S-76A G-BYDF
Dave B
The 4 BA ones I remember were BHYB, BZAC, BIAV, BIAW (can't remember a 5th one) and yes, they were the same fit as BIBG.
I never flew the ex Jordanian ones and I am sure you are right (knowing you as I do). The Phase II I remember were the original BHL S-76s from the early 80s.
The 4 BA ones I remember were BHYB, BZAC, BIAV, BIAW (can't remember a 5th one) and yes, they were the same fit as BIBG.
I never flew the ex Jordanian ones and I am sure you are right (knowing you as I do). The Phase II I remember were the original BHL S-76s from the early 80s.
Thread Starter
Ah ha! I was planning to head in that direction.
But for now ..
More Barclaycraft ..
S-76A++ G-BYDF departs Birmingham International Airport on 18th January 2012 for Bristol
Barclay Castle on Brecqhou Island (immediately East of Guernsey)
This is where Dave Ed visited to sort-out the Barclaycraft's weather radar.
The parapet of Barclay Castle
The guns are not merely decorative and were last fired on 17th April 2013 (in a timed salute with guns in London) in tribute to the late Baroness Thatcher on the day of her funeral. Maggs was of course a guest of Barclay Bros. at the time of her passing (albeit not on Brecqhou).
The helipad at Brecqhou
Sorry for the poor quality helipad shot. Perhaps there are some Bristow or ex-Bristow staff with photos from the islands?
But for now ..
More Barclaycraft ..
S-76A++ G-BYDF departs Birmingham International Airport on 18th January 2012 for Bristol
Barclay Castle on Brecqhou Island (immediately East of Guernsey)
This is where Dave Ed visited to sort-out the Barclaycraft's weather radar.
The parapet of Barclay Castle
The guns are not merely decorative and were last fired on 17th April 2013 (in a timed salute with guns in London) in tribute to the late Baroness Thatcher on the day of her funeral. Maggs was of course a guest of Barclay Bros. at the time of her passing (albeit not on Brecqhou).
The helipad at Brecqhou
Sorry for the poor quality helipad shot. Perhaps there are some Bristow or ex-Bristow staff with photos from the islands?
Thread Starter
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Looks like the time before the election, 25 May to 10 June 1987 when the aircraft was based in the Redhill Hangar, under armed police guard. Maggie was never seen there, the aircraft used to depart and pick her up somewhere else, I guess Battersea Heliport, but am not certain.
That was the time I showered an armed policeman in Hydraulic fluid, most embarrassing.
We got a thank you letter from her office.
That was the time I showered an armed policeman in Hydraulic fluid, most embarrassing.
We got a thank you letter from her office.
Thread Starter
Dave: Grazie mille! 
This tallies with the black and white photo I have of Maggs on the campaign trail with a Bristow 76 and which is dated 30th May 1987.
Would you happen to know the aircraft's ID?
Also .. did you keep the standard utility seating for such flights (as per your offshore configuration) or was there some other arrangement?
It should have been a great photo to capture the policeman and the incident with the hydraulic fluid!
Do you happen to know whether letters (such as the one you refer to) and other Bristow memorabilia .. have been preserved, such as in a company library?
This tallies with the black and white photo I have of Maggs on the campaign trail with a Bristow 76 and which is dated 30th May 1987.
Would you happen to know the aircraft's ID?
Also .. did you keep the standard utility seating for such flights (as per your offshore configuration) or was there some other arrangement?
It should have been a great photo to capture the policeman and the incident with the hydraulic fluid!
Do you happen to know whether letters (such as the one you refer to) and other Bristow memorabilia .. have been preserved, such as in a company library?
I'm certain that would have been GBISZ. That was the one I used to take the Old Man around with in the early eighties. We used it at Haverfordwest for a short contract in 1986 and then I took it back to Redhill.
We won't talk about a couple of Welsh ladies in the back for a weekend in the Smoke with some fellow Bristow employees.
There was no VIP fit as such. Nappy liners for the headsets was about it. We could turn the front row around to the back row therebye cutting it down to eight seats but we had to stop that because the rearward facing seats did not have whiplass protection. I lugged Lord Carrington plus hangers-on around Scotland later on and we used standard seating for that.
We won't talk about a couple of Welsh ladies in the back for a weekend in the Smoke with some fellow Bristow employees.
There was no VIP fit as such. Nappy liners for the headsets was about it. We could turn the front row around to the back row therebye cutting it down to eight seats but we had to stop that because the rearward facing seats did not have whiplass protection. I lugged Lord Carrington plus hangers-on around Scotland later on and we used standard seating for that.
