GBHBF was used in some London Paris air race which is why it got its name. It didn’t win but it could have done if they had talked to Sikorsky first. They would have approved it to fly at 2X100% torque which would have been close to VNE. They had done it dozens of times during certification so they were quite confident..
The first three aircraft in 1980 were GBHBF, GBHLY and GBGXY joined by GBIEJ in 1981. The aircraft hadn’t really been fully tested and we were discovering all sorts of idiosyncrasies. One was the VTA (Variable tuning attenuator). This was an hydraulic hammer that hit the aircraft in the opposite way that it wanted to shake. When it got out of sequence vibration went from moderate to severe so you had to pull the circuit breaker.
To brighten up a boring trip the Allisons had an overspeed protection device. You tested this taxiing out by pulling one engine back until the needles split and then holding down its test switch. This would cause the engine to hunt about 10% up and down proving the system worked. This used to go off in the air so you had one engine galloping up and down with the other galloping down and up trying to compensate. They would never get in sequence so the aircraft would fishtail furiously with the swings in torque. One had to lower the lever and pull the throttles to see which one had gone wrong before it threw the passengers out of the windows. Pulling it back to idle cleared it and so on you went.
Engineers will want to know the reason why the undercarriage pin holes have circles painted around them. I was bombing along just west of Sumburgh when the undercarriage lowered itself. Just like that; wheeze wheeze thump thump thump, three greens. I diverted to Sumburgh because the gear had gone down at 145 knots and its limit being 130 so I was worried about the flotation gear. Over the radio I asked Bristow to send an engineer out to put the lock pins in before I landed. I threw the pins down to him but he couldn’t find the holes. In the end I was hovering over a committee of engineers and they eventually managed to find them. After that they were painted.
We only flew single pilot in the first few years. Because the initial plan by Sikorsky to achieve a basic weight that was 50% of Maximum the aircraft were very light. Twelve passengers (at a standard weight of 175 lbs) were quite common for the Beatrice. At the same time the Tigers were being introduced and they had bigger problems than we did. There wasn’t an effective winching vehicle at Aberdeen so we became quite adept at landing on a helideck between the blades of a stranded Tiger. We were also convenient for shifting drilling tools around as well.
On one occasion I was called in at about 15.00 to take a drilling tool to the Basin. The tool arrived and it was still glowing. We could not take it like that so I had to wait until it had cooled down. Eventually it was going to be too late for me to return to Aberdeen so ops were going to arrange a night stop at Unst. It was late and dark when I left and Highland Radar and Sumburgh had both closed so I only had Scottish Information. I arrived at the platform and shut down to unload. I didn’t need fuel for Unst so off I went. Scottish Info then told me that they could not get hold of Unst. It was a gin clear night so I pressed on but I could not raise ATC or BHL Unst either. I could see the runway and the Bristow hangar lights illuminating the apron through the open doors so I set up an approach. There was then a breathless voice on the radio from ATC asking for the callsign of the aircraft on finals. Then the runway lights came on and I landed and taxied to the hangar. There was nobody around so I shut down and went inside. All the engineers were at their break in the office drinking coffee and the ripple of jaws hitting the floor was something to behold. Not being familiar with the 76 they thought the noise I was making outside was a Dash 7. Aberdeen Operations had forgotten to inform Unst. The controller involved had had an alcohol problem and after this he was employed in other duties.
An amusing one was when returning from the Trans World 58 near the Auk field. All fuelled up, in the cruise, TBMN and I noticed one of the front seat passengers looking a bit ill. I checked on him a couple of times and he was getting worse, sweating profusely with his eyes bulging. Then I realised what it was. On the 76 we had a mechanical fuel remaining indicator that was set when you first started. Theoretically one should reset it every time one refuelled but it was out of sight and out of mind. This poor chap had been looking at a mass of instruments that he did not understand except for the one which was labelled FUEL REMAINING and this was slowly ticking down to Zero. I leaned over, punched in about a 1,000 lbs, shouted, “In Flight Refuelling” and carried on.
Single pilot operations came to an end after the TW58’s refuelling system broke down. The pilot expected to refuel at the Auk but when he called them up they refused to accept him. Because of the 76 troubles at the time Shell had banned all 76s from their decks. The pilot thought he had enough fuel for Aberdeen but the headwinds got worse and he landed at Nigg lighthouse on the fumes of a few litres of fuel. It was then discovered that the client had paid for two pilots up front. Should they have had two pilots then the extra weight would have meant that it would have run out of fuel and ditched just short of Nigg. However the decision was made that two pilots would be the norm for everybody and when we had enough FOs that was it.
In April 1981 we went to LeHavre to pick up GBISZ,(me) GBTIR and GBJFL?. One of out pilots had an aversion to any food except fish suppers or pie, beans and chips. He spent all the time we were out there living on French fries and bread rolls. When we had finished rebuilding on the docks it was quite late but we found a restaurant that unstacked enough chairs and offered us Lasagne and wine. He wouldn’t eat any of this and as the cook had gone so there were no chips so he had bread rolls for dinner. During the unloading TR’s tail rotor had been nicked by something or other and Sikorsky told them to Araldite the hole and fly it.. Our worthy had picked this aircraft and he had to land it at LeHavre airport because it was so bad and so he was stuck there living on bread rolls and chips for three days whilst they fixed the tail rotor.
February 1982 found Avgas and I at Antwerp picking up GBJVX and GBJVZ, the four door one. VZ was, I believe, an ex FAA machine and it still had the blue and white finish in the door apertures. It had a small centre consol with a blanking plate where the Loran was, fuel pressure gauges, Artificial horizons and OBS instead of flight directors. Avgas and the one engineer went in VX, which had a normal fit and I followed in formation with VZ.
As we coasted down Belgium I felt like a fag. On a normal 76 I would put my cigarettes between the radio master switches and the back wall. On this one there weren’t any switches so I tucked the on a step in front of the Loran blanking plate. There was a gap I didn’t notice at the front and my lighter had disappeared down into the consol. At that time we used to carry a miniature screwdriver on a chain to undo the doghouse fasteners so I unscrewed the blanking plate and fished my lighter out from the wiring. Put the plate back on and then lit up. Whilst this was happening my maps decided to migrate from the left hand seat down to the left hand collective. I then had to go into loose formation, unstrap, sit on the consol, collect my maps and then regain control and reposition. Crossing to the UK the weather was getting worse and worse and I could not get the VHF navs to work. In the end I did a formation ILS on Avgas into Gatwick. We were in fairly thick cloud from 2,500ft down to 800 but being an ex RAF pilot I had done innumerable formation GCAs and ACR7s so to me it was a non event. Surprisingly it was to Gatwick ATC as well.
Towards the end of 1982 I picked up GBKJU from Southampton docks. We unloaded in the next bay to where the SS Canberra was being refitted after the Falklands Conflict. I was supposed to come back in formation with a S61 that had come over from Rhode Island at the same time but I get fed up of flying at 110 knots and I decided to leave him before anybody noticed that it still had its American registration painted on the underside.
My final ferry was when Redhill found out that I was the last legal 330J pilot they had in the UK. To this end I went to Redhill and ferried GBERG to Portsmouth to begin a new adventure in China.
I could have gone with it; they asked me to but I turned it down.
The worst decision I ever made.
Last edited by Fareastdriver; 29th October 2013 at 13:47.