Decca Helicopter

[Savoia]

In the 70's Decca used to operate from Biggin Hill with a Bell 47 and a Jetstream.

Does anyone remember Decca's operations, what they did and who flew for them?

https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-roGQmx_qt1k/TqKZX7uDlFI/AAAAAAAAFfc/g9NffTlGlkg/s720/Decca%252520Navigator%252520Co%252527s%252520Bell%25252047G% 252520G-ARIA%252520LGW%25252012%252520Oct%25252067%252520%252528Chri s%252520England%252529.jpg
Decca Navigator Co's Bell 47G G-ARIA at London Gatwick on 12th October 1967 (Photo: Chris England)

First registered in the UK to 'Air Couriers Ltd' of Biggin Hill (1961-62) then to World Wide Helicopters (1962-65) and the Decca Navigator Company (1965-84)

https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-Xhmi8fyad94/TqKZXq5weqI/AAAAAAAAFfY/etXaM2-slmo/s720/Decca%252520Handley%252520Page%252520HP137%252520Jetstream%2 525201%252520Farnborough%25252010%252520Sept%25252076%252520 %252528Mick%252520Bajcar%252529.jpg
Decca Navigator Co's Handley Page HP137 Jetstream 1 at Farnborough on 10th Septrmber 1976 (Photo: Mick Bajcar)


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[Earl of Rochester]

Recall the hangar they occupied at Biggin and saw both ARIA and AWVK on many occasions.

Decca's helicopter pilot was a chap called Edward 'Robin' Hood who was known for smoking his pipe while flying (reminds me of John Barnicle of Irish Helicopters although he smoked cigarettes!).

Teddy's main role with Decca was development of the Doppler and Navigator systems. The helicopter was widely used, not just in the UK but also on the European continent, to demonstrate both devices.

Having been imported from the US c. 1966, it went on to serve Decca for a good decade or more before being sold off to a customer in France.

AWVK was similarly used in the development of the Navigator system but also carried out a fair amount of work moving Decca's personnel.

http://forum.keypublishing.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=119673&d=1144180082

G-ARIA - Decca's development helicopter for the Navigator and Doppler systems

http://www.jproc.ca/hyperbolic/decca_bell47g_ipanel.jpg

ARIA's instrument panel with early flight data recorder atop

[Arm out the window]

Not the same Decca of recording studio fame, was it?

[Earl of Rochester]

- AOTW: One and the same dear chap!

During the Second World War Decca recording studios were approached by the War Office to attend meetings to discuss how they could assist in the war effort. Radar and navigation systems were the result!

After the war Decca went on to refine these developments commercially and created new divisions aside from the record label.

In the 60's and 70's Decca's navigation systems were considered as cutting edge and their DANAC moving map display was the first of its kind and made en-route nav a doddle!

http://www.jproc.ca/hyperbolic/decca_red_green_lattice_map_b1.jpg

Decca diagram (from a previous PPRuNe post) showing how a fix was obtained.

Rgds

EoR

[Snarlie]

What memories doth the sight of the old deccometers stir? Line checks in the S61 when the likes of Tip Cap would switch off the Decca Flight Log and tell you to plot your track on a Decca chart from the deccometers. Arriving at a critical point en route to the Transworld 58 when the copilot announced he had brought the wrong key. Never ending ground speed checks over 10 miles when battling into a headwind with marginal fuel with the Haar coming in. It all seems a bit tame nowadays.

[TipCap]

Hey Snarlie, I would never have done a thing like that, would I? :E

My point is that you are still around so it couldnt have been that bad :ok: Remember the chart and turret change when heading up North. These guys these days have it easy :)

Remember the Danac on the B212's that would run off and hide in a corner until the bad weather was past.

God is that the lantern swinging I see :p

JohnW

[Snarlie]

Lantern swinging? Like the time you came back into Ops having been trialling a new Multifab immersion suit with a vent on the shoulder and pronounced it totally unsuitable on the grounds that you had nearly gassed yourself after 8 pints of heavy and a Vindaloo the previous evening. Ah happy days!

[Low Flier]

Ah! Happy memories!
http://www.jproc.ca/hyperbolic/decca_rx_ind_961_1b.jpg

Decca also ran other high precision radionav systems in addition to MainChain, such as Shoran, HiFix, Pulse/8 and Decca Trisponder.

In the early days of the North Sea there were really only two companies providing precise nav services for rigmoves and pipelay barges: Decca Survey and Kelvin Hughes. The nav guys were invariably referred to as "the Decca Man", even if they actually worked for Kelvin Hughes.

The General Manager of Decca Survey worldwide was neither a surveyor nor a navigator. He was the guy who, when he ran Decca Records, turned down The Beatles.:uhoh: Nobody ever got fired from Decca, so they shunted the guy sideways into Decca Survey.

Decca Survey was later taken over by Racal, but for some years one of the Decca Survey companies retained its old name when all the others around the world had been subsumed into the Racal brand. That was the Bahrain company, Decca Survey Overseas Ltd (DSOL). It was known as Deezol. Racal spotted the obvious trap of changing DSOL into RSOL as Deezol would have become Arzole.:p

[Thridle Op Des]

The first operational use of Decca was June 5th 1944 to sweep the corridors to the Normandy Beaches. There was a lovely story that two of the Decca Engineers 'kept' a decometer at home to see when it came live and then subsequently claimed that they were the first civilians to know that the invasion was On.

On the 330J offshore Sumburgh, it appeared that the FO spent 95% of his time on the flight keeping the thing going, I seem to recollect two chain changes and three chart changes (though it was usually two chart changes if any trainer apart from Eddy Forde wasn't about!!)