Takoradi
 

I've seen some earlier posts on Bristow ops in Ghana, initially Accra then later Takoradi. pics showed two 76A's BJFL & BJGX around 2009.

I wonder if somebody could update the situation ? I understand 76A BVKP is being restored ex Nigeria for ops in Takoradi & is to be joined by a new 76C++ being delivered from States on G-reg, possibly CGRK.

Could somebody who is based in Ghana please update on any UK reg heli's based ? & if possible provide some more pics, especially the new 76C++.

Also I understand Bristow are due to start ops in Equitorial Guinea with 76A, possibly BJGX ex Norwich, as above could somebody based in Equitorial Guinea provide details of any UK reg heli's based & please advise base location.

Sorry if I appear to be an heli annorak....I confess !

A couple of oldies from Silverstone 1989
 

http://i191.photobucket.com/albums/z...off/G-BLDY.jpg

http://i191.photobucket.com/albums/z...off/G-BJFL.jpg

from ??? ??? ??? ???? ??

BHL,Kuala Trengganu,Malaysia.
 

Hi.I am new to this forum and would like to now if anyone here has served in Bristow Helicopters Malaysia at Kuala Trengganu? or better known as KT.

My dad work with BHL from April 1974 to its take over in 1980s.His name is Thanapalasingam or Singam for short.He was trained in Redhill and Aberdeen between 1975 and 1976.

Mr.John Cotton was one of his instructors.

Regards.

Yes, I remember your Dad and some of the other guys who came across from Malaysia in the early 70's, cannot put any names to them now except I do remember Singam. If I recall he was on the same shift as myself, Tanzy Lea and others during his time at Aberdeen. Remember them bring in Malay spices wrapped in newspaper, made delicious curry.

Hi Singam;

I worked with Singam in the early 80's when I lived in KT and later Kerteh. I last saw him a couple of years ago in KL. There are quite a few old KT hands here on PPRuNe - I have lots of good memories from there and have been back a couple of times to visit and see all the changes.

Does anyone know if John Cotton is still around - he was my instructor when I was an apprentice. We share the same birthday, just different years!

Hi Phil

Last I heard (sometime ago now) he was still instructing part time.

Stacey

Love the photos, keep em up

Hi Mr.Knight,
sorry for the rather late reply.Just finished a hectic semester at University.Yes,Dad remembers you and I just mailed home the books on BHL and Sir Alan Bristow.It has taken him back more than 30 years.

Anyways,Merry Christmas to you and Happy New Year!

Hi Mr.Kemp,
Sorry for the late reply.Just finished a hectic semester at University.He remembers you of course.

He is doing alright back in Kuala Lumpur and is still going at it on the helicopters.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Merry Christmas from the Baltic.
 

Merry Christmas to you all from the Bristow team here operating in the Baltic sea. (Dotting around between Sweden, Finland, and Denmark)

Have a good one wherever you are.

A couple of festive pictures taken yesterday while operating from Bornholm, Denmark.

Just don't tell your kids that Santa is actually brown, doesn't have a beard, and uses an AS332L, instead of magical reindeer and a sleigh!

He does, however, still have a pot belly due to Danish beer and pastries!


http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v5...n/_DSC9455.jpg





http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v5...n/_DSC8924.jpg


To friends and colleagues at Bristow Aberdeen. Thinking of you during this untimely, uncertain period.

Here's hoping for a good 2011.

Rosh

As always, Rosh, great photos.

No snow here in Pembrokeshire yet this year. Keeps missing us and heading for Swansea and Cardiff.

I miss flying but when I see the weather the lads have had up in Aberdeen then I don't miss the hassle of "freezing" levels, significant ice, snoclo's. lack of diversions etc etc. :D

I would like to take this opportunity to wish everyone a good Christmas and a happy and safe New Year. I'm keeping an eye on you!!!!!!! :)

Nadolig Llawen a Yaer Newydd Dda o Sir Benfro

John Whale

"Look mum no hands!"

Or ...

"OMG! The F/O's flying it again!"

Was it not a caption competition?