Last edited by Fareastdriver; 27th Oct 2013 at 19:21.
The aircraft was not BISZ, it may have been BIEJ and the picture was taken at Battersea. MrsT was sometimes picked up at Battersea but often down at a temporary landing site in Canary Wharf area. The authorities were very worried about the IRA in 1987 so it was always in 12 seat fit with Mrs T!, Denis and security. There was one other site in Central London which was prepared but not used. It required the crew being checked out on the backwards Category A take off.
Thread Starter
S-76A G-BISZ at Redhill in April 1985 (Photo: Peter Fitzmaurice)
Haven't been able to put my finger on an 80's shot of BIEJ but .. I do note in Peter Fitzmaurice's photo (above) that 'SZ' is wearing the Bristow title above the passenger door as per Dave Ed's photo.
It seems that Alan B must have asked Dave B
to paint some additional script on the aircraft (for Dave Ed's photo shows the Bristow name appearing on the for'ard cowling as well as above the door) meaning that for operation 'Maggs Aloft' either 'SZ' or 'EJ' was wearing three sets of Bristow titles!
Thread Starter
Is there another possibility?
S-76A+ G-BHBF, Aberdeen, 23rd March 23rd 1991
I'm afraid my premise for suggesting this as a contender for 'Iron Lady 1' is pretty flimsy and rests solely on the style of the Bristow title on the for'ard cowling and which matches that of Dave Ed's photo but .. it lacks the titles above the door as well as the white 'door surround' safety stripe (they may have been removed later for various reasons).
'BF' was of course also known as 'The Spirit of Paris'.
I am certain that someone knows which craft was deployed and, as I.I. has suggested, it may well have been G-BIEJ.
S-76A+ G-BHBF, Aberdeen, 23rd March 23rd 1991
I'm afraid my premise for suggesting this as a contender for 'Iron Lady 1' is pretty flimsy and rests solely on the style of the Bristow title on the for'ard cowling and which matches that of Dave Ed's photo but .. it lacks the titles above the door as well as the white 'door surround' safety stripe (they may have been removed later for various reasons).
'BF' was of course also known as 'The Spirit of Paris'.
I am certain that someone knows which craft was deployed and, as I.I. has suggested, it may well have been G-BIEJ.
Thread Starter
That was quick!
Just received a message saying that 'BF' did have the door surround safety stripe and that despite how it appears in Dave Ed's photo, such stripes on Bristow 76's were in fact grey.
Enlarged section of BHBF showing the grey door surround safety stripe
Unfortunately, in Dave Ed's photo, Tim Collins is standing exactly where one might expect to see the 'Spirit of Paris' wording - if indeed it was BHBF.
All of this assumes of course that Alan Bristow was in fact willing to allow Margaret Thatcher to fly around Britain, at the height of her popularity, in a helicopter named 'The Spirit of Paris'!
Just received a message saying that 'BF' did have the door surround safety stripe and that despite how it appears in Dave Ed's photo, such stripes on Bristow 76's were in fact grey.
Enlarged section of BHBF showing the grey door surround safety stripe
Unfortunately, in Dave Ed's photo, Tim Collins is standing exactly where one might expect to see the 'Spirit of Paris' wording - if indeed it was BHBF.
All of this assumes of course that Alan Bristow was in fact willing to allow Margaret Thatcher to fly around Britain, at the height of her popularity, in a helicopter named 'The Spirit of Paris'!
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Yes, Mrs. Thatchers aircraft was BF, SZ was on standby, along with a 206. I don't know why that aircraft was chosen, as it was based in Aberdeen, but the guys in Aberdeen did a good job of tarting it up for the job. On its way down looking immaculate it staged through Yarmouth, where someone doing a turnround let off the floats. So Yarmouth had to spend most of the night repacking them, before it could be ready for the next day.
The Bristow sign over the door on SZ, was because all news cameramen filming people getting out, would studiously avoid the tail boom lettering. With letters over the door they could not ignore them.
I still have copies of letters from the Police deputy chief constable, and the conservative central office.
The Bristow sign over the door on SZ, was because all news cameramen filming people getting out, would studiously avoid the tail boom lettering. With letters over the door they could not ignore them.
I still have copies of letters from the Police deputy chief constable, and the conservative central office.
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Would just like to say that I've really enjoyed reading all the history/nostalgia comments from everyone on this! A thread just about one aircraft didn't seem exactly the first to dip into - but it's almost a bit of a soap now - easy interesting reading at the end of a day!
