Alan Mann Helicopters (Nostalgia thread)
I think the Plessey report is this one from the AAIB archives.
And the Bell 47 breakup, is it this one, also from the archives ?
And the Bell 47 breakup, is it this one, also from the archives ?
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Nr Fairy - that 47 report is the accident I was after! I didn't realise the AAIB reports went back that far. Just cannot place the pilot's name - quite a tall thin guy.
Thread Starter
At that point in British executive/corporate rotary aviation there had been remarkably few dramatic fatalities of this nature (probably the closest incident was three years earlier when G-AXAY (on contract to Plessey) came apart above Inkpen Hill near Hungerford).
The Plessey contract seems to have done the rounds with Bristow using a 206 for some time then, one assumes Mann had it for a while. Ferranti also served this contract (for about two years if I remember correctly).
Sadly I have never been able to obtain a clear shot of AXAY .. indeed the best I can do is her yellow tailpiece (below) behind another 206:
G-AXAY (behind another 206) in July 1973
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Casulaties
We had a particularly bad spell in the late 70s early 80s with too many casualties in the charter fleet. Nigel Thornton, and John Ackroyd-Hunt were followed by Tim Ridgeway (once our superb ops officer) in a fixed wing accident, then the loss of Colin Bates and Spotty Mulhern heaped tragedy upon the sadness.
G.
G.
Thread Starter
VFR wrote: .. would 'rotor oscillation = mast 'bumping' ..
Geoffers, some great guys there. John Ackyroyd-Hunt along with PPRuNe's own TRC arrived in a ploughed field in Norfolk to rescue the Colonel and I after an engine failure in Colin Chapman's 206. He was flying with large green 'Wellies' and which I thought was hilarious at the time.
Flew several times with Colin (including in Hanson's 76) but most memorably in ex-Ferranti 206 G-AZZB when he gave me the same base check he had just performed on my godfather. So (apparently) impressed he was that he offered to buy me a drink at the local on the way home - despite the fact that I was under age at the time lol!
Spotty was of course ex-Ferranti and, to bring the story full-circle I must pay tribute to the late Hugh Lovett who perished in Ferranti's G-AVSN at the 1977 Biggin Hill Airshow and which incident I was referring to in my quote from post #183 above when I also mentioned G-AXAY.
The late Hugh Lovett (RIP)
Commissioned into the Queen's Own Hussars in 1964 from Sandhurst, passed through the Army pilot's course in 1967 and flew with the Queen's Own Hussars Air Squadron on active service in Aden and in the Trucial Oman States. Attended the QHI course in 1969 and instructed at the School of Army Aviation, Middle Wallop, until 1971. Joined Ferranti Helicopters in 1975.
Geoffers, back to Mann's. Greece - was the work there purely private assignments for Papadakis?
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....an in-flight breakup of a Bell 47 which resulted in the death of an ex-RN QHI....
who remembers this one?
was this the Professionals or the Avengers? (1978)
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SAV
Greece - My trip to Greece in 1982 was the beginning of Niki's commercial enterprise and involved the Athens Aviation Services and their embryonic heliport experiment.
During my time there I was asked to do many strange tasks including the resupply of a family yacht when the fridge broke down, visit one of the Papadakis line ships at anchor with dozens of others to the North of Athens, deliver candidates to election rallies, visit the family 'home' island of Kasos east of Crete. Many 'social' flights involved island hopping whilst the yacht 'Little Cayman' followed on. Niki wasn't a great sailor but enjoyed life on board. I remember once flying some supplies out to a rendezvous in a small rocky bay and parking TPTR on a small ledge. It was a hot summer day and I was feeling the heat so Niki offered me a pair of swimming trunks from his visitor's store and I had a delicious cooling dip that was so gorgeous that I felt it made being a helicopter pilot the best job in the world. A shower and reality beckoned. It was a magic summer - a journey that took in Le Touquet, Lausanne, Genoa, Pescara, Bari, Corfu, Zakintos, Athens plus many islands visits and fishing trips. Niki treated me like a brother much to the annoyance of his female companion and he was a kind and thoughtful employer.
Another chapter of the memoirs maybe? One day I will find the time to write them.
G.
During my time there I was asked to do many strange tasks including the resupply of a family yacht when the fridge broke down, visit one of the Papadakis line ships at anchor with dozens of others to the North of Athens, deliver candidates to election rallies, visit the family 'home' island of Kasos east of Crete. Many 'social' flights involved island hopping whilst the yacht 'Little Cayman' followed on. Niki wasn't a great sailor but enjoyed life on board. I remember once flying some supplies out to a rendezvous in a small rocky bay and parking TPTR on a small ledge. It was a hot summer day and I was feeling the heat so Niki offered me a pair of swimming trunks from his visitor's store and I had a delicious cooling dip that was so gorgeous that I felt it made being a helicopter pilot the best job in the world. A shower and reality beckoned. It was a magic summer - a journey that took in Le Touquet, Lausanne, Genoa, Pescara, Bari, Corfu, Zakintos, Athens plus many islands visits and fishing trips. Niki treated me like a brother much to the annoyance of his female companion and he was a kind and thoughtful employer.
Another chapter of the memoirs maybe? One day I will find the time to write them.
G.
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To all ex AMers
This is a super picture of Peter Faulkes at his best!! A truly lovely chap and a good friend of mine in the FAA. Such a sad loss.
Some of you may remember the others in the picture!
D
This is a super picture of Peter Faulkes at his best!! A truly lovely chap and a good friend of mine in the FAA. Such a sad loss.
Some of you may remember the others in the picture!
D
Thread Starter
Bast0n: Great to see the Wessexmeister on the Mann thread! 
Please, for the benefit of non-FAA'ers, could you do a 'left to right' of the characters in your photo!
Grazie mille.
Sav
Please, for the benefit of non-FAA'ers, could you do a 'left to right' of the characters in your photo!
Grazie mille.
Sav
Thread Starter
Yes, extreme starboard I had already guessed as the 'handsome Wessex driver', lol!
Mike Smith as in Mike Smith who flew with Air Gregory and ended-up sporting a goatie most of his life? If so then my, he was young there!
Mike Smith as in Mike Smith who flew with Air Gregory and ended-up sporting a goatie most of his life? If so then my, he was young there!
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Older.....but more gracious?!
S
Yes, we were all young (and I cringe sometimes looking at old photos
) but. like good wine, including Vino Nobile of which we have spoken previously, we mature/ MUCH better deal all round 
. And we are more tolerant of the excesses of enthusiasm that we witness amongst our younger 'brethren'.
Well I try to be, anyway
- VFR
Yes, we were all young (and I cringe sometimes looking at old photos
) but. like good wine, including Vino Nobile of which we have spoken previously, we mature/ MUCH better deal all round . And we are more tolerant of the excesses of enthusiasm that we witness amongst our younger 'brethren'.Well I try to be, anyway
- VFR
Thread Starter
Bast0n failed to include the following disclaimer in his photo above:
"Any resemblance between the chap behind me and the Tintin character Capt. Haddock is purely coincidental."
"Any resemblance between the chap behind me and the Tintin character Capt. Haddock is purely coincidental."