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Old 20th Sep 2013, 18:30
  #2041 (permalink)  
 
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Tail Number comes back to the US Department of State, Patrick AFB Florida.

Same bunch who operate the Drug Eradication aircraft in Central and South America.

Did they perchance fly into Cyprus by an Evergreen 747?
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Old 20th Sep 2013, 18:30
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The clue = C/N 61-751

I was heavily involved in many tortuous S61 SAR mod programmes over the years, at Redhill, but I can't remember whether BDIJ was a primary 4-axis, dual hoist SAR machine or one of the back ups.

Another 61 of the four that arrived wasn't a Bristow machine but an ex British Airways aircraft G-ASNL. Fifty years old, ditched in the North Sea, 30 years ago, due to G-box failure, sank while being recovered and still going strong. All four 61s have just come out of Iraq!!!


Only rumours of where there off to next.................
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Old 20th Sep 2013, 18:33
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Air Log, now Bristow had contract(s) in the past flying out of Cyprus to Beirut to the Embassy there. One of the 412's left Cyprus and went to Nigeria....via Ghana for a 1200 hour by Air Log Engineers....then on to Lagos for another overhaul to get it up to snuff.
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Old 20th Sep 2013, 18:35
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G-BDIJ was a primary SAR with the full LN-450 fit. It was main aircraft at Lee-on-Solent for many years. It was fitted out a Redhill in 1989 while I was a student at the FTS.
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Old 20th Sep 2013, 18:36
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One of the S61 I had in Penzance doing the Scilly Islands run had done 140000 landings, think about it because I did every time it flew!!
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Old 20th Sep 2013, 19:19
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Shipped by Antonovs I heard.

So she was a primary SAR machine then I new her well.

As you can imagine it was quite a challenge to develop, install and certify the original LN-450 avionic package. I don't think I'd want to go through all that again...... many loooooong night shifts.
Then many years after that I built a test bed in the old wooden huts at Redhill to aid the development of the new SAR avionic upgrade to include the EHSI. It was great, working with the manufacturer and Bristow design office, to present the EHSI with live GPS feed / RNAV, weather radar overlay, slaveable compass, to all and sunder such as the CAA, the manufacturer and operational pilots.............and all on a couple of tables. You wouldn't believe how much debate went into a wind arrow presentation! One of my more memorable projects.

Once the EHSI (Electronic Horizontal Situation Indicator) was certified I then toured the SAR bases to survey the four primary machines prior to their upgrade. Then back to Redhill, built a wooden S61 nose and centre console mock up and with the help of many we fabricated a complete enormous loom assembly which encompassed most of the avionic upgrade wiring. Then all we had to do was quickly snip out the old stuff and slot the new wiring in...............easier said than done.

The point of the above explanation is................
Yesterday, I sat in the cockpit of N751AW and looked in the nose..............and it's all gone!!!!!
Their maintenance supervisor reckons, one company bought most of the old 61s and "standardised" them back to mostly original fit including Primus Mk 1 Wx radar and auto-stab by the look of it.

As the RAF VC-10 flew its last sortie today I think it seems that that the life of these older aircraft matches our own working lives ......around fifty years........then we are both struggling...............
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Old 20th Sep 2013, 22:52
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Yes IJ was our baby at Lee-on-Solent. I was the DCP of the unit when we started in 88. However, VA was our first "bog standard" NS S61N while IJ got all the SAR trimmings. FLIR, LN400/450 etc and took over from VA

Mind you we had MU down for a little while too

TC
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Old 20th Sep 2013, 22:53
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It must have been almost as big a job to return IJ to original spec. I can understand why though. Where would you get spares these days? It must hard enough to get standard S61 parts.

How do I put this without insulting these elderly ladies? They were also a little weightier than the other S61s.
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Old 20th Sep 2013, 23:22
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When she was a standard NS machine, I think she was contracted to Phillips Petroleum as it was then. She used to wear a Phillips 66 logo. Great machines and all with a personal "story" to tell.
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Old 21st Sep 2013, 17:55
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Denmark

Denmark



The Wessex book by Patrick Allen states that Bristows operated Wessex out of Esbjerg, Denmark for Gulf Oil.

I came across this slide which had a few words :- Denmark. Chris Christensen, George Harris.



Not a lot to go on with this one but an article by Ken Rowe makes for an amusing read and I accept no responsibility for any of the content!!

Esbjerg Denmark (Sept 73-Dec 73)

(A/C Wessex G-AZBY)
Pilots:- Dick Metcalf, Rudi Meyer
Engineers:- Don McQuaig, Ken Rowe

(A/C Wessex G-ATBY)
Pilots:- John Cameron (chief pilot), Tony Stafford?
Engineers:- John French (chief engineer), "Dixie" Dean"Kiwi" ???, A.N. Other.

(The reason I am vague about "TBY" crewing is because my diaries don't record it and by then alcohol could well have been affecting my memory.)

