Bristow Photos
They would destroy your reputation!
Did you not receive and Evaluation that read "Excellent Worker when cornered!"?
Did you not receive and Evaluation that read "Excellent Worker when cornered!"?
Join Date: Oct 2009
Location: West Sussex
Age: 84
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heli 1
If my memory for registrations serves me correctly, G-AODA was the last 55 to fly with Bristows, she was flying for British Aerospace (or whatever they are called now), on development of the Brimstone Missile, and was cleared by the CAA for operations below 500 ft.
She came straight back from the desert somewhere, and went straight on that operation, without a major check, so there was some criticism from BA engineers in the hangar where she was parked, I got her flown back to Redhill to have some of the loose rivets knocked in over a weekends work.
There was a strange hierarchy at B/Aerospace where there were about five different canteens, and you used the one according to your pay grade, so after a morning doing a check one, up to my neck in grease, oil and exhaust grime, I would have to have lunch with the lower middle mangers.
If my memory for registrations serves me correctly, G-AODA was the last 55 to fly with Bristows, she was flying for British Aerospace (or whatever they are called now), on development of the Brimstone Missile, and was cleared by the CAA for operations below 500 ft.
She came straight back from the desert somewhere, and went straight on that operation, without a major check, so there was some criticism from BA engineers in the hangar where she was parked, I got her flown back to Redhill to have some of the loose rivets knocked in over a weekends work.
There was a strange hierarchy at B/Aerospace where there were about five different canteens, and you used the one according to your pay grade, so after a morning doing a check one, up to my neck in grease, oil and exhaust grime, I would have to have lunch with the lower middle mangers.
Phil Kemp
Definitely not Phil...............
1962 Trinidadian Bristow Hiller and...........
.......only John Odlin knows......he provided the pics
I am presuming it's the same girl......no doubt a few hundred Rotorheads will work it out from the serial number of the Hiller
Far too much nudity in last two posts
1962 Trinidadian Bristow Hiller and...........
.......only John Odlin knows......he provided the pics
I am presuming it's the same girl......no doubt a few hundred Rotorheads will work it out from the serial number of the Hiller
Far too much nudity in last two posts
Will the new birds wind up as corroded as the 212's did?
Malaysia
Malaysia - Kerteh
Posted some of these pics before without the info so this will add context.
I spent over six years at Kerteh, the first period was a three month " transitional" leave relief as the operation was relocated from Terengannu.
I actually arrived back in UK a year and a half later!!
Second period was married accompanied with Jan and it was during this posting our son was born in Kuantan
Kerteh could be really busy and one morning, for a brief time while a 412 was on a flight test, we had 14 aircraft airborne out of 14.
Around 1980 a new airport was built in the state of Terengganu which would mainly serve the off-shore installations, one hours flying time from the East coast.
In 1981 Bristows/Malaysian Helicopter Services re-located their main operations from Terengganu airport to Kerteh. It is unclear when the aircraft changed from Bristow to M.H.S. ownership but as can be seen from the pictures all the aircraft were in M.H.S. colours except for 9M-SSK which was soon to return to U.K.
The fleet was growing all the time and soon outgrew its new home, so a new hangar was added in front of the fuel tanks in the picture plus new hard-standings to accommodate the six new S76Cs. It became pretty busy with 8 X S76, 6 X S61 and a couple of Bell 412s.
The brown hut is the engineers' crew room and also contained the line-office.
Some names for the pics below. Forgive my spelling and the ones I've forgotten and I won't even attempt the wives!
Chas Ducat, John Church, Gordon Dumphie, Craig ***, Adrian ***, Clive Golding, Ian Macgregor, Sean Parker,Dave Thompson, Phil Turner...
A n Cs scrubbed up well!
Anchor being a Malaysian beer! Jan took the pic Graig and Dawn on the oars. There is an engine but too shallow to use it. Monitor lizards on the banks of the river up to 2 metres long!
Not seen very often on Prune...........wives. Apparently a few of the guys had them. Had to be patient and understanding bunch and willing to travel.
Posted some of these pics before without the info so this will add context.
I spent over six years at Kerteh, the first period was a three month " transitional" leave relief as the operation was relocated from Terengannu.
I actually arrived back in UK a year and a half later!!
Second period was married accompanied with Jan and it was during this posting our son was born in Kuantan
Kerteh could be really busy and one morning, for a brief time while a 412 was on a flight test, we had 14 aircraft airborne out of 14.