Patrick O'Mara Engineer
 

Hi Everyone. Im new to this thread. Amazing Bristow photos and Information. Its really strange to see the Aircraft from the Biafra war as I have pics of my dad standing beside them and his log book from the evacuations. The pictures of Eket were great. I stood on that airfield as a kid in 1975. Also the information on the Iran Incident. I believe my father was one of the Doha based engineers (I think he was chief engineer at the time) when some of the helicopters landed there, as I think he got flak from the Authorities about it. Anyway I have loads of photos that my father took from the early 60's -late 70's in Africa through to the Middle East. As he took the photos hes not in most of them. I was wondering if any of the older pilots or engineers remembered him? Thanks for your time.
Sean

Patrick O'Mara Engineer
 

Hi There.
I was wondering if you knew Patrick O'Mara who was also an Engineer at this time and Stationed in Doha and I understand was involved in some way in the retrieval of these aircraft from Iran?
Would be interesting if anyone had some stories about him. He died in the early eighties. He would have been 78 this year and was with Alan Bristow at the foundation of Bristow Helicopters.
Best
Sean

I don't remember ever seeing Eric in the hangar at Redhill or Aberdeen!

http://www.thecnj.com/review/2009/01...s011509_03.jpg Eric Bristow.


But I do recall meeting this gentleman once or twice.

http://i.telegraph.co.uk/telegraph/m...w_1393931c.jpg Alan Bristow.

Hi Sean

Take no notice of the above post. I wonder if 419 can remember the first name of the person his father worked for 40 years ago.

I didn't join Bristows until the late 80s so didn't know your father. However I would be fascinated to see any of his photos posted here.

Regards

TTO

Not a chance, but If I tried and made a mistake and printed the wrong name, I wouldn't have any objection to anyone pointing out the error. (after all, if it's never pointed out, you could spend your whole life with incorrect info)

And the Alouette 3 behind Alan is the one I was about to go to Greenland with!!

I slightly knew your father Sean, I was working at Redhill when he took up the position at Dhohar, I remember that those who knew him well were shocked at his sudden passing.

If you can upload some of the photos, I am sure that lots of information will be forthcoming.

I remember Paddy O'Mara, as I was working with him in Dubai at the time, a very nice guy!!
It was a great shock to everyone on the operation when he passed away while on leave.
Tony

419 has clearly sniffed to much aviation fuel/aircraft oil. Well they did use it to pack the sand down around the airfields in Doha. :) I can still smell in now.
Thank you all for your kind words. the information on this thread has been valuable and glad to see ur all still going. Yep dad did'nt expect to go either.
I'm sure he had some great stories but I obviously cant ask him.
He had just been on training courses in USA for the Bell spirit if I remember correctly when he passed away. Worked to hard I think, and burst a gasket so to speak. Since I was a kid when He died I was trying to piece his journey through life. He left behind a lot of very interesting paper work. I still have all the old Westland 55 and Bell maintenance manuals as well as life jackets etc from that time plus a very interesting log book which includes biafra. Great old stuff. It was amazing to see the image of the camo Riley Dove 5N-AGF. I have the instruction manuals for that aircraft and a photo of my dad and another posing in what looks like pilot uniforms in front of it when it had a Bristow Livery. In his log book the evac flights are there for this aircraft so he was clearly on board up to no good not listening to the authorities. My mum was pregnant with me at the time so I was not born in Nigeria like my brother as...well we were evacuated.
Since you are interested I will start to see which images I can find. I have alot but currently in storage. They go back to the early 60's. The images of the 205's and westland s/55's bring back so many memories as we spent our summer holidays flying around in them. I remember to get to Eket in 1975 we went via a DC3 from Port harcourt / Lagos?, just the family and the pilot...the madman even let me take the controls...But anyway great to hear your words, much appreciated. I suppose most of the guys who would have worked directly with dad are hopefully enjoying retirement, but if you hear of anyone who worked with him,would love to know. My brother keep a bit of the helicopter tradition and got his rotor licence. Thanks again.:ok:

Dubai Airwing
 

Hi Tony...were you working with him at the Dubai Airwing?

419 in Relation to Eric V Alan...yea it was a bit late when I typed that out but I think they both liked playing darts from what I remember ;) but since you met Alan once or twice maybe you might have some other useful information that may be helpful to me:confused:

Hello Xonboy,

Yes I was working with him at the Dubai Airwing, I worked for BHL for 12 years, before going direct contract on the Airwing fixed wing aircraft.
At the time your Dad was the Chief Engineer, I was already direct contract, but was operating out of the same small corrugated hangar that the Helis used.
Regarding the Riley Dove, your father told me that the twin Pioneers used to shed cylinders regularly due to shock cooling in the heavy rain in the wet season.
Of course this was before the Biafran war, and one of the jobs for the Dove was to fly engineers and parts to repair the Pioneers.

I have visited the Riley Dove at its final resting place in the school playing field at Uli airstrip in Biafra.(1970) I tried to remove the main entry door kick plate as a souvenir, but the screws were all corroded in and my presence was detected by the Nigerian Army soldiers, who chased me off. I did however manage to get a nice picture of it, which appears in the book "Shadows".

