These ag pictures are great! Some more operators …
- A Penniston (Trading as Apple Aviation)
- ADS (Aerial Ltd)
- Agricola Aerial Work Ltd
- Agricopters Ltd
- Air-Ag Developments; (Formerly Zanji Ltd trading as Davies Aerial)
- Bowker Air Services
- Brown & Forsyth; (Trading as Fosse Helicopter Services Ltd)
- Ciba-Geigy Aerial Spraying
- Dollar Air Services
- Farm Aviation Services Ltd
- Farmair Ltd
- Farmwork Services (East) Ltd
- G & S C Neal Ltd
- GSM Helicopters
- Helicare Ltd
- Helicopter Farming Ltd
- Helicopter Hire Ltd
- Helicrops Ltd
- Heliscott Ltd
- Helispray
- J O'Brien (Trading as O'Brien Helicopter Services)
- JEF Aviation
- Jim Pearce; (Trading as Sussex AG)
- Peter Charles (Air Farmers) Ltd
- Point to Point Helicopters Ltd
- S M Ring (Trading as S & J Contracting Services Ltd)
- Skegness Air Taxi Service Ltd
- Sussex Services Ltd
- W D Clifton, P W Sleath & D B Goss (Trading as Boston Aviation Services)
This is from some CAA files archived at the Museum of Rural Life. Some are the fixed wing names already mentioned in this
thread, operating Pawnees or AgCats.
The National Archives | Access to Archives
The CAA files start about 1980, so the frantic days of the late 1970s crop spraying are missing … when lots of suitable and “cheap” a/c came onto the market. And probably a time when the “Aerial Application Certificate” was probably at its least onerous! You only need to look at the numbers of ag a/c registered, and the amount of bumps & scrapes, to get an idea of how much ag flying was going on in Britain.
Some operators are missing off the list.
Not on the list is Heliscot (not Heliscott) at Inverness. They were headed up by the well-known Major Francis F Chamberlain, who kindly put up with my endless questions. They operated UH-12Es G-BDFO, G-BEDK, G-BEFY and G-BFLR at various times.
G-BFLR had the much-talked-about low volume Micronair rotary atomizer spray units, their benefits being somewhat outweighed by the over-engineered spray booms, too heavy compared with the lighter Simplex booms.
There was a potato farmer not far from Longside airfield, name of Norrie, who operated 12E G-BDYY for a time as AGN Helicopters, whose ex Blue Eagles Sioux pilot Mr Vavangas (also well known I believe!) also kindly put up with my questions.
Lastly, DM Carnegie, an agricultural contractor based at their farm next to the then-secret Cold War USN communications site (RAF Edzell) operated a lovely reworked B47G-3B-1, G-BHBW, one of the bulk sell-offs of the AAC’s Sioux. IIRC Heliwork acquired lots of them. This one was zero-timed by Heliwork I believe, resplendent in white and dark blue. Certainly
cosmetically they had done a lovely job on this machine.
When I saw G-BHBW in 1980 it had not long started spraying work, operated for Carnegie’s by Gleneagles Helicopters with maint support from Perth and flown by Pat Orchard. Pat found himself sitting in a pile of scrap in a field a few months later when one of his rotor tips just clipped the door runner frame of a barn, one of those that pokes way out beyond the edge of the building. Luckily Pat just had a few bumps and scratches I believe. A nice gent, another who was happy to answer questions
from a daft bystander.
There must have been sufficient cash and profit in the game, as next year the Carnegies returned with a beautiful BRAND NEW 12E, G-DMCH. It was flown by Martin Nash, who I believe had attended to the purchase (and was maybe involved with operating the Bell, I believe he was involved at Gleneagles?)
The owners liked the Hiller better - it would lift a lot more gallons than the Bell 47. Mr Nash and the Carnegies put up with yet more questions and were kind enough to find me a place in their ground crew truck for the day, buy me a bag of chips at the end of the day, and give me a flight in the Hiller.
When I saw G-DMCH first, it was only a few weeks into the UK, all shiny and new, crisp red & white paint job, firm-looking seat cushions and a nice clean carpet on the floor.
Martin Nash flew the first season of spraying and then I believe concentrated on his a/c brokering business. The following year a New Zealander flew the Hiller, Peter something. He had been a long time at this, lower, and getting into awkward little bits of fields, but it never looked dangerous, he seemed like a machine, very consistent. Another pleasant guy, he was over here for our summer, his wife worked in the hotel/pub, and then they were off back to NZ for their summer.
By now, although the 12E was only a year old, it was hard to tell the colour of the machine, the seat cushions were flat and the floor carpet had vanished altogether!
“Stinkin, dirty“ as griffo says - the chemicals just got absolutely everywhere. The crew constantly battled to try and keep the bubble clean enough and the nozzles working properly. When the Scottish weather allowed, the pace was impressive - pilot and ground crew just attacked it all day, with a few short breaks, fill, spray, fill, spray, refuel. By the end of the day, you knew they’d been working hard, half of them were asleep on the drive back.
G-DMCH soldiered on, drivers and machine keeping out of trouble, until the eng packed in while bracken spraying in 1991, pretty good going for an ag helicopter, another pile of scrap but just light injuries thankfully.
Others regularly passing through Scotland on spraying jobs were Dollar, I recall another ex-Sioux of theirs, G-BGHN, being w/o when the sprayboom trailed thru the wheat, luckily just a few scratches for Ken Hall.
Phil Slattery's website has lots of good nostalgia about Dollar's forestry work:
The Slatts Pages Index
I also remember seeing a spray 269C operated by Heli-Highland in the mid 80s?, the reg G-BSCD sticks in my mind, but G-INFO doesn’t help (still current as G-IBHH). I recall seeing the wee spray tanks on the 269 and thinking “the price to the farmer must be good for this to be worth it”, but lower operating costs, mind you.
I also remember seeing Sioux G-CHOP come through doing spraying at the end of the 80s.
I have some pics of most of these aircraft, if I can only find them!
Many of the Hillers in the late 1970s were the just-sold-off RN 705 Sq fleet:
UK Serials
One of them, later to become G-BDOI with Management Aviation, was even still spraying in Hungary last year:
Kukorica permetezés Hiller UH-12E-vel / Spraying cornfield with Hiller UH-12E - YouTube
While G-BBLB, BBLC, BBLD, BBLE, BBLF and BBLG were the ex Canadian forces “Nomads”:
Canadian Forces Hillers
The Hillers and Bell I saw used Simplex spraygear:
http://www.simplexmfg.com/brochures/...9)Brochure.pdf – same as laydo’s pic of G-BBBA
They also had an Automatic Flagman, a device presumably largely redundant these days due to Ag Nav GPS and the like. I recall Carnegies used a mix of real flagmen as well as the AF. Although the AF was cheaper than using a bloke in the field, the Carnegies found the price of the flags was extortionate, and had a go at making their own (after all it’s just a bit of cardboard with some lavvy roll attached), but it was too fiddly, IIRC.
Apologies for this long rambling post, but the photos brought back good memories of impressive people and flying.
Any chance of posting the Bell & Hiller pics, laydo?