And Savoia do keep posting your fascinating historical stuff - we are privileged to be able to enjoy your enormous knowledge, and so well written!
And Savoia do keep posting your fascinating historical stuff - we are privileged to be able to enjoy your enormous knowledge, and so well written!
GBHBF was used in some London Paris air race which is why it got its name. It didn’t win but it could have done if they had talked to Sikorsky first. They would have approved it to fly at 2X100% torque which would have been close to VNE. They had done it dozens of times during certification so they were quite confident..
The first three aircraft in 1980 were GBHBF, GBHLY and GBGXY joined by GBIEJ in 1981. The aircraft hadn’t really been fully tested and we were discovering all sorts of idiosyncrasies. One was the VTA (Variable tuning attenuator). This was an hydraulic hammer that hit the aircraft in the opposite way that it wanted to shake. When it got out of sequence vibration went from moderate to severe so you had to pull the circuit breaker.
To brighten up a boring trip the Allisons had an overspeed protection device. You tested this taxiing out by pulling one engine back until the needles split and then holding down its test switch. This would cause the engine to hunt about 10% up and down proving the system worked. This used to go off in the air so you had one engine galloping up and down with the other galloping down and up trying to compensate. They would never get in sequence so the aircraft would fishtail furiously with the swings in torque. One had to lower the lever and pull the throttles to see which one had gone wrong before it threw the passengers out of the windows. Pulling it back to idle cleared it and so on you went.
Engineers will want to know the reason why the undercarriage pin holes have circles painted around them. I was bombing along just west of Sumburgh when the undercarriage lowered itself. Just like that; wheeze wheeze thump thump thump, three greens. I diverted to Sumburgh because the gear had gone down at 145 knots and its limit being 130 so I was worried about the flotation gear. Over the radio I asked Bristow to send an engineer out to put the lock pins in before I landed. I threw the pins down to him but he couldn’t find the holes. In the end I was hovering over a committee of engineers and they eventually managed to find them. After that they were painted.
We only flew single pilot in the first few years. Because the initial plan by Sikorsky to achieve a basic weight that was 50% of Maximum the aircraft were very light. Twelve passengers (at a standard weight of 175 lbs) were quite common for the Beatrice. At the same time the Tigers were being introduced and they had bigger problems than we did. There wasn’t an effective winching vehicle at Aberdeen so we became quite adept at landing on a helideck between the blades of a stranded Tiger. We were also convenient for shifting drilling tools around as well.
On one occasion I was called in at about 15.00 to take a drilling tool to the Basin. The tool arrived and it was still glowing. We could not take it like that so I had to wait until it had cooled down. Eventually it was going to be too late for me to return to Aberdeen so ops were going to arrange a night stop at Unst. It was late and dark when I left and Highland Radar and Sumburgh had both closed so I only had Scottish Information. I arrived at the platform and shut down to unload. I didn’t need fuel for Unst so off I went. Scottish Info then told me that they could not get hold of Unst. It was a gin clear night so I pressed on but I could not raise ATC or BHL Unst either. I could see the runway and the Bristow hangar lights illuminating the apron through the open doors so I set up an approach. There was then a breathless voice on the radio from ATC asking for the callsign of the aircraft on finals. Then the runway lights came on and I landed and taxied to the hangar. There was nobody around so I shut down and went inside. All the engineers were at their break in the office drinking coffee and the ripple of jaws hitting the floor was something to behold. Not being familiar with the 76 they thought the noise I was making outside was a Dash 7. Aberdeen Operations had forgotten to inform Unst. The controller involved had had an alcohol problem and after this he was employed in other duties.
An amusing one was when returning from the Trans World 58 near the Auk field. All fuelled up, in the cruise, TBMN and I noticed one of the front seat passengers looking a bit ill. I checked on him a couple of times and he was getting worse, sweating profusely with his eyes bulging. Then I realised what it was. On the 76 we had a mechanical fuel remaining indicator that was set when you first started. Theoretically one should reset it every time one refuelled but it was out of sight and out of mind. This poor chap had been looking at a mass of instruments that he did not understand except for the one which was labelled FUEL REMAINING and this was slowly ticking down to Zero. I leaned over, punched in about a 1,000 lbs, shouted, “In Flight Refuelling” and carried on.
