Sillohed: Thank you for your reminiscences as well as the truly nostalgic photos!
I had a wee chuckle as I imagined you spinning about on the lake trying to fire-up the old girl!
Magnetic surveys still throw-up some pretty bizarre contraptions for helicopters to fly with or tow but that surely is a classic, lol!
Some more evidence of early British Bells with floats ..
(Apologies for the terrible photo quality, scanned from a newspaper cutting).
Bell 47G-4A G-AYAE at Fort Charlotte in Lerwick on the Shetland Isles on 7th June 1970 (Photo: Dennis Coutts)
The newspaper article reads:
A helicopter has been seen over Lerwick in recent weeks but it was only on the eve of departure from Shetland that it landed in the town. In Fort Charlotte on Sunday the pilot chatted with county surveyor Mr J. P. Moar who used the machine to lift pipes for a water scheme. The main use however was for aerial surveying for the Ordnance Survey.
The floats bear the word 'helicopters' but in 1970 G-AYAE was registered to Film Flight! In '74 she moved on to join John Crewdson's stables at Southend as part of the Helicopter-Hire fleet.