S-76A 1st flight...

[212man]

Yes, KR was really smooth and tight.

[HeliSteveNZ]

Hello Mr. Smith,
Yes, your old machine is still flying for us at Northland Emergency Services Trust and clocked 10,000 hrs in January. She is going strong however will be decommissioned for good sometime this year once our new C++ models are up and running.

Steve

[Dick Smith]

Great to hear this. Will you take it too the dump when it expires or will put it in museum ?

[Democritus]

A similar photo to hico-p's post #17. Newly out of the West Palm Beach factory - summer 1980. A pleasant step up from a Bo105!

[Dave B]

G-BIBG was inherited by BHL when Caledonian closed down. We always had a problem with CofAs , as one particular surveyor objected to the overhead switch panels, which he said were a crash hazard. (they were).
It had to be respectfully pointed out, that they were an approved mod., that altering them would involve rewiring the whole cockpit, and BA had four aircraft like that anyway.
G-BIBG was different to all the other Bristow fleet, including the ex. Jordanian.

[HeliSteveNZ]

Good question. I do not know what plans the boss has for it.

[Plank Cap]

S76 - flogging over the oggin

Flew 5000 hours of S76 time in various corners of the planet, various models. Lovely aircraft, the earlier A models usually the nicest handling, though when the French motors arrived reliability increased hugely. Being 280nm offshore with the old Allison C30s working balls out was always enough to concentrate the mind somewhat.....

[heli61]

Still to this day, in my opinion, arguably the most beautiful helicopter ever built

[megan]

the French motors arrived reliability increased hugely

5,300 in the A, 5,800 in the C. We didn't get much life out of the C30, but they were reliable, engines were blue printed on overhaul. Turbomeca on the other hand gave us four hand grenade events which were not operator induced. Following one investigation the comment was made that the engine didn't meet certification requirements, something to do with oil lines, since that particular failure resulted in an oil fed fire. Absolutely loved the aircraft, but the original A was a pain in the butt with the puny pilot ventilation being just a one inch or so gasper directed to the top of ones scalp. Engineers fixed that with a BIG gasper mounted on the edge of the instrument panel. Bliss.

[JohnDixson]

Ah, Megan, the A model ventilation memories: the three prototypes had zero: no vents, no fans, no sliding window-nuttin’. That first spring/summer of 1977 in South Florida was just wonderful. Then early the next year we went to Inuvik for the cold weather test and well, you can guess the rest.