Single pilot operations came to an end after the TW58’s refuelling system broke down. The pilot expected to refuel at the Auk but when he called them up they refused to accept him. Because of the 76 troubles at the time Shell had banned all 76s from their decks. The pilot thought he had enough fuel for Aberdeen but the headwinds got worse and he landed at Nigg lighthouse on the fumes of a few litres of fuel. It was then discovered that the client had paid for two pilots up front. Should they have had two pilots then the extra weight would have meant that it would have run out of fuel and ditched just short of Nigg. However the decision was made that two pilots would be the norm for everybody and when we had enough FOs that was it.
In April 1981 we went to LeHavre to pick up GBISZ,(me) GBTIR and GBJFL?. One of out pilots had an aversion to any food except fish suppers or pie, beans and chips. He spent all the time we were out there living on French fries and bread rolls. When we had finished rebuilding on the docks it was quite late but we found a restaurant that unstacked enough chairs and offered us Lasagne and wine. He wouldn’t eat any of this and as the cook had gone so there were no chips so he had bread rolls for dinner. During the unloading TR’s tail rotor had been nicked by something or other and Sikorsky told them to Araldite the hole and fly it.. Our worthy had picked this aircraft and he had to land it at LeHavre airport because it was so bad and so he was stuck there living on bread rolls and chips for three days whilst they fixed the tail rotor.
February 1982 found Avgas and I at Antwerp picking up GBJVX and GBJVZ, the four door one. VZ was, I believe, an ex FAA machine and it still had the blue and white finish in the door apertures. It had a small centre consol with a blanking plate where the Loran was, fuel pressure gauges, Artificial horizons and OBS instead of flight directors. Avgas and the one engineer went in VX, which had a normal fit and I followed in formation with VZ.
As we coasted down Belgium I felt like a fag. On a normal 76 I would put my cigarettes between the radio master switches and the back wall. On this one there weren’t any switches so I tucked the on a step in front of the Loran blanking plate. There was a gap I didn’t notice at the front and my lighter had disappeared down into the consol. At that time we used to carry a miniature screwdriver on a chain to undo the doghouse fasteners so I unscrewed the blanking plate and fished my lighter out from the wiring. Put the plate back on and then lit up. Whilst this was happening my maps decided to migrate from the left hand seat down to the left hand collective. I then had to go into loose formation, unstrap, sit on the consol, collect my maps and then regain control and reposition. Crossing to the UK the weather was getting worse and worse and I could not get the VHF navs to work. In the end I did a formation ILS on Avgas into Gatwick. We were in fairly thick cloud from 2,500ft down to 800 but being an ex RAF pilot I had done innumerable formation GCAs and ACR7s so to me it was a non event. Surprisingly it was to Gatwick ATC as well.
Towards the end of 1982 I picked up GBKJU from Southampton docks. We unloaded in the next bay to where the SS Canberra was being refitted after the Falklands Conflict. I was supposed to come back in formation with a S61 that had come over from Rhode Island at the same time but I get fed up of flying at 110 knots and I decided to leave him before anybody noticed that it still had its American registration painted on the underside.
My final ferry was when Redhill found out that I was the last legal 330J pilot they had in the UK. To this end I went to Redhill and ferried GBERG to Portsmouth to begin a new adventure in China.
I could have gone with it; they asked me to but I turned it down.
The worst decision I ever made.
The first three aircraft in 1980 were GBHBF, GBHLY and GBGXY joined by GBIEJ in 1981. The aircraft hadn’t really been fully tested and we were discovering all sorts of idiosyncrasies. One was the VTA (Variable tuning attenuator). This was an hydraulic hammer that hit the aircraft in the opposite way that it wanted to shake. When it got out of sequence vibration went from moderate to severe so you had to pull the circuit breaker.
To brighten up a boring trip the Allisons had an overspeed protection device. You tested this taxiing out by pulling one engine back until the needles split and then holding down its test switch. This would cause the engine to hunt about 10% up and down proving the system worked. This used to go off in the air so you had one engine galloping up and down with the other galloping down and up trying to compensate. They would never get in sequence so the aircraft would fishtail furiously with the swings in torque. One had to lower the lever and pull the throttles to see which one had gone wrong before it threw the passengers out of the windows. Pulling it back to idle cleared it and so on you went.
Engineers will want to know the reason why the undercarriage pin holes have circles painted around them. I was bombing along just west of Sumburgh when the undercarriage lowered itself. Just like that; wheeze wheeze thump thump thump, three greens. I diverted to Sumburgh because the gear had gone down at 145 knots and its limit being 130 so I was worried about the flotation gear. Over the radio I asked Bristow to send an engineer out to put the lock pins in before I landed. I threw the pins down to him but he couldn’t find the holes. In the end I was hovering over a committee of engineers and they eventually managed to find them. After that they were painted.