Tony

Uploading
 

Anyone know how to upload pics from ur computer?

Dove
 

Hi Tony
Really nice to hear your story and glad to see you still chugging along. I would presume the aircraft is now part of a shanty town. Pity you didnt get the plate. I remember when I was in Eket in 1975 Dad (Patrick O'mara) told me to follow him. We went to a derelict house with a fountain in front. In the fountain there were several machine guns rusting away...only in Africa. I also remember going to a restaurant in Port Harcourt at the same time and the glass still had bullet holes in it..just couldnt be bothered fixing it. I will start digging out the old photos. There split between London and Dublin so will take me some time. I have some stuff to upload but cant figure out how to do it.
Sean o

Dubai Airwing
 

Hi Tony..did you work on the Cessena that they had ?..I went up in that with my box brownie and took pictures of old Dubai, mostly desert then.
Sean o

Pit specials.
 

For some reason there were a load of pit special stunt planes in Rothmans liverys?
Do you remember them?

Xonoboy

If you go into the search box, and type in "uploading Photographs" it will take you to the instructions. You cannot upload straight from your hard drive, but must use a photo hosting site.,(I use photo bucket). It looks difficult at first, but is really quite easy, even a computer novice like me can do it.

Cheers Dave.
I think I have a flicker account so will do as you say. :ok:
Thanks for your help.
Sean o

Patrick O'Mara Bristow Helicopters
 

eeeeem Cant seem to link from Flicker..maybe a PC is required as I use a MAC.
Looks like Photobucket keeps the file type so will give it a go.:*http://www.flickr.com/photos/5780143...n/photostream/

Patrick O'Mara Bristow Helicopters
 

Patrick O'Mara Bristow Helicopters
 

Patrick O'Mara Bristow Helicopters
 

XONBOY;

When you first posted, I knew immediately who your Dad was and was shocked to hear that he had died. This was the first I had heard but have been away from the Middle East/Nigeria since the late '70s. When you posted his photo, it brought back a flood of memories.

He was one of the really great guys and although we all drank too much in those days, it sure made for some hell raising times, never to be forgotten.

My condolences to you and your family. You are from good stock.

Regards

carholme

Hi carlholme
Sounds like you guys really tore it up some. They were real Mavrick times and glad to see your still going. Think you were real adventurers in those days. Dad actually died quite young and long ago in 1980.
Its great to hear all your comments and Im glad I found out were you guys hang out as I was interested to hear any stories relating to him. I will load up pics from the early days soon as I can, there unfortunatly not in easy reach. He was great fun to be around...sometimes I used to think he was trying to get rid of us as he used to put us on as many helicopter flights as possible in the summer holidays...the longer the better..the hours I clocked up and places I went you have no idea :O
Best
Sean

Hello Sean,
Being dual licenced , fixed wing and choppers, I was sent by Bristows to Dubai Airwing contract to maintain the Cessna and SM 260.
Nice to see your pictures of the Dubai souvenirs, sadly over last Christmas I managed to smash my Airwing monogrammed whiskey glass, it has been in our family since 1980, when I borrowed it from the Boeing 720.
I gave it to my father in law as a Christmas present after he had flow out from UK on that aircraft.
Tony

Pitts Specials you remember were the Rothmans Aerobatic Team out in the Gulf on tour.
Tony

Dad told me if I BORROWED anything I would get my hands chopped off:)
didnt stop me I have to say. Thats a pity about your glass as I think Items relating to the Dubai Airwing are rather obsure. I made a mistake of pestering dad to go on a flight in the Dubai Airwing Boeing 720. The interior of that aircraft was bit mad. looked like some ones living room from what I remember. A test flight came up and I was allowed on board. I was the only passenger.......but what I didnt know was it was a test for take offs and landings....needless to say I felt sick:yuk: by the end of it and could'nt wait to get off.:bored::bored:

Here is a link to the aircraft: cant put photo here as its copyrighted:ouch:

Photos: Boeing 720-023(B) Aircraft Pictures | Airliners.net

Speaking of the original great helicopter men! Another one has left us.
 

I am posting this for a friend at work,Phil Sparks Jnr

Phil Sparks Snr died,just after Christmas,after a long career including Fisons Airwork,Bristol Siddeley,Rolls Royce & Hants and Sussex.He will be cremated at Porchester Crematorium on Thurs 13th January 2011.If there are any old friends and colleagues out there who would like to mark his passing,Please send no flowers but make a small donation by cheque to Help for Heros care of Barrells The Funeral Directors,'Lawswood' 245 Fratton Road,Portsmouth,Hants PO1 5PA,The UK