Savoia

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TRC: According to your own recollections you drove my godfather on the back of a motorcycle from Battersea to the Waldorf at a time when he was unable to secure any other means of transportation!

Let's call it my appreciation for getting him there in one piece.

S.

vfr440

TRC
Yes he did. In fact, though a little fuzzy, I believe he initially went to Scotland with the intention of running a rabbit farm? If I am wrong someone please correct the addled brain cells. But then did some occasional contracting work. I shall see PB next week and HE will know. Will report back.

I saw him from time to time whilst travelling about but am fairly sure he went to the big bar in the sky - where he has joined old mutual friends in racking up my bar bill, (and I'm pleased to settle it when the time comes!!) _ VFR

TRC

That's true, but when I offered it was very tongue in cheek.

Chris, in that case it is the person I thought it was, and I can confirm that he is sitting on a stool in that bar. Lovely bloke.

estepo

Savoia

I can't give you the name of the pilot killed in G-BAKS, but as I recall, it was a guy who initially did his PPL with Bruce Holben at Blades (as I did) and then went on to do his CPL.

It's been interesting watching this thread - the way I got into helicopters in the first place was that I used to charter Geoff Cox in his Jet Ranger back in the early '80's, who used to fly me, along with clients in an out of Battersea to our family home in Surrey. I used to drive to Brooklands to meet him to get a few extra minutes flying time out of the charters.

The Jet Ranger he used (I'm afraid I can't remember the registration) was later sold to a man in Greece, and he and I flew it out there. He retired thereafter.

Savoia

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Estepo: Ciao!

On page 10 Charlie Hughesdon (owner of Tradewinds Airlines) was discussed. At that time I enquired about his pilot who I had met several times at Brooklands. On page 12 TRC confirmed that Hughesdon's pilot was Geoff Cox. I recall him being slightly tall, slim, greying and extremely polite. I was only a young lad in those days but he always took time to indulge my inquisitiveness. A true gent!

I don't know the full extent of Hughesdon's rotary fleet but a couple of pages back on page 22 Helipixman posted an image of G-BAKU (one of Peter Cadbury's 206's) and, barely visible in the hangar behind it, was G-AXGO. Hughesdon bought AXGO in October of 1975 but the craft crashed and was written-off three years later in April of '78. Brief details of the accident appear in post #433 of page 22.

Hughesdon then bought G-BTWA a Bell 206B which had been owned by Baron Heinrich von Furstenberg in Germany. Hughesdon took delivery of TWA in October '78 and, intriguingly, kept her in Furstenburg's old colours even retaining his Baronial crest which appeared on the craft's tail.

As you say, the craft was sold to Greece in June 1985. Please tell me that you took some photos of the delivery flight!

In the accident report for G-BAKS the following is mentioned in relation to the pilot:




Charles Hughesdon's second Bell 206, G-BTWA arriving at Battersea and doubtless being flown by the venerable Geoff Cox and perhaps being chartered by Estepo!

S.

NJT

CHOC arrived at Fairoaks as D-HMAC from Germany. I’m not certain but I think Nigel Thornton collected it. To my recollection we (engineering) had not carried out any inspection prior to purchase. The UK mods and C of A was carried out by us under the watchful eye of Jack Clifton our CAA surveyor. I am a little hazy on this (help TRC) but I think we had to open up the main Transmission for a visual inspection. One of the spider bearings was all stripey, so we sent it all off to JGS at Heliwork for repair. A nice surprise for Mr Cadbury.
I do remember being very envious of a beautiful barrel roller spider bearing and gear ( with zebra rollers) which Roy Matthews acquired as the most expensive paperweight in Kent.

G-BBEU was the 206 I was thinking of, it was owned by The Lord Glendyne, or so the steel ID plaque said. The Jig repair was carried out before my time but I have a horrid feeling that someone in their wisdom decided that Cherry rivets were stronger than the original solids and would be ok. The whole repair was repeated when the CAA /Bell decided that Cherry rivets had to come out ! Then again that may have been Tony Walkers first machine? reg ?? Tom?

I noticed last year that Donald McQueen has passed away. I had no Idea he was such a celebrity :- Lieutenant-Commander Donald Macqueen - Telegraph

estepo

Savoia


Thanks for the reply! To my horror, and shame, I don't think I do have any photos of our flight to Greece. I remember clearly though, that when we got there, the new owner was there to meet us, and wanted Geoff to take him on a brief flight to welcome the machine.

Geoff would have none of it, saying that the machine's insurance was valid for the ferry flight only, which left the new owner slightly bemused......... He probably jumped in it anyway as soon as we'd left.

I remember a few photos of TWA outside our house - mostly because I was about 20kgs heavier than I am now (too many business lunches), and I always seemed to look like I should have just rolled rather than climbed out of the helicopter. The photo of TWA landing at Battersea is 90%+ one of our charters because I'm pretty sure I recognize the person in the back from the Rank Organization.