Bristows already had an operation in Denmark situated at Esbjerg so it was only logical to set up there. Don and myself drove over in his ageing Mini via the car ferry from Harwich, Rudi drove up from Germany and Dick flew the aircraft from Yarmouth. The set up in Denmark was unbelievable even by today's standards and could only be described as working in Five Star conditions. If Mister Bristow made any money out of the permanent operation I want to know how.

The hangar had to be seen to be believed. It could have taken about six Wessex and was insulated and kept at a constant temperature of 65 degrees summer and winter. The floor was covered with a shiny grey oil resistant paint that was renewed at regular intervals whether it required it or not and the whole structure was spotless - not a cobweb to be seen. John Cameron had ensconced himself in an office that he decided to panel in oak whilst he sat at a large oak desk the likes of which Mister Bristow would have been proud to have in his office. A slightly less lavish office for the Chief Engineer and a near fully equipped kitchen and lounge as a crew room completed the scene. Now comes the crunch. They flew once a week with a total flight time of 40 minutes and had never in the history of operation, 3 years to that time, flown more than double figure hours in one month and this was proudly displayed on a graph behind John Cameron's desk.

The aircraft "TBY" stood by in the middle of the hangar shiny clean, gleaming and looking like a museum exhibit rather than a working Bristow's aircraft. Rather reminded me of Eket!!#!!?!!!? I realised that the hangar belonged to Christian Salveson but Bristow's furnished it. If anyone can tell me, especially John French if you're reading this, how did you manage to get a staffing of four licensed engineers for such a workload? What is more the only time they had any major maintenance work to do they had a replacement aircraft sent in from Yarmouth with a crew to staff it. They all had luxury bungalows for accommodation as they had their wives and partners with them. I now realise why I was getting paid peanuts for roughing it in Eket!

Our aircraft "ZBY" arrived and was immediately criticised by John French for being in such a state that he wrote off to Redhill to say that it had not been maintained properly whilst in Wales. In actual fact it was quite smart compared to some of the high work rate "Wessii" at Yarmouth as it had been flown relatively small amount of hours in the past few months. This meant that we had time to keep it clean but of course along side his "museum"exhibit it looked slightly tatty. The night after our aircraft "ZBY"arrived and after we had knocked off work he stayed behind and crawled all over our aircraft. When we arrived in the morning he had made out a pile of extra worksheets with more than a hundred and fifty snags on. They ranged from stone chips to the paint on the underside; oil stains on the paintwork; dzus fastener markings not complete; and the one that really got me was that the tyres needed painting with tyre black. Although we did not have a chief engineer and he was supposed to oversee our operation it did not stop me from telling him where to get off. As anyone who knows me will concur I am not afraid of speaking my mind to anyone if I think it is necessary. This did not particularly endear me to him or him to me from that point on but I felt better when our chief pilot added his support.

Well that is enough of my whingeing and back to the plot. The first week we flew almost every day in order to set the rig up but after that it seemed to be about three days a week, two days of which were crew change days with the possibility of one day that was for some other reason. The rig was situated about one hour and 20 mins out into the North Sea. You could hardly say in our spare time we had to help out with the other half of the operation as they hardly flew. Their job was to service a "Buoy loading point". If you don't know what one of these is, it is a large buoy attached to a well head and a tanker comes alongside and attaches itself to it and fills itself up direct from the well head. In this particular case it took about two weeks for the tanker to fill and what the helicopter did was to carry an oil engineer out to inspect the mechanism once a week and change the crew of the tanker if required. The possibility of a casevac was negligible as the tanker had a doctor and a small clinic on board and if necessary would unhitch and steam to a nearby port.

Another job that came our aircraft's way was a trip to Sweden in order to carry out a crew change for a rig the oil company was operating out of a place called Malmar on the Baltic Sea. It required an overnight stop in Sweden as the crew change started at 8.30a.m. We used to fly into Malmo in order to clear customs and then on to Malmar for an overnight stay in a hotel. The oil company used to allow U.S.$1000 personal expenses for the pilot and engineer in order to fund this. Remembering this was 1973; it barely covered all the expenses if you included alcohol and we always did. So beware all of you that are thinking of taking holidays in Sweden as it's very expensive. This trip was done on a weekly basis alternating between our aircraft and John French's aircraft. The rig we were servicing was not due to finish its hole until Dec 28th so it looked as if we were to spend Christmas in Denmark but with some philandering we managed to get John French's aircraft to stand in for us. We left on the23rd Dec, myself and Dick flying the Wessex back to Redhill, Don driving back to his home in Norfolk and Rudi to Germany. I went on leave over the Christmas period only to return to meet my "bete noir" Jean Dennel, which didn't turn out as I expected........................
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Old 21st Sep 2013, 18:24
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Djibouti

Djibouti



In 1986 Bristows deployed AS332L, G-TIGI to Djibouti to support Occidental's 90 day drilling programme offshore Somalia. The round trip distance to the drillship was appoximately 1000 miles!! with a refuelling stop in Berbera, Somalia.


G-TIGI out on a hot apron at the main international airport in Djibouti and as usual, no hangar! The aircraft was operating through the Winter so the temperatures were down to a chilly 35C!!

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Old 21st Sep 2013, 22:39
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I was detached to Esbjerg from North Denes in 72/73.

