Iran Re-visited
 

Iran re-visited 2

Continuing with Nigel Elliot's Iran pics.

Seismic 4 base camp.
Could you get a beer?????

I guess the pilot's lived in the air-conned trailers and the engineers in the tents, having to collect their own firewood ;)

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Low flying................

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Chasing Wild Boar...............

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A visiting Schreiner Allouette...........

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Iran Iraq border post. Iran on the left. Iraq on the right.

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Great anecdote Hico-p.

Don't remember seeing it before. Only had four ferry flight on the site. Is this one of yours?

FERRY FLIGHT - Wessex 60.
UK TO AUSTRALIA.
8th - 29th June, 1969.

Pilots: Mr A.English and Mr. I.A.E. Clark

http://i967.photobucket.com/albums/a...wessexawxx.jpg

On the 7th June, 1969 Wessex 60, G-AWXX left Redhill Aerodrome for Gatwick Airport to enable customs clearance. The following day it departed on a three week ferry flight to Australia.

After 43 stops enroute it arrived at Broome, Western Australia, on 29th June from where it was flown to Point Sampson. It had covered a distance of 11,164 miles with total flying time of 97 hours 30minutes.

From the envelope images below the routing can be seen as follows:
Redhill, Gatwick, Lyon, Nice, Naples, Brindisi, Athens, Rhodes, Nicosia, Beirut, Das Island, Dubai, Karachi, Ahmadabad, Jaipur, Lucknow, Calcutta, Akyab, Rangoon, Mergui, Phuket, Kuala Lumpur, Singapore, Palembang, Djakarta, Surabaya, Waingapu, Kupang, Broome and Point Sampson.


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http://i967.photobucket.com/albums/a...y2ianclark.jpg

I think the stories of Bristow ferry flights would fill a very interesting book. My introduction to the company was a flight from Redhill to Dubai in a WS55 series 111, (Whirlwind), my Pilot was an ex French Air force pilot who had flown Thunderbolts in Algeria. He would not let me fly, but made me navigate, of which I had no experience. He would pretend to lose his temper with me, and blame me for being lost, whereas he knew exactly where we were. The only Nav. aid we had was a coffee grinder ADF, the knob of which fell off during the first stages of the flight, going over France. My pilot wanted to turn back to Redhill, but I told him I could tune the ADF using a pair of pliers, as I did not have an allen key small enough, this went on for several hundred miles, until at one of the stops, I managed to manufacture a tool to refit the ADF knob.
Anyone who has flown the Whirlwind will remember how uncomfortable the pilots seats are, after a couple of hours my back was killing me. Also I had not then learned the trick of wearing a baseball hat to reduce the discomfort of the heavy headsets that were used then, so my ears were also killing me. It was also very hot.
At Ankara airport in Turkey, a truck court the end of one of our Rotor Blades, as the aircraft was parked, so having been with the company less than a year, I had to import a Main Rotor Blade into Turkey, and immediately export the old one, or pay tax of 100% of the blades worth, I also had to hire a gang of Turkish men to help me change the blade. After that being an ex engine man, I had to do my first main rotor track and adjustment in the middle of Ankara airport. It went OK though.
At one stage of the flight we had to take off with full fuel load, and climb straight to 9000 feet to clear the Iranian mountains, if you want a good example of retreating blade stall, try 9000 feet in an AUW Whirlwind, the old girl would not go more than 60 Knots before a banging and clattering told us to slow down.
On the last stage over the Iranian Gulf, the lower gearbox pressure indication went to zero, I was not too worried, as the transmitters were notably unreliable, but I did clamber down into the cabin, over the sea, and take off the panel, to see if oil was being lost, or anything was getting hot.
One thing you quickly learn from this sort of trip, was if you wanted to work for Bristow in the field you had better learn self reliance.
The five star hotels were good however.

Iran Re-visited
 

Iran re-visited 3

Continuing with Nigel Elliot's collection...........

All around Ahwaz and Abadan........Seismic 7.

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The line

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Moving cables up the line.

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Moving down the line

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The hookman kept getting an electric shock from the static...he thought it was me doing it!

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Seiz 7. Iranian marshes near Ahwaz L-R John Hook,Eddie Silcox,Iranian trainee engineer,Nigel Elliot,Tom Davis

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Seis 7 bar.Ahwaz I think. Me on left (waiting for the fashion police to knock on the door) and Mike Bairstow on the right..not sure of surname. Looks like a bit of cropping needed ! 1977

http://i967.photobucket.com/albums/a...207/Seis79.jpg


John Hook ...a great guy and a pleasure to fly with.

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The trucks!

Now this is a 4WD!

http://i967.photobucket.com/albums/a...207/Seis73.jpg


My living accomodation Seiz 7

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end

Last heard of Mike Bairstow when he left Bristow and stated a firm up in Brighton, 'little yellow' something or other?, and Eddie Silcox now thats a name from the past, still kicking?

s

Iran Re-visited
 

VR-BGJ crash

Nigel E writes....

I'm not sure what happened here. I think it was an engine failure on take off but not sure what caused it. I was on leave at the time it happened. A few months before this happened I went to London Gatwick Airport with another engineer and we pulled this one and another one out the back of an Alaskan C-130. Mostly our job there was to stop some ham fisted and heavy footed Gatwick loaders from damaging the frames as they tried to move them inside the Hercules. Sad to see it end up like this. As far as I know nobody suffered more than a few bruises thankfully. Maybe other Pruners can fill in the gaps. I can't remember who gave me the pics so I can't take credit for them.


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.

The crash happend becuase at that stage before they carried load masters, basically it was 45 degrees C at 9000 ft and no wind .... just run out of power. I know this because I like many, flew with Jim "Turkey" Ayres who was PIC in the accident. He openly admitted the reason for the crash. Up drafts/down drafts no wind etc was normal.