We only flew single pilot in the first few years. Because the initial plan by Sikorsky to achieve a basic weight that was 50% of Maximum the aircraft were very light. Twelve passengers (at a standard weight of 175 lbs) were quite common for the Beatrice. At the same time the Tigers were being introduced and they had bigger problems than we did. There wasn’t an effective winching vehicle at Aberdeen so we became quite adept at landing on a helideck between the blades of a stranded Tiger. We were also convenient for shifting drilling tools around as well.
On one occasion I was called in at about 15.00 to take a drilling tool to the Basin. The tool arrived and it was still glowing. We could not take it like that so I had to wait until it had cooled down. Eventually it was going to be too late for me to return to Aberdeen so ops were going to arrange a night stop at Unst. It was late and dark when I left and Highland Radar and Sumburgh had both closed so I only had Scottish Information. I arrived at the platform and shut down to unload. I didn’t need fuel for Unst so off I went. Scottish Info then told me that they could not get hold of Unst. It was a gin clear night so I pressed on but I could not raise ATC or BHL Unst either. I could see the runway and the Bristow hangar lights illuminating the apron through the open doors so I set up an approach. There was then a breathless voice on the radio from ATC asking for the callsign of the aircraft on finals. Then the runway lights came on and I landed and taxied to the hangar. There was nobody around so I shut down and went inside. All the engineers were at their break in the office drinking coffee and the ripple of jaws hitting the floor was something to behold. Not being familiar with the 76 they thought the noise I was making outside was a Dash 7. Aberdeen Operations had forgotten to inform Unst. The controller involved had had an alcohol problem and after this he was employed in other duties.
An amusing one was when returning from the Trans World 58 near the Auk field. All fuelled up, in the cruise, TBMN and I noticed one of the front seat passengers looking a bit ill. I checked on him a couple of times and he was getting worse, sweating profusely with his eyes bulging. Then I realised what it was. On the 76 we had a mechanical fuel remaining indicator that was set when you first started. Theoretically one should reset it every time one refuelled but it was out of sight and out of mind. This poor chap had been looking at a mass of instruments that he did not understand except for the one which was labelled FUEL REMAINING and this was slowly ticking down to Zero. I leaned over, punched in about a 1,000 lbs, shouted, “In Flight Refuelling” and carried on.
Single pilot operations came to an end after the TW58’s refuelling system broke down. The pilot expected to refuel at the Auk but when he called them up they refused to accept him. Because of the 76 troubles at the time Shell had banned all 76s from their decks. The pilot thought he had enough fuel for Aberdeen but the headwinds got worse and he landed at Nigg lighthouse on the fumes of a few litres of fuel. It was then discovered that the client had paid for two pilots up front. Should they have had two pilots then the extra weight would have meant that it would have run out of fuel and ditched just short of Nigg. However the decision was made that two pilots would be the norm for everybody and when we had enough FOs that was it.
In April 1981 we went to LeHavre to pick up GBISZ,(me) GBTIR and GBJFL?. One of out pilots had an aversion to any food except fish suppers or pie, beans and chips. He spent all the time we were out there living on French fries and bread rolls. When we had finished rebuilding on the docks it was quite late but we found a restaurant that unstacked enough chairs and offered us Lasagne and wine. He wouldn’t eat any of this and as the cook had gone so there were no chips so he had bread rolls for dinner. During the unloading TR’s tail rotor had been nicked by something or other and Sikorsky told them to Araldite the hole and fly it.. Our worthy had picked this aircraft and he had to land it at LeHavre airport because it was so bad and so he was stuck there living on bread rolls and chips for three days whilst they fixed the tail rotor.
February 1982 found Avgas and I at Antwerp picking up GBJVX and GBJVZ, the four door one. VZ was, I believe, an ex FAA machine and it still had the blue and white finish in the door apertures. It had a small centre consol with a blanking plate where the Loran was, fuel pressure gauges, Artificial horizons and OBS instead of flight directors. Avgas and the one engineer went in VX, which had a normal fit and I followed in formation with VZ.