I used to suffer incredible guilt trips by never seeming to offer clients a trip in the front - I just couldn't bring myself to do it. They were clients after all, but my interest, generated, and encouraged by Geoff Cox meant that I've now enjoyed 25 years of rotary flying - I now own G-LEDR, a Gazelle which is usually here with me in southern Spain.

Happy days!

Savoia

And of which I posted an image on the Gazelle Thread 11 days ago!

If you happen upon any photo's of TWA (when you were heavier) please do post them and, if you were down Surrey way you might have been not far from TWA's owner, Charles Hughesdon who lived in Ripley.

Also in Ripley was an outfit call Ben Turner Helicopters about which I am keen to discover more information.

Happy flying.

S.

Savoia

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NJT: Thanks for the clarification on CHOC's ancestry. Can you also confirm that you painted over HMAC's 'red bits' or whether she was stripped down and repainted?

I mentioned Ben Turner Helicopters in the previous post and G-BBEU (a Bell) was delivered to Ben Turner Helicopters in August '73. From BTH she moved on to Heli-Air then Alan Mann. In January '78 she was bought from Mann's by International Messengers, a courier company founded by Andrew Walters, a close friend to my godfather Col. Bob.

Andrew had in fact approached Bob requesting whether Ferranti could supply a good quality used 206 but, since this request came in '77, the year Ferranti lost G-AVSN at Biggin Hill, there wasn't much they could do. SN had swiftly been replaced by the veritable G-BAKT which Ferranti was unwilling to sell as their fleet was fully committed at that time.

Bob did however manage to persuade Andrew to purchase a new Agusta-built 206 and shortly thereafter Ferranti placed this order with Mann's. The new aircraft was delivered in November '78 as G-OIML and was, to the best of my knowledge, the first Agusta-built JetRanger III in the UK. She was owned by International Messengers but operated by Ferranti. Unusually for a managed aircraft, IML wore Ferranti's livery complete with the Royal Mail cypher.

Back to BBEU; IM sold her to Hanson in July '81 whereafter she was exported to Uganda (via Autair) in June of the following year to become 5X-MIA. There she flew for the Uganda Police Air Wing until, as with every rotorcraft they have operated, she crashed during operational flying.

But .. I am at a loss to understand EU's BCal livery as she was never actually registered to BCal. One can only suppose that while owned by Hanson she was perhaps leased to BCal. Similarly NJT's recollection of her being owned by the Lord Glendyne - perhaps that was during her time with Mann's. Can anyone elaborate?

Any finally, what happened that necessitated her roof being changed?


BBEU at Brooklands (I think). (Photo: Graeme Lovell)


BBEU at Brooklands wearing the BCalH livery. (Photo courtesy of Speechless Two)

BBEU was of course one of a pair bought by Ben Turner, her sister ship being BBET (below) but that is another story!


Bell 206B G-BBET seen at Greenham Common on 6th July 1974. (Photo: Peter Nicholson)

S.

DennisK

S ... as you know, Ben Turner was based alongside the old wharf north of Ripley village. Don Donelly was one of the principals. I landed there in the early 1970s to demonstrate the new Enstrom to Don. I seem to remember he was a New Zealander or at least had the accent. In fact an ex-girlfriend, one Sylvia ... worked as their receptionist for a year and I used to drop her off for work most mornings. I'll go through my logs and see if I can come up with some reg numbers of the time.

I also landed in the back garden of the local Ripley manor house but can't recall the names involved. I do recall playing cricket for the Ripley Village team when I couldn't concentrate on the ball due to the noise of the Helicopter party over the brick boundary wall! The Hon CF Hughesden I understand. Happy days once again.

Dennis K.

Oldlae

Nigel Thorton

I was with Nigel in Abu Dhabi 1972-73, I heard that he had an accident but I do not have the details, does anyone have the story?

TRC

G-BBEU

The roof was changed due to suspected honeycombe delamination as per the Bell rep. It was decided to build a jig at Fairoaks rather than send the fuselage to Sweden (I think). During the 6 months or so that it took to sort the jig out, EU sat in the corner getting steadily smaller as the duty ‘Christmas Tree’.
We cut various bit out of the old roof after it was replaced but it seemed sound – oh well.

Tony Walker

He owned two 206’s consecutively – the second one was G-BTWW - can’t remember the reg of the first, and I think it was WW that needed the jig after a rather abrupt arrival into a ploughed field in S. Yorks.

Which roof job had the wrong rivets installed is beyond my capacity to remember, there were a lot of 206’s through that jig over the years, including a Ferranti machine.

Nigel Thornton

Nigel was killed when the Alouette II that he was flying hit wires in Yugoslavia while working on the film ‘High Road to China’ in 1982. Also aboard were a fixed wing pilot and the helicopter engineer, Andy Anderson, who had replaced me only the day before.

