Early 1980's MSV Tharos - bolted alongside the original Piper Alpha.

SP-IFR with SFENA Ministab and Dixie Newton as Engineer. Graeme Moir took the picture - both of them excellent engineers.

Pilots - Graham Morley (AKA Banana Boots), Mike Trotter and Upland Goose

http://i1232.photobucket.com/albums/...sertFox001.jpg
"Desert Fox" was a sound machine.
After a casevac one night, I was returning to Tharos on my own and was told by Scottish Info. that, for brief period, I was the only aircraft movement in UK airspace.

For once, with my family tucked up in bed in Aboyne, I thought "what the hell am I doing here". SP-IFR flying can be lonely at 3am. A few years later the skies would be swarming with postal flights in the middle of the night.UG:ok:

Hey Rosh

I notice on the night take-off that the co-pilot's ASI was unlit - was that in the ADD's list?

Nice pictures, especially the Avanti undercarriage legs - and you guys said it was a hardship posting in Libya!

Keep smiling - Bangladesh next.:hmm:UG

I would suggest it is the same reason as the captain's altimeter seems to be unlit. They are masked by the radalt warning light.

Of course any other helicopter operator would wonder what we are talking about, not knowing Bristow's unique instrument layout; though it would appear completely sensible to a 'captain in the LHS' fixed wing driver.

UG,

They must have been practicing some 'Partial-Panel' IF!!

..... or as Fareastdriver says, the unlit instruments may be being masked by the Radalt Warning Light.

As for the Avanti undercarriage, and Libya being a hardship posting ..... that was the only time we caught glimpse of a landing gear quite like that during a fairly long stay there. As quickly as they arrived, they retracted and departed to somewhere a little more hospitable, leaving us sipping on Libyan coffee.

Bangladesh next!?? Are you sure you don't mean the Bahamas?

Still smiling.

Ah, the fun days on the Tharos! All those names bring back fond memories of the good old days on the North Sea (and the Ivy House)! I saw Graeme Moir in Jakarta just last year, after I hadn't seen him since 1986; when he headed South and I went to the States.

The Ivy House with the down stairs bar with exactly one Abba Cassette....and the best cooking in the County....staggering distance from the Pub at the bottom of the hill.

Old Timers
 

And Dixie Newton can still be found sunbathing between jobs in his budgie Smugglers on the ramp at Port Harcourt NAF Base!