As we coasted down Belgium I felt like a fag. On a normal 76 I would put my cigarettes between the radio master switches and the back wall. On this one there weren’t any switches so I tucked the on a step in front of the Loran blanking plate. There was a gap I didn’t notice at the front and my lighter had disappeared down into the consol. At that time we used to carry a miniature screwdriver on a chain to undo the doghouse fasteners so I unscrewed the blanking plate and fished my lighter out from the wiring. Put the plate back on and then lit up. Whilst this was happening my maps decided to migrate from the left hand seat down to the left hand collective. I then had to go into loose formation, unstrap, sit on the consol, collect my maps and then regain control and reposition. Crossing to the UK the weather was getting worse and worse and I could not get the VHF navs to work. In the end I did a formation ILS on Avgas into Gatwick. We were in fairly thick cloud from 2,500ft down to 800 but being an ex RAF pilot I had done innumerable formation GCAs and ACR7s so to me it was a non event. Surprisingly it was to Gatwick ATC as well.
Towards the end of 1982 I picked up GBKJU from Southampton docks. We unloaded in the next bay to where the SS Canberra was being refitted after the Falklands Conflict. I was supposed to come back in formation with a S61 that had come over from Rhode Island at the same time but I get fed up of flying at 110 knots and I decided to leave him before anybody noticed that it still had its American registration painted on the underside.
My final ferry was when Redhill found out that I was the last legal 330J pilot they had in the UK. To this end I went to Redhill and ferried GBERG to Portsmouth to begin a new adventure in China.
I could have gone with it; they asked me to but I turned it down.
The worst decision I ever made.
Last edited by Fareastdriver; 29th Oct 2013 at 13:47.
FED
I think the registrations were G BJVZ and BJVX? VZ became the first Great Yarmouth S-76 in 1984. I was moved to GY to fly it, single pilot for a variety of clients, Britoil, Hamilton Bros to the Bar Protector on the Esmond field and lots of Ad hoc flights for Amoco when a 212 went unserviceable.
Even then VZ still had 4 car type doors and fuel pressure gauges, a slightly standardised center console, TANS but King radios and no Flight Director. But it was light and fast and always my favourite, except for SZ which was always tight as it had few hours having languished in Redhill not doing much.
BJVX was the next permanent Great Yarmouth S-76 after we won a contract with Conoco to the Viking field. BISZ used to make an appearance from Redhill when either VZ or VX were unserviceable, I had many drives to Redhill to collect it.
The thing was BISZ had no Area Nav (TANS) so single pilot offshore could be a challenge NDB hopping and DR nav. In those days, VFR did not require an area navigation system according to the Ops Manual if you could use "other means". The ND NDB and radar worked fine for short range.
I well remember a day when we got a call from British Airways looking for an as hoc S-76 for the a day's flying. All of their 3 S-76s at Beccles were unserviceable because an avionics engineer had removed the cannon plug at the back of all of their Decca TANS units for a check, and systematically damaged all the plugs.
We were glad of the Ad hoc rates so dispatched SZ to Beccles to collect the BA passengers. The look on their faces when the BA pilots saw that we didn't even have a TANS fitted was a picture! Happy days, North Denes in the mid 80s flying the S-76 single pilot and the S-61 for Shell when the S-61 needed an extra crew.
I think the registrations were G BJVZ and BJVX? VZ became the first Great Yarmouth S-76 in 1984. I was moved to GY to fly it, single pilot for a variety of clients, Britoil, Hamilton Bros to the Bar Protector on the Esmond field and lots of Ad hoc flights for Amoco when a 212 went unserviceable.
Even then VZ still had 4 car type doors and fuel pressure gauges, a slightly standardised center console, TANS but King radios and no Flight Director. But it was light and fast and always my favourite, except for SZ which was always tight as it had few hours having languished in Redhill not doing much.
BJVX was the next permanent Great Yarmouth S-76 after we won a contract with Conoco to the Viking field. BISZ used to make an appearance from Redhill when either VZ or VX were unserviceable, I had many drives to Redhill to collect it.
The thing was BISZ had no Area Nav (TANS) so single pilot offshore could be a challenge NDB hopping and DR nav. In those days, VFR did not require an area navigation system according to the Ops Manual if you could use "other means". The ND NDB and radar worked fine for short range.
I well remember a day when we got a call from British Airways looking for an as hoc S-76 for the a day's flying. All of their 3 S-76s at Beccles were unserviceable because an avionics engineer had removed the cannon plug at the back of all of their Decca TANS units for a check, and systematically damaged all the plugs.
We were glad of the Ad hoc rates so dispatched SZ to Beccles to collect the BA passengers. The look on their faces when the BA pilots saw that we didn't even have a TANS fitted was a picture! Happy days, North Denes in the mid 80s flying the S-76 single pilot and the S-61 for Shell when the S-61 needed an extra crew.