Around 1980 a new airport was built in the state of Terengganu which would mainly serve the off-shore installations, one hours flying time from the East coast.
In 1981 Bristows/Malaysian Helicopter Services re-located their main operations from Terengganu airport to Kerteh. It is unclear when the aircraft changed from Bristow to M.H.S. ownership but as can be seen from the pictures all the aircraft were in M.H.S. colours except for 9M-SSK which was soon to return to U.K.
The fleet was growing all the time and soon outgrew its new home, so a new hangar was added in front of the fuel tanks in the picture plus new hard-standings to accommodate the six new S76Cs. It became pretty busy with 8 X S76, 6 X S61 and a couple of Bell 412s.
The brown hut is the engineers' crew room and also contained the line-office.
Some names for the pics below. Forgive my spelling and the ones I've forgotten and I won't even attempt the wives!
Chas Ducat, John Church, Gordon Dumphie, Craig ***, Adrian ***, Clive Golding, Ian Macgregor, Sean Parker,Dave Thompson, Phil Turner...
A n Cs scrubbed up well!
Anchor being a Malaysian beer! Jan took the pic Graig and Dawn on the oars. There is an engine but too shallow to use it. Monitor lizards on the banks of the river up to 2 metres long!
Not seen very often on Prune...........wives. Apparently a few of the guys had them. Had to be patient and understanding bunch and willing to travel.
G-AODA
Is the vehicle towing her, a Landrover 1 to series 3 conversion?
Do you relate to your aircraft as it or she/her. Quite often, after my 412s have had a hard working day with no snags I'll tap them on the nose and say "well done girl". You become quite attached to machines you have worked with for ten years plus.
Do you relate to your aircraft as it or she/her. Quite often, after my 412s have had a hard working day with no snags I'll tap them on the nose and say "well done girl". You become quite attached to machines you have worked with for ten years plus.
Bristow calendar 1983
Whilst many of us were swanning around the world on cushy overseas postings, the real work was being done on the North Sea.....
FIRST NORTH SEA OIL
The following letter was e-mailed to me by Hugh Martin and it was issued to all locally based staff in 1975 following the first North Sea oil to be produced.
So, moving on to 1983......
Beryl Field (Mobil)
ALI BABA (Sun Oil)
Forties Field (British Petroleum)
I still have nightmares about getting this "one off" 212 ready for North Sea Ops
WESTERN PACESETTER 2 (Tricentrol)
Brae Field (Marathon)
Ninian (Chevron Petroleum (UK) Ltd)
Tartan Field (Texaco)
SEDNETH 701 (Phillips Petroleum)
North West Hutton Field (AMOCO)
Beatrice Field (Britoil)
Brent Field (Shell Expro)
She did get around a bit!! Perhaps the were a couple of BALZ's!
Murchison Field (CONOCO)
.
FIRST NORTH SEA OIL
The following letter was e-mailed to me by Hugh Martin and it was issued to all locally based staff in 1975 following the first North Sea oil to be produced.
So, moving on to 1983......
Beryl Field (Mobil)
ALI BABA (Sun Oil)
Forties Field (British Petroleum)
I still have nightmares about getting this "one off" 212 ready for North Sea Ops
WESTERN PACESETTER 2 (Tricentrol)
Brae Field (Marathon)
Ninian (Chevron Petroleum (UK) Ltd)
Tartan Field (Texaco)
SEDNETH 701 (Phillips Petroleum)
North West Hutton Field (AMOCO)
Beatrice Field (Britoil)
Brent Field (Shell Expro)
She did get around a bit!! Perhaps the were a couple of BALZ's!
Murchison Field (CONOCO)
.
BJZS
TTO,
ZS was a one off buy from ??? that needed full North Sea mods and as I mentioned many posts ago the 212 mods really got out of hand ....there were hundreds of them!!!.
It was a tight schedule as per normal and we had about 16+ avionic engineers working 24/7 including night shifts.
On the evening/night shift prior to first flight I had listed 135 items we needed to finish off, there were loads of us...........takeaways were ordered. Unbelievably by the early hours of the first flight day we were actually getting there. Then disaster.
The battery was connected to enable functional checks however the battery bus panel down by the pilot's feet was not secured yet.
The battery circuit breakers made contact with the airframe and the battery bus feeder wires started to discharge the battery. Within seconds the wires went into melt down. The avionic staff were having a well earned break at the time. Seeing smoke pouring from the center console a sheety jettisoned a fire extinguisher into the fire zone.....what a mess!!
