This has been a fantastic thread !! Hopefully Ive managed to post the next photo which I believe is G AYBE landing at the Hover's Factory in Merthyr Tydfil around 1975/76.
I have always thought that this machine was owned by Oldway Properties in Merthyr Tydfil and was flown by Julian Verity.
At the time, 1974/1976 there were only 2 privately owned Helicopters in South Wales (Possibly Wales) the Oldway Jet Ranger and my dads (Gerry Hill) Hughes 500C, G BBXF, based 3/4 miles away in Aberdare.
My dad was taught to fly by Mike Smith at Air Gregory in Denham back in 1972, sadly he was killed in his 500 in June 1976.
Some 20 years later I was about to learn to fly at Swansea Airport, one afternoon I bumped into Mike, who was there doing a friend of mine's LPC, after not seeing him for over 20 years I persauded him to teach me, it turned out that the Hughes 300 G AYLX that I owned a share in was the same machine that mike taught my dad to fly in some 20 years earlier !!
I have my dads first log book and it looks really strange when you compare it to mine and see the entry's as both pilots in command G Hill / M Smith with the same call sign G AYLX with almost the same exercises but with different dates 1973/1993
He bought his first Helicopter from I beleive Air Gregory, this is a picture of it landing at the Jolly Sailor Pub in Neyland Pembrokeshire in approx 1973. In the background you can see the unfinished Cleddau Bridge.
Mike would regularly drop in if he was in Wales and stay with us, the next picture is of him landing a dark coloured Hughes 500 at our house again approximately in 1974/1975, unfortuantely I can't make out the call sign.
