Bristow Photos

[Dave Ed]

Middle Wallop

Middle Wallop







Following the success of the Royal Navy pilot training contract, which had commenced in 1961, Bristows were then awarded a contract by the Army to provide ab initio training for its pilots.
It began at Middle Wallop on April 1st 1963 and the contract has run, with renewals and rebids ever since (2001). The ab initio training began on Hillers with pilots then moving on to military aircraft.






Subsequently the Hillers were replaced by Bell 47G4As which were much closer to the Bell 47 G3B1s (Sioux) which were currently in service with the Army and so limited the conversion problems.






Bristows had to set up the training school at Middle Wallop from scratch and they found the experience gained from the Naval contract extremely useful.






Initially they had to train their own instructors and had to make sure they were up to the standards of the Central Flying School. Eventually the civil helicopters were replaced by Gazelles.






As of 1997 the company was providing flying training (both fixed wing and helicopter), air traffic control and the maintenance of allotted aircraft at the Army Air Corps Centre, Middle Wallop. And, subsequently a large contract was won by FBS ( FRA, Bristows and Serco ) to provide joint services basic training under the banner DHFS ( Defence Helicopter Flying School ). It involved providing 40+ aircraft ( AS350s and Bell 412s ) to be stationed at various bases such as Middle Wallop, RAF Shawbury and RAF Valley.