Every wire that the two battery bus feeders wires had touched was also damaged and needed to be replaced and as Bell wiring under the console was generally one big tangled twisted mass that was a lot of wires.
That is why the battery bus panels are now hinged at the bottom.
After working sooooo many hours that night I then had to break the news to Jean Dennel...............He took it remarkably well starting his response with.................."I had a dream.................!!!!!!"
ZS was a one off buy from ??? that needed full North Sea mods and as I mentioned many posts ago the 212 mods really got out of hand ....there were hundreds of them!!!.
It was a tight schedule as per normal and we had about 16+ avionic engineers working 24/7 including night shifts.
On the evening/night shift prior to first flight I had listed 135 items we needed to finish off, there were loads of us...........takeaways were ordered. Unbelievably by the early hours of the first flight day we were actually getting there. Then disaster.
The battery was connected to enable functional checks however the battery bus panel down by the pilot's feet was not secured yet.
The battery circuit breakers made contact with the airframe and the battery bus feeder wires started to discharge the battery. Within seconds the wires went into melt down. The avionic staff were having a well earned break at the time. Seeing smoke pouring from the center console a sheety jettisoned a fire extinguisher into the fire zone.....what a mess!!
Every wire that the two battery bus feeders wires had touched was also damaged and needed to be replaced and as Bell wiring under the console was generally one big tangled twisted mass that was a lot of wires.
That is why the battery bus panels are now hinged at the bottom.
After working sooooo many hours that night I then had to break the news to Jean Dennel...............He took it remarkably well starting his response with.................."I had a dream.................!!!!!!"
Ah, BJZS ... I can still smell the smoke (as can Smokey Smith I bet!)
I was there that night, did my first ever (and only) ghoster, but I knocked off just before the fireworks.
Somewhere, I have a picture of Dave Ed waving BJZS off, in fact it appeared in the wonderful Redhill Avionics publication "ITK", if you recall that Dave Nuff said about that
I was there that night, did my first ever (and only) ghoster, but I knocked off just before the fireworks.
Somewhere, I have a picture of Dave Ed waving BJZS off, in fact it appeared in the wonderful Redhill Avionics publication "ITK", if you recall that Dave
Nuff said about that
In the know
"In The Know"
"In The Know" was a monthly newsletter that came about at Bristows Aberdeen base during 1988 to 1990. It was edited by an engineer, Paul Richardson on a (state of the art) Amstrad PC 1512 and printed on a dot matrix (remember them?) printer.
Paul had been in Bristows since 1977, and knew how it ticked. The first two ITK's were written at Redhill by Eoin Harcus in the early 1980's and were a light hearted (and a little 'blue') look at the goings-on in the hangar. Paul borrowed the title as it fitted in so well with the Bristow Aberdeen regime at the time.
At Aberdeen there were a number of engineers 'griping' over various things, and the highlight for Paul was when the catering firm refused to change the 'pineapples with everything' policy in the sandwich machine. This was the impetus for ITK issue 3 (the first Aberdeen ITK). It was clear that the Bristow operation at Aberdeen had a wealth of other subjects, anecdotes and inter-department bickering that could be tastefully written into a monthly newsletter. The single-sheet ITK was born again!
Careful articles were needed to include hot subjects like lack of grease guns, the introduction of 12 hour shift patterns, canteen food, the discrepancies between flying staff conditions and engineers. It was clear from the start that management were not happy about their portrayal in ITK, as it highlighted problems all too clearly, without mentioning their names. After just a few issues, stories were being relayed, anecdotes and little bits of 'info' were all fed to be included in ITK, even poems about the hangar doors being left wide open in the winter. Nobody was safe, if 'they' wouldn't listen, then ITK would tell everybody else.
ITK seemed to be filling a hole in the market. Non-engineers were asking for copies, flying staff, Redhill management, overseas staff, in fact the popularity was spreading fast. Too fast for some people. No matter that the subjects covered in ITK were 'trivia' and not concerning BHL as a whole, it seemed to raise a smile on otherwise uninformed staff. It was clear that ITK would have to stop (according to the bosses).
A few heated discussions took place between Paul and the management. Once he was blamed for the repair costs being too high on the aircraft jacks (mentioned in ITK). Nothing changed. But the final straw came when ITK pointed out one too many things and a meeting was called. It was decided that ITK had to go, after all that time the management had finally won. Paul was sure that somebody would pick up the challenge, but nobody came forward. Some operations have printed small numbers of similar newsletters, but kept the distribution on a small (safe) scale.
