we were evacuated.
Since you are interested I will start to see which images I can find. I have alot but currently in storage. They go back to the early 60's. The images of the 205's and westland s/55's bring back so many memories as we spent our summer holidays flying around in them. I remember to get to Eket in 1975 we went via a DC3 from Port harcourt / Lagos?, just the family and the pilot...the madman even let me take the controls...But anyway great to hear your words, much appreciated. I suppose most of the guys who would have worked directly with dad are hopefully enjoying retirement, but if you hear of anyone who worked with him,would love to know. My brother keep a bit of the helicopter tradition and got his rotor licence. Thanks again.
