Maurice 'Nobbie' Clarke

[Locospotter]

This is my first posting on PPrune and it is to sadly announce that my father, known to everyone involved in helicopters as Nobbie, sadly passed away peacefully in the early hours of Tuesday the 13th of March.
He joined the RAF in 1944 and after training went on to fly beaufighters and Brigands in the ground attack role before going onto Mosquitos and Canberras doing photo reconnaissance. In the mid 1950's he went to Bristols, as the air force at the time didn't have a helicopter training programme' to convert on to the R4 and the S51.He then remained on helicopters for the rest of his aviation career, flying the Sycamore in Cyprus before going on to the Whirlwind at the search and rescue unit at Leuchars. He then became an A2 QHI at the CFS at valley, before finishing his time in the RAF as a Master Pilot, flying the Wessex at Odiham.
He then joined Bristows where he was sent to Tehran to train The Iranians to fly, before predominately working in Nigeria at Warri, Port Harcourt, Eket and Calabar. He broke up his time in Nigeria with spells on the North Sea, The Gulf, flying out of Das Island and Ecuadorian Jungle.
During his time in Bristows Dad flew the Bell 47, 204 206 and the 212 he continued to fly the Whirlwind and the Wessex and completed his list of types with the SA330 Puma.
Dad retired from Bristows in 1984 and enjoyed a good retirement intespersed with bouts of ill health, from which he always bounced back and the sudden loss of his wife Gladys.
The funeral will take place at St Marys' Church, Bexley, Kent on Friday the 23rd March at 1330. If There is anyone out there who remembers him and would like to attend, they are most welcome. Any donations in his memory to either Cancer research or the RAF Benevolent fund.
Ian Clarke

[heli1]

Very sorry to hear about the loss...those who flew the R4 are sadly getting fewer and fewer.
You might want to contact the Helicopter Museum at Weston super Mare as I am sure they would be interested in having a copy of his log books for their archives since he was so involved in the early days .

[SASless]

Condolences from across the pond....Your Dad was a real gentleman and always ready with a bit of humour.

[DennisK]

So sad to hear our wonderful 'Nobbie' has left us.

An absolute gentleman, a terrific humourists and a great natural pilot and instructor.

Nobbie joined my first ever business 'Skyline Helicopters' at WAP in 1982. But before this he 'freelanced for me in the 1970s at Spooner Aviation at Shoreham and how well I remember his after hours stories in the Spoonair bar. In those days we had two ex R4 instructors being Tony Clarke and Chris Bartlett.

In 1975, I persuaded Tony to fly one of the first Enstrom F28s (G-BALT) for a sales client. The type isn't noted noted for its payload and I recall him landing his 250 lbs with another 2 pax up at the 'Blackboys' confined area site as if it was a Lama.

As many will know, his opening quote for our Skyline students was often ... "Are you hot to trot?" ... as I'm sure our very first student, Elfan Ap Rees of Helidata/Helicopter International will recall.

I have such fond memories of the great man and could go on and on .... but of one thing I am sure, alongside his many aviation friends, he will also be missed at his one-time local, the Beetle & Wedge at Moulesford. I was landed with him on the lawn with the T/R overhanging the river!

Dear Nobbie, keep 'em amused in that great helipad in the sky and on behalf of all who knew him, our warm condolences for his family ... they truly don't make them like that any more.

Dennis Kenyon.

I cannot resist my final story. As Skyline's TRE, (as was Tony) every six months we were required to check each other for the Schedule 10 (as it then was) AOC 'base' check. The deal was that we pegged a ten pound note in the autorotation landing area ... the winner of the note being the one nearest on the EOL landing ... but always providing the note could be retrieved with out getting out of the helicopter. I don't recall ever winning !