Keep your ear to the ground, you never know when ITK will rise again!
PR
And NO, I am not putting all the ones I have in my procession on-line!! de.
"In The Know" was a monthly newsletter that came about at Bristows Aberdeen base during 1988 to 1990. It was edited by an engineer, Paul Richardson on a (state of the art) Amstrad PC 1512 and printed on a dot matrix (remember them?) printer.
Paul had been in Bristows since 1977, and knew how it ticked. The first two ITK's were written at Redhill by Eoin Harcus in the early 1980's and were a light hearted (and a little 'blue') look at the goings-on in the hangar. Paul borrowed the title as it fitted in so well with the Bristow Aberdeen regime at the time.
At Aberdeen there were a number of engineers 'griping' over various things, and the highlight for Paul was when the catering firm refused to change the 'pineapples with everything' policy in the sandwich machine. This was the impetus for ITK issue 3 (the first Aberdeen ITK). It was clear that the Bristow operation at Aberdeen had a wealth of other subjects, anecdotes and inter-department bickering that could be tastefully written into a monthly newsletter. The single-sheet ITK was born again!
Careful articles were needed to include hot subjects like lack of grease guns, the introduction of 12 hour shift patterns, canteen food, the discrepancies between flying staff conditions and engineers. It was clear from the start that management were not happy about their portrayal in ITK, as it highlighted problems all too clearly, without mentioning their names. After just a few issues, stories were being relayed, anecdotes and little bits of 'info' were all fed to be included in ITK, even poems about the hangar doors being left wide open in the winter. Nobody was safe, if 'they' wouldn't listen, then ITK would tell everybody else.
ITK seemed to be filling a hole in the market. Non-engineers were asking for copies, flying staff, Redhill management, overseas staff, in fact the popularity was spreading fast. Too fast for some people. No matter that the subjects covered in ITK were 'trivia' and not concerning BHL as a whole, it seemed to raise a smile on otherwise uninformed staff. It was clear that ITK would have to stop (according to the bosses).
A few heated discussions took place between Paul and the management. Once he was blamed for the repair costs being too high on the aircraft jacks (mentioned in ITK). Nothing changed. But the final straw came when ITK pointed out one too many things and a meeting was called. It was decided that ITK had to go, after all that time the management had finally won. Paul was sure that somebody would pick up the challenge, but nobody came forward. Some operations have printed small numbers of similar newsletters, but kept the distribution on a small (safe) scale.
Keep your ear to the ground, you never know when ITK will rise again!
PR
And NO, I am not putting all the ones I have in my procession on-line!! de.
I can only imagine the reception ITK got with certain members of management!
It seemed more than a few could not "take" a joke....despite being one themselves!
I wish I had kept the Memo that I issued while serving as the "Acting Chief Pilot (Unpaid) and Chief Engineer (Acting and unpaid) at the Papa Charlie Operation in Iran.
John Black took great exception to the tone of my Memo wherein I called for all assigned Staff to work as one in achieving our Operational Goals and Commitments.
That I was the only person present, had an Alouette and Jet Ranger all to myself, and flew both of the machines into scheduled maintenance while waiting for the rest of the Crew to return from Bandar Abbas.....seemed to escape Black.
I guess he was still a bit sensitive to such things as when crewed we routinely re-arranged the White Washed Rocks surrounding the Wind Sock pole.....from "Papa Charlie" to things like "Here for the Beer" and " Uckers ya F@ckers"....which caused him to suffer Apoplexy and kick the rocks all over eastern Iran.
It seemed more than a few could not "take" a joke....despite being one themselves!
I wish I had kept the Memo that I issued while serving as the "Acting Chief Pilot (Unpaid) and Chief Engineer (Acting and unpaid) at the Papa Charlie Operation in Iran.
John Black took great exception to the tone of my Memo wherein I called for all assigned Staff to work as one in achieving our Operational Goals and Commitments.
That I was the only person present, had an Alouette and Jet Ranger all to myself, and flew both of the machines into scheduled maintenance while waiting for the rest of the Crew to return from Bandar Abbas.....seemed to escape Black.
I guess he was still a bit sensitive to such things as when crewed we routinely re-arranged the White Washed Rocks surrounding the Wind Sock pole.....from "Papa Charlie" to things like "Here for the Beer" and " Uckers ya F@ckers"....which caused him to suffer Apoplexy and kick the rocks all over eastern Iran.