This crash prompted the arrival of the 212's into Seis 4 as they supposedly had a better safety margin all round.

Loadmasters became the norm after this, so you fixed at night and flew as loadmaster during the day if you were an engineer.

I was with Nigel at Seis 4 but left before the Seis 7 contract began.

In the previous pictures you can see a Llama and a All III, these were Schreiner machines, brought in supposedly because the could put the wire carrying rigs into tighter spaces. That was fine at 7 in the morning but they could not lift them out in the heat of the afternoon when the 212 had to go in and use a longer strop to get them out. In the end the Schreiner machines became the transport for the German labo workers!!

Iran Re-visited
 

Iran re-visited 4

A few miscellaneous pics winding up N.E.s collection......

Moving camp: L-R Capts.Cliff Mitchell, Ken Osbourne and Jim Ayers

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I just dragged this guy's name out of the depths of my memory. Pretty certain he's Jim Sweeney from El Paso Tx. Ex US Marine pilot..H34's and I believe he flew some piston engine fighter as well..maybe a Skyraider or something similar. He was a great character which was common with almost everyone at Bristows. He was an ex Border Patrol pilot who flew up and down the Mexican border looking for illegal aliens...he claimed that's where he met his young mexican wife lol.

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Capn.John Hook at Ahwaz

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Whiskey........camp dog at Seis 4

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Shiraz on way to airport

http://i967.photobucket.com/albums/a...88CB11Home.jpg


A bit of info for a previous pic
Shut down while the seismic shot is taken. Labo on the right. Flying had to stop over the line when a shot was conducted as the beating of the blades could be picked up by the geophones.

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Finally, a couple of Zagross.

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http://i967.photobucket.com/albums/a...93A127Home.jpg

.

Going back to Long Range Wessex, G-AVNE was the first and was ferried out to Singapore in 11days in 1970(don't know the exact dates). It was registered in Indonesia on 7th August (PK-HBQ)and later flew in Oz (VH-BHC) ,Malaysia, 9M-ASSand finally Nigeria (5N-AJL).
It's now in the Heli Museum who would love to hear some anecdotes about the ferry flight and later ops.Share them with us or visit the museum for an oral recording for posterity please.
The same applies to anyone flying WS55/3 G-AODA and Widgeon G- AOZE/5M-ABW.

Here is a slightly obscure 7 sec clip of a Whirlwind (I would imagine Bristows) being 'hand-fuelled' (much as Hico described above) in Bahrain using a chamois leather as a filter:

Eddie Silcox (#2110) passed away some six or seven years ago. He was living in Wales (Haverfordwest I believe), his wife Connie returned to her home in Singapore shortly after, they didn't have any children. Eddie was probably the best non-licenced engineer I ever worked with and could put many a licenced guy to shame.

The VR-BGJ accident (#2111) was, as Ainippe suggests, a classic PA/DA situation. Turkey (Jim) was a great pilot and character (ex-Air America and you would have no trouble watching the movie and visualizing Jim) he would have made a successful landing but because he had a little forward speed on touch-down he got a skid hooked on one of the many rocks (see photos) and this flipped him over. Thankfully no-one was seriously injured. By the way - the wreckage was just left there, anyone want to go get it?

The helicopter had only been in-country some six weeks before the accident. It was purchased (used - from Canada I believe) by Bristow, assembled and painted at Redhill and flown to Tehran by Colin Kelly (pilot) and Mike McCormack (engineer). It may have been one of the shortest lived helicopters in the Bristow fleet.

The loadmaster wearing the white helmet leaning out of helicopters in the photos is probably John Elston (spelling?), he bought his own helmet while on one of his 'time-off's' in the UK.

Thanks for that Saint Jack.Sorry to hear about Eddie... I agree totally with your comments about him...he was a great engineer.

Colin Kelly is now a B777 pilot I believe somewhere in Asia...I last spoke to him when he worked for Air New Zealand back in '94 and I was posted to Auckland to fly for the same.

I'm still in touch with John Elston...it is indeed the helmet he owned but the loadmaster is me...he swapped the helmet with me for a set of wrenches and a pair of wire twisters when he left Iran :-) He visits New Zealand every now and then and I hope to get together for a beer with him soon.

Cheers

NE

Bell 204
 

A rare reasonable quality pic of a Bristow 204......How many were there? Were they bought new?

http://i967.photobucket.com/albums/a...00/Bell204.jpg

Well there was one at least at Piarco in Trinidad Dave in the mid '70s and I think it may have been this one before it went onto the Trini register

Further to my last.... looks like it became 9Y-TEA which IIRC was at Piarco in 1976...ROTORSPOT - Complete Civil Rotorcraft Register of Trinidad & Tobago

VR-BGJ
 

Just found this pic in a cupboard! Too big to scan so took it's pic.
I was actually looking for a pic of Phil Kemp working on a 61 tail rotor in Kerteh I took many years ago but failed to find it. Long time ago Phil!

I would hazard a guess this was taken at Redhill after a mod programme prior to it working in Iran. Looks like the old Chelton Homer antennae and Spilsbury and Tindal HF. The guy looking out from the cabin looks a bit like George Arnold......avionic supervisor Redhill. Front crew anyone?
I could be totally wrong but one thing's for sure, it was taken before the Iran accident!


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Someone standing next to that very rare breed of helicopter, a North American (I assume Bristow's) Gazelle :)

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/--...pe+Gazelle.png

Zis: I think there is a strong case for suspecting this to be a Bristow Gazelle because:

If you find a photo of Phil Kemp actually "Working".....frame it! it would certainly be a keepsake!;)

I would like to see that (those?) pictures too... :)