PPRuNe Forums - Bristow Photos

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Third from the left, standing, an ex Royal Navy engineer, name escapes me but 'Jim' rings a bell, met him in Abu Dhabi, 1969/70 and Warri, Nigeria, 1970/71(ish). Last on the right standing, John Waddington?

EDITED; Just remebered, third from the left is Jim Wild.

Great photos thanks:ok:

Do someone got any from Frederick Legrys,Sorry if i have missed .

Gosh I remember Fred Legrys very well. The first time I met him, if my memory serves me well, was in the late 60's when I was doing a Jet ranger conversion for Iran and he showed me how you could do an engine off in the hover with a 360 degree turn thrown in. High inertia heads those 206's

John Whale

Why is the only dirty places on the white ovvies is the seat?:uhoh:

I have been contacted by the daughter of Peter John Faid, a pilot I knew during his service with 78 Squadron in Sharjah, 1968. She is trying to find out more about his flying career.
I believe he left the RAF in 1969 and joined BHL. Sadly he was killed when a 206 crashed in Ghana, July 1970. However I think he may also have flown a Wessex offshore Aberdeen area 69/70, as the engineer, George Siddle spoke of him while I was working at Redhill early 1970.
If anyone has any info on Peter Faid's flying career with BHL can you send me a PM and I will send contact details for his daughter.
Many Thanks.
Ken Knight.

Ken, this is a duplicate thread, Emma started a similar thread entitled 'Do You Remember Peter Faid?' here in 'Rotorheads' on the 31st May 2010, so far, mine is the only reponse.

Yes, while with Bristow he did fly the Wessex offshore in the UK, I met him - very briefly - when he was transitting through Sunderland to Great Yarmouth back in 1966/67ish.

I'm surprised none of my fellow Bristow 'old-timers' have replied despite me naming the handful I remember from that occasion - including George Siddle. I remember George as one of my mentors in Bristow, a very affable and helpful individual.

Is that a very young Clive Wright in the Nigeria pictures with the Fison's Airwork Whirlwind?

http://i866.photobucket.com/albums/a...g?t=1276798342Photo

showing 760090 being inspected at the Royal Jordanian base in Amman, prior to purchase by Bristow. There were Five machines left over after various companies bought the others, this is one of them.

Here is the finnished result, at Redhill, after being flown to UK by RJAF C130http://i866.photobucket.com/albums/a...g?t=1276799007

When BHL took over Fisons Airwork they aquired an Auster G-APOA that Fisons had bought new in 1958. BHL hung on to G-APOA until it was blown over & one wing badly damaged in the hurricane of 1987. Amongst other things it was used by the Flight Training School & for ferrying spares about.

Seen below in 1959, at Biggin Hill, with Fison Airwork Limited clearly on the engine cowl:
http://i191.photobucket.com/albums/z...POAairwork.jpg

And in 1981 at Cranfield:
http://i191.photobucket.com/albums/z.../G-APOABHL.jpg

Sadly it crashed in 1993 killing both occupants.

I used to fly OA in my spare time to keep my FW licence current, funny old thing that it was. I had it going backwards once in a strong wind! I remember taking it to Biggin Hill, it was quite a difference landing on their runway compared to the grass at Redhill.

http://i866.photobucket.com/albums/a...g?t=1277035472

Two of the Aircraft purchased by Bristow were dedicated air ambulances, they were mostly used to pick up casualties from the notorious Amman to Petra highway. They were stripped out at Redhill and returned to normal configuration.

Did they keep the sliding doors both sides?

G-APOA

On joining Bristow at Redhill as electrical fitter in 1974 on 47p per hour I was waiting to join HP7 (Cadet Pilot Course) and I needed to build hours for my PPL IMC rating (60hrs P1) a pre-requisite of joining an HP course in those days.

I was allowed to use G-APOA for £7 per flying hour for my own use. I was fortunate to pick up many spares runs, mainly to Great Yarmouth which gave me "free flying".

Many of the runs were on a Friday afternoon (panic day) and my first was with a float bottle actuator for Bell 212 G-BBBP. I well remember flying over the East Anglia countryside and thinking " The first flight I have not had to pay for" I was ecstatic.

One afteroon whilst working in the hangar on an S58ET build I smashed my watch on the firewall. Then I got a call to take a Wessex tail rotor gearbox to Yarmouth. How the hell was I going to fly an aeroplane without a watch and give reliable ETA's.

I had a stopwatch so I went to the "clock in/clock out" machine where we punched in/out each day and started my stopwatch and keeping a record, used it to give ETA's etc to GY and and back from Redhill. When I arrived Dave Winter met me and Dixie Newton swung the prop to get me started (no electrics or starter on G-APOA in those days)

On another weekend (at my expense) I flew to the Auster Rally at Shoreham and G-APOA built in 1958 had been in what we call today a "controlled environment" timewarp and in 1975 she only had 850 hrs on the clock. I entered the Concours class for a laugh and she won without any preparation at all. Mainly thanks to a very good engineer Brian Rhodes who now resides in Aberdeen.

She was a beauty - but difficult to land well. When one got it right the pleasure was complete. I doubt I could do it today.

When I opened the Daily Telegraph years later to see a picture of her wrecked I was heartbroken - she gave me my break into flying and will have a special place in my career.

As I sit behind my desk at Redhill with the issues of the international scene to consider, a part of me wants to return to those parsimonious but fun filled days with G-APOA.

UG

Ahhhh... Upland Goose.

Was looking at those piccies of the Auster and recalled your telling me about flying her.

Hope that the office is not cramping your style - suppose one major disadvantage is that you don't have the opportunity to " just look out to sea" when the need arises.

Keep yer head above water
Yours aye'
OH

Far east Driver

No the company did not keep both the sliding doors, hinged doors for the left hand side were obtained from some Tornado damaged aircraft in the states. I never understood why, as in some circumstances they would have been handy. It was all to do with flight briefing cards and passenger loading etc.
There is an interesting story concerning one of the Air Ambulances. When they were delivered a Sikorsky rep. was demonstrating the equipment to the top surgeon in Amman, when he had a heart attack. The surgeon recognized the symptoms, got him into the aircraft, had him flown to the hospital, opened him up, and saved his life.
If it had happened anywhere else, the guy would most likely have died.