Last edited by industry insider; 29th Oct 2013 at 13:31.
I think the registrations were G BJVZ and BJVX?
March 1981 and North Denes had two out of their three Wessai unserviceable so down I went with a S76 to help them out. I arrived in the afternoon and after the hotel had been fixed up I got the briefing for the evening shuttle. I was taking one of the unit's cabin attendants with me so I had to fill him in with emergencies, doors and luggage bay etc. My briefing from the chief pilot consisted of an A4 sheet of paper with the route from North Denes to Leman and Indie with a side route for Bacton. The platform positions in their nav folder was in Decca co-ordinates so I had to find out the lats & longs for the TANS. There appeared to be one main platform for each field so I put those in; traffic gave us the route and off we went.
The weather was lousy; low cloud, poor vis and getting dark. I picked up the first platform on the Leman and as I approached it the CA beside me confirmed that it was the right one. I landed on and thought I was on a ship. It had what looked like wooden decking and rails like Brighton Pier. Not to worry; off we went for the next place.
This was more difficult as there were so many platforms close together. For the Wessex it was easy. Once they had landed on the first one they just reset the Decca pen and it would guide them everywhere but you could not do that with TANS. Not having a positive position for the next one I decided to circle the field, establish the destination on radar and go at it that way. I had to do this because the weather was really too bad to continue but the Wessex was still steaming around so I could not throw it in with my super-dupa modern helicopter.
I got outside the field and got a good picture that matched the sheet of A4 I was holding. There were a couple of trawlers floating around and one of them was just off track as I drove towards my next destination. Allofasudden out of the gloom came this massive chunk of steelware with SHELL LEMAN written all over it. This was one of the Shell platforms that they hadn't bothered to tell me about or mark on the map.
Just at that point the Wessex announced that he was chucking it in and so did I. I should have climbed and come back for an NDB at North Denes as was explained on this sheet of A4 but I had had enough of North Denes briefings. 300ft because the Wessex was at 500. Undertook him, comfirmed the track with a light ship. The CA guided me pointing out the lifeboat station, along the coast until the ADF needle went across, right turn and over the dog track to the runway.
I was not happy and I had a fifteen minutes jump up and down. The next morning the CP apologised and they spent a day doing a proper situation map in case it happened again.
The next time I went down it was because of Ben Breach's crash. They could not recover the aircraft because of shifting sands so they did not know whether he was still in it. On the basis that he may have never be found I flew a party consisting of his wife, priest etc to lay a wreath at the site.
The next day he was found in the nets of a trawler.
The Wessex was grounded after that so we had regular detachments to Yarmouth until they got their 212s organised. On amusing episode was that the 76 was so fast in relation to the Wessex that some of the day trippers would get home half an hour or so earlier than usual.
One of them did; to find his wife and the neighbour weren't expecting him.
Last edited by Fareastdriver; 29th Oct 2013 at 14:39.
Didn't the Spirit of Paris refer to the London Paris London speed record set up between Battersea and Issy in 1981? I recall being at Battersea for this and still have a large sticker duplicating the one on the S76.
The record didn't last long.....Aerospatiale beat it with a Dauphin within weeks!
That Dauphin is now in the Helicopter Museum but efforts to persuade Bristow or Sikorsky to give up a timex S -76a have so failed.
The record didn't last long.....Aerospatiale beat it with a Dauphin within weeks!
That Dauphin is now in the Helicopter Museum but efforts to persuade Bristow or Sikorsky to give up a timex S -76a have so failed.
Thread Starter
Dave B: Great stuff. Thanks for sorting that out!
NMH: To fulfil your request we may need to 'recruit' the support of someone with contacts at Fairoaks to see whether it is possible and permissible .. for someone to take an interior shot of the Barclaycraft while she's in for maintenance at GAMA. My experience of S76 VIP interiors is that they vary widely .. with the majority that I've seen not being that spectacular. Some of the latest offerings (within the past five years or so) are among the best I've seen however.
A member of the Rotorheads community (who used to fly the Barclaycraft) PM'd me explaining that those tasked to fly (and maintain) the Barclaycraft are required to sign confidentiality agreements (pretty standard) and which is one reason for a lack of additional photos.
Rotorspeed: Do not be fooled by my 'dabblings' in rotary-wing history, for much of it is done 'on the hoof'! But thank you for your encouragement.
I'm glad to be able to share my hobby (helicopter history) among those with similar interests.
