G-AZAG
This aircraft is memorable (for me anyway) for two reasons in particular.
It had self-stripping paint – a previous re-spray by someone hadn’t been done too well, and every time it got back from a trip there’d be another bit missing. We reckoned that it enabled the pilot to find his way back by following the blue specks on the ground.
The other reason is that the Fairoaks Cricket team were very kindly loaned AG by Donald McQueen (a charming man, who either owned it or had a fair bit of authority over what it did) for a return match against RAF Odiham. They had turned up in a Puma for the first game, so not to be outdone we visited them in a pair of 206’s, with a run and break over their airfield. (We found our way back using the bits of AG as a nav aid).
G-AZYB
We had to do a spruce insert repair to one or the M/R blades after the owner whacked a trailing edge into something in his showroom while wheeling the machine out to come to us for it’s annual birthday. The first we knew of the damage was when we heard what sounded like the Flying Scotsman coming towards us. It had been ‘temporarily repaired’ with masking tape by the well-meaning owner.
Geoffersincornwall might remember doing a compass swing on a very hot day – if he pedal turned left the helicopter would land uncommanded.
She ended up at the Heli Museum after an engine failure, and the subsequent forced landing cracking the casting at the end of the tailboom. With no spare available worldwide that was the end of her working life.
NJT
Hello Nick, great to hear from you after – what – 31 years or so? We’ll have to all meet up at Savoia’s expense and catch up.
G-LIFT
A Bell 47G-2 owned by Donald McQueen and imported by him. Memorable for two reasons again. Engine oil pressure that was always a bit on the low side, and also the fact that it had no hydraulic shut-off valve when it arrived. We had to ‘retro-fit’ something that should have already been there.
G-BBEU
Should be made famous for being the reason why Manns built a 206 fuselage repair jig to replace its roof.
Went to BCAL and that’s the last I saw of it.
The green and gold 206 in question is almost certainly G-SPEY.
TMH
I remember watching a TMH 269A on the Met Police contract overpitching into the Thames one hot summer morning. It was replaced on the contract with a B47, and then the Gazelle – we always assumed that was why they went to the wall, running a contract with a 341 at 269A prices (probably a wrong assumption though).
The auction of TMH assets was (I’m quite sure) administered by the infamous Wally Holmes. All the stuff that was left to auction had been carefully arranged so that anything worth having would be accompanied in the same lot by a load of worthless junk. Two well known CEs of the era conspired to bid against Wally in the hope that he’d end up with some of the crap, it backfired a few times and we ended up with things like an almost complete set of 206 fixed float tubework, and a B47J cabin that was so battered you couldn’t have kept chickens in it.
Did Brian Hazel go to PLM/PDG?
Last edited by TRC; 17th Mar 2011 at 20:56.
Reason: Tryping errors