G-BAKS

The name Stephenson keeps ringing a nagging bell on this one.

vfr440

TRC
Wasn't G-SPEY 'lost at sea'? I seem to recall an engine failure en-route to the Channel Isles, ditched (no injuries, fortunately) and then sank. This was post our sale to Castle Air, I think.

NJT
I remember with great affection CAA's Jack Clifton; super chap. At my interview he told me that he was going to go for an OU degree in History upon retirement. I hope he succeeded; if he's still with us he'll be an 'elder' of the tribe; if he's not, then he'll be imbibing the odd glass of red wine upon my (huge) bar tab up there. Cheers Jack!

As an anecdotal tribute, just so everyone knows, Jack was the CAA liason officer with the development of Concorde. Had all the French team going with the response "Mustn't grumble" to the frequent "Comment ca va?" Completely confused!! He also endeared himself (to us, if not the French partners) by listening to a presentation by the Chief designer which everyone applauded. When asked what he thought of it he announced, loudly "Never heard such a load of bollox"............ This got him an interview at (then) Brabazon House, and the appointment as Surveyor-in-Charge at Weybridge.... !

Of such memories is the chequer-board of life fabricated. ~ VFR

Ahh de Havilland

G-SPEY wasn't the Castle Air B206 "Lost at Sea", she's still going strong still with Castle Air. She's joined the company in 1982, was sold in 2004 only to bought back in 2008

It was the actual star of 'Treasure Hunt' G-BHXU that ditched off Alderney on 29.6.95 piloted by Michael Malric-Smith, en-route Liskeard-Deauville. The engine gear box packed & engine stopped 17 miles from Alderney at 1000ft. Michael carried out engine off landing & ditched in sea - aircraft rolled over and started to sink in about one second. Escaped under water using short term air supply system (STASS) (first time used by civilian crew in anger). 2 crew Picked up by Navy about 45 mins later and flown to Guernsey, then back to base with Keith in G-TELY. Rigged the spare (G-SPEY) left at dawn the next day to France and completed job on time. G-BHXU sank & was not recovered.

Speaking of Green & Gold helicopters... my first experience of the B206 was in the green and gold G-BALC of Pork Farms - almost exactly the same colours as one of their Pork Pies. We were treated to a low level flight across flooded fields around Gloucester after completing a compass swing at Staverton one Saturday morning in 1977.

I don't suppose any one has any photographs of G-BALC in her Pork Farm livery?

Zishelix

Few pics of G-FILM taken day before the accident:
High Road to China_0002 pictures from college photos on webshots

There are still bunch of pieces at the Grobnik airfield (near Rijeka, Croatia) hangar...

Ahh de Havilland

Ben Turner was a firm of agricultural engineers and tractor distributors, however when I googled them an interesting report from 1972 came up:

"Ben Turner & Son (Helicopters) is 45 per cent owned and last year was appointed sole UK distributor for “Agusta” one of Europe’s largest helicopter manufacturers. Earlier last year Lieut-Col Robert Smith, managing director of Ferranti Helicopters was appointed a non-executive director of Ben Turner (Helicopters)."

Quite interesting in the context of this thread.

I didn't know BT had been the Agusta distributor. I thought it had always been Alan Mann. Wonder who the other owners of BT were?

Finally the account mentions that the Chairman and MD of the parent company was John Wakeham - wasn't he later a minister in one of the Thatcher governments? But more interesting, didn't he also own helicopters via a company called Patgrove? I seem to recall a JetRanger & a Hughes 500 in the seventies followed later by B206 G-BKCM in the '80s.

Perhaps another of Dennis Kenyon's customers?

Savoia

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De Havilland: Col. Bob spoke to me about a 206 emblazoned with the wording 'Pork Farm Sausages' so I am also keen to discover an image of BALC so painted!

Well there you go, something else I didn't know about him!

Further details relating to Ben Turner Helicopters would be keenly appreciated.

There is a back story involving Ferranti and Agusta and which would not have pleased old man Mann. Negotiations between the two were being conducted in the mid-70's and included elaborate plans for a new distributorship facility but .. the details of that story will be brought out in the Ferranti site.

VFR: SPEY was involved in an incident, although not a ditching:

wiganairways

a couple of shots of Castle Air's BHXU / SPEY and one from the Jersey local paper 1986 in action filming an episode from the Island, and BHXU crashed near Alderney, the northern most Channel Island.

TRC

Pork Farms helicopter operation was known to us as 'Pork Choppers'.

griffothefog

Back in the late 80's while flying G-BAKT for Gleneagles, I had the pleasure of following Annekas bottom as it ran out of the Castle air 206 and up to the control tower at Carlisle airfield. It was even better in the flesh than it looked on tv..