I agree that the thread responses have been enjoyable - I have been especially pleased by contributions from Dave B, Dave Ed, Fareastdriver, Industry Insider, OvertHawk, Plank Cap and ShyTorque.
It was also great to discover that Dave B and Industry Insider had a hand in helping out with Helitalia!
Have a little bit of Brecqhou history to share on the next page and, as mentioned earlier, I would like to touch on the BA 76's .. plus the odd additional 'A' model. So, with a bit of help .. we may be able to squeeze another couple of pages out of the thread. We shall see.
FED: Wow! What brilliant, enjoyable and amusing posts .. tremendous!
I'm going to come back to you with some questions but .. for now:
Dear God .. I should like to have seen one of those in operation. As a contraption it sounds utterly intriguing! 
A glance back to Tuesday 8th January 1980 when one of Bristow's S76's broke the London-Paris speed record which, surprisingly, had until then been held by 'Sox' Hosegood flying a Bristol Belvedere!
Hosegood's best time was 1hr 40mins in the Type 192 whereas Le Grys managed a best time of 1hr 11mins.
Flight International 19th January 1980
BHBF's Crew: Frederick Le Grys, John Allerton, Douglas West
Observers: Capt Eric Brown & Carolyn Evans
Courier: Michael Fopp
S76A G-BHBF (still wearing her 'Spirit of Paris' name) at Aberdeen's Dyce on 13th July 1983 some three and a half years after her record-breaking flight (Photo: Don Hewins)
NMH: To fulfil your request we may need to 'recruit' the support of someone with contacts at Fairoaks to see whether it is possible and permissible .. for someone to take an interior shot of the Barclaycraft while she's in for maintenance at GAMA. My experience of S76 VIP interiors is that they vary widely .. with the majority that I've seen not being that spectacular. Some of the latest offerings (within the past five years or so) are among the best I've seen however.
A member of the Rotorheads community (who used to fly the Barclaycraft) PM'd me explaining that those tasked to fly (and maintain) the Barclaycraft are required to sign confidentiality agreements (pretty standard) and which is one reason for a lack of additional photos.
Rotorspeed: Do not be fooled by my 'dabblings' in rotary-wing history, for much of it is done 'on the hoof'! But thank you for your encouragement.
I'm glad to be able to share my hobby (helicopter history) among those with similar interests.I agree that the thread responses have been enjoyable - I have been especially pleased by contributions from Dave B, Dave Ed, Fareastdriver, Industry Insider, OvertHawk, Plank Cap and ShyTorque.
It was also great to discover that Dave B and Industry Insider had a hand in helping out with Helitalia!
Have a little bit of Brecqhou history to share on the next page and, as mentioned earlier, I would like to touch on the BA 76's .. plus the odd additional 'A' model. So, with a bit of help .. we may be able to squeeze another couple of pages out of the thread. We shall see.
FED: Wow! What brilliant, enjoyable and amusing posts .. tremendous!
I'm going to come back to you with some questions but .. for now:
A glance back to Tuesday 8th January 1980 when one of Bristow's S76's broke the London-Paris speed record which, surprisingly, had until then been held by 'Sox' Hosegood flying a Bristol Belvedere!
Hosegood's best time was 1hr 40mins in the Type 192 whereas Le Grys managed a best time of 1hr 11mins.
Flight International 19th January 1980
BHBF's Crew: Frederick Le Grys, John Allerton, Douglas West
Observers: Capt Eric Brown & Carolyn Evans
Courier: Michael Fopp
S76A G-BHBF (still wearing her 'Spirit of Paris' name) at Aberdeen's Dyce on 13th July 1983 some three and a half years after her record-breaking flight (Photo: Don Hewins)
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Just to get back to the election job for Mrs "T", we used to clean the aircraft inside and out every morning, and then the Police would come along and put a bomb sniffer dog in the back. This was a long haired Labrador that used to jump all over the seats, and leave hairs everywhere, so we then had to set to with the vacuum cleaner again.
Another guard dog they brought in was a huge German Shepard with bloodshot eyes, it used to sit in the hangar and defy anyone to go near the aircraft, the police told us that at one time this dog was chasing a burglar, when the burglar ran around and hid behind a stud partition wall, the dog did not bother to go around the wall, but bashed its way straight through it.
Another guard dog they brought in was a huge German Shepard with bloodshot eyes, it used to sit in the hangar and defy anyone to go near the aircraft, the police told us that at one time this dog was chasing a burglar, when the burglar ran around and hid behind a stud partition wall, the dog did not bother to go around the wall, but bashed its way straight through it.