Eccellente Tjef!
I really am enjoying your Helicopter Hire memorabilia, great stuff, and yes this is how BBUY was clothed when Howard performed the honours for my early 80's charters.
Now c'mon Tjef, spill the beans on some of the more light-hearted antics that the late great JC got up to - he must have done
something amusing .. at least once!
Shane; I'm still making enquiries regarding your interest in G-APTE, the Westland Widgeon you posted on page
49 and which was working with Shamrock Helicopters.
I sent a 'round-robin' email to the 30 odd photographers I usually pester for permissions to post on PPRuNe and so far what I have is this ..
I was told that Westlands offered G-APTE to Aer Lingus to see if they would help develop a market for the helicopter and that through them it flew with another company for a while. Its all a bit sketchy but I remember being told something like this.
In the meantime you might enjoy this British Pathé clip of your craft making her way to the isle of Inishturk off the coast of County Mayo in 1961:
BRITISH PATHÉ CLIP OF G-APTE
Ahh Inishturk! The island of the wild boar, home to the Emerald Isles finest catches of lobster and former dwelling place of the patron saint of Columbia Helicopters! Rumour has it that when a mining company offered to develop the vein of gold which runs through the heart of the island the inhabitants said [Irish accent on] "Ah now, it'll be alright there. We don't need to spoil God's handiwork just because the little leprechauns get itchy feet whenever they walk on our land!".
Oh and Shane, I saw a movie the other day called 'The Guard' (a story set predominantly in Galway). I've not enjoyed a movie that much in a long time - fantastic!
