VFR: Good to see you!
DFD: I failed to mention in my initial response my great admiration for your 'breed'. I have always held a great fascination for rotary-wing engineering and have several times wished that I had gained greater exposure to the practice. I believe that possessing an understanding of both disciplines can be of enormous benefit in numerous applications both operationally and from a management perspective. So, to you and to the other 'Bristowers' who made the transition (and to all dual-qualified pilots/engineers) my sincere congratulations.
Many thanks for the additional information on 'Brecqhou's blitterblats', fantastic!
Did you know that Leonard Matchan also owned a B206?
Yes .. a Beagle 206 Basset registered G-AVAM.
Here's BMAV when she was with Heli-Trans:
Heli-Trans AS350B G-BMAV as seen at the Cametringane Hotel in Castletown Bearhaven on 31st March 1998 (Photo: Bram Risseeuw)
I'm not sure if this is how she looked under Matchan's stewardship, what I
can say is that most of the Ecureuil's delivered from Aerospatiale in the year of BMAV's arrival in the UK (1979) looked like this:
Lord Glendyne's AS350B Ecureuil G-BGIM as seen at Cranfield on 5th September 1981 (Photo: Alan Mosiezny)