It was an interesting routine. Day on/Day off on site. We flew out to the Maria Maersk tanker early in the morning (very early) and took the day shift from the MM to the Danfeld 1 and then took the night shift back to the MM. Then we shut down for the day on the MM until it was time to change crews on the Danfeld 1. Returned late at night to Esbjerg then out for a few horrendously expensive beers. I believe we stayed at the Esbjerg Hotel. I remember Lemmy Tanner being my Co-Pilot out there then

TC
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Old 23rd Sep 2013, 17:35
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Dominican Republic

Dominican Republic



I think I posted something about crop dusting Hillers a way back in the thread but as I'm working through the bases I will recap sometimes....forgive any repetition.....

In 1960, Sir Miles Wyatt asked Alan Bristow if he would like to take over the running of Fison Airwork and effectively merge it with Bristow Helicopters so although many of these operations were not strictly Bristow operations they were under Bristows control for a time and many staff joined the company.Therefore the general feeling is that Fison Airwork should be included as part of Bristow history.
Fison Airwork itself was formed from Airwork and Fison Pest Control and had many contracts in the field of crop spraying of which the Dominican Republic was one.

Occupying the eastern part of the island of Haiti, the Dominican Republic has an area of about 19,000 square miles. It lies within the tropics but the heat is tempered by sea breezes, its northern shore being washed by the Atlantic Ocean and its southern by the Carribean Sea. At the time of the Fison-Airworks contracts agriculture was the most important industry with most crops needing some form of pest control.


Dated at July 1962, what looks like a rotors running refuel and insecticide upload.





Same date. "Spraying bananas using a Hiller 12C."






and thanks to John Odlin for the following pictures. John is the pilot in the Hiller and at twenty something learnt a lot about flying helicopters on the crop dusting circuit.





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Old 24th Sep 2013, 11:59
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Djibouti Operation

I was on that operation. We were called out one night to rescue a US Navy girl who had been injured in an accident landing on a beach in Somaliland-their helicopter was u/s-and brought her back. The US admiral sent us a letter of thanks.

Last edited by mtoroshanga; 24th Sep 2013 at 12:01. Reason: Forgot to say what posting was in ref to
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Old 24th Sep 2013, 17:23
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Abu Dhabi 2

Abu Dhabi people...

I am trying to blend in the bases pics with some of the people pics but keep forgetting to add the people!
So a few people from Abu Dhabi courtesy of A.B. taken 40 years ago, probably not on a 12 megapixel digital camera.
Camera of choice in those days was a Kodak instamatic and take the rolls of film to Boots for developing!
A.B. will have to help with the names..........










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Old 24th Sep 2013, 18:05
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How about?

CS = Colin Sole
PC = Paul Crawford
RM = Roddy MacLean
RS = Rick Storr
PH = Pete Harris

For a few more interesting pictures of some of this crew, check Bristow Photos #577
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Old 25th Sep 2013, 17:49
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Dubai

Dubai



Another base with long Bristow associations, then FBH took over a few years back and now I think they are going it alone?

The black and white pictures below were taken around 1968/70.

I never received much info about the Dubai operations when I was putting together the original website however I did spend 6 weeks at Dubai Police Air Wing in 1996 as an avionic leave relief. At that time the Police fleet consisted of Bolkow 105s, Bell 206s and the newly arrived Augusta 109s. Bell 412s were added sometime after.

A mile from the police hangar was the VIP hangar which housed everything from Boeing 747s to Bell 206s and Dauphins - the helicopters being Bristows responsibility.
Dubai operations can be traced back to the early sixties when the operation consisted of no more than a helipad and prefab building by the coast.


The Bristow Hangar was the larger of the two hangars in the foreground ie the hangar nearest the old airport control tower in the centre of the photo. Circa 1968.





Staff (circa 1968) were Gerhard Trosch, Bob Griffiths, Joe Wright (pilots) Bill Nicholls, Mike Croxford, Dave Peddar (engineers).


Whirlwind and Bell 206 on the apron.






.......and moving on a bit, pictures of Police Air Wing aircraft operational during the nineties and onward.

As mentioned above the Bolkow 105s were still in service in 1996 but were scheduled to be replaced after the imminent arrival of the Augusta 109s.





One of the Augusta 109s at the scene of a road traffic accident.






As above, but the latest addition to the fleet on scene, a Bell 412.





One of the Bell 412s undergoing a major check in the Dubai hangar, probably not the original!





........and a few Dubious Dubai characters........ many of them would go on to have looooong careers with Bristows.
















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Old 25th Sep 2013, 18:06
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Just about the only thing still standing in the photo of the hangers is the old control tower, for some reason they cannot bring themselves to knock it down. Unusual really, anything more than 20 years old normally gets flattened, it'll be my turn soon.
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Old 25th Sep 2013, 18:23
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New Thread

Great photos, bring back old times!!

Last edited by mtoroshanga; 26th Sep 2013 at 10:11. Reason: xx
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Old 25th Sep 2013, 18:30
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TOD,

Heck fire....MB owes you that much Stand By Time if you calculate the interest on that Debt!
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