Both of these craft have featured in our previous discussions - 'KX' more so on the Ferranti Thread. Unfortunately the images are not so clear and are lacking in detail when it comes to dates and locations and for which I apologise:
G-BAKX was a 1971 206B manufactured by Bell. After several owners (incuding one car sales firm) she was bought by Genavco (the company used to register Mohammed Al Fayed's aviation assets in the 70's). The sale to Genavco was arranged by my godfather who went on to manage this aircraft under the auspices of Ferranti Helicopters who revamped her with a Ferranti interior and high-gloss paint. I saw this craft several times in Ferranti's hangar at the Beehive as a youngster.
In August 1978 'KX' was bought by another car sales company .. Castle Motors of Trebrown in Liskeard, Cornwall. Castle Motors was owned by a chap called Roy Flood and this (to the best of my knowledge) was his first aircraft. Roy's helicopter interests would later morph into the now well known Castle Air operation.
A year later and the craft was sold to the Republic of Ireland where she was purchased by then leading Dublin laywer Brendan O'Mahony. One of Brendan's first 'safety pilots' was a chap called Mark Trumble (who I think had been freelancing with Castle Motors). Mark and I would later appear together as witnesses in a case involving Irish Helicopters which you can read about in post
729 of this thread.
After Trumble, my godfather stepped-in as safety pilot for Brendan and was therefore reunited with 'KX' (now renamed EI-BHI). The Colonel had met Brendan through Vincent O' Brien and the two of them had hit it off and which was fortuitous in that this resulted in many wonderful hours spent in Eire flying this aircraft.
'KX' sported a white circle on her fuselage which encased the letter 'F' and which most assumed stood for Ferranti but which in fact was for 'Fayed'. (In the 70's Mohammed Al Fayed was more commonly known as simply Mohammed Fayed). After her sale to Roy Flood the 'F' maintained its relevance and I think he retained the letter. When eventually Brendan bought her he had the 'F' painted out but the circle remained.
My first time to fly 'KX' was from the Irish Helicopters hangar at Westpoint, Dublin Airport to Brendan's home in Leixlip (a short journey of less than 10 minutes). When we arrived Brendan came out and explained that before shutting down we should pick-up some oysters which he planned to consume with his pint of Guiness later that evening.
So we headed for Galway where we were to collect two or three dozen oysters from a pub opposite an inlet where fishing boats were moored. Upon landing (on the road!) the pub owner came out carrying several circular polystyrene packages filled with oysters imbedded in crushed ice .. then we were off back to Dublin where the 'air freighted goods' were duly consumed (by Brendan, the Colonel, a young Savoia and some of Brendan's friends at his local) along with copious quantities of the black stuff. Not to be left out I would drink coca-cola with a 'Guiness top'!
This episode reminds me of another occasion (also in Ireland) when Vincent O'Brien's wife had failed to obtain some 35mm film for her camera in the local town of Cashel (Tipperary) and which wasn't hard to believe given that there weren't that many shops in Cashel in the late 70's early 80's. It was late in the day and the following morning she had an 'important' photo assignment (she was a keen photographer) so we were dispatched to Shannon airport to seek-out 35mm film which, eventually the Colonel found in one of the duty free shops after having convinced the teller he was about to board a flight .. which, in fact, he was!
These two shots are of Castle's LongRanger G-LRII a 1979 LongRanger II (hence the registration) bought by 'Castle Motors' in August of '79 and quite possibly their second aircraft after 'KX'. Castle Air (as they then became) held on to LRII until 1986.
My thanks to the crew at Castle Air for these photos, specifically Angela Wells and Ross Bunyard their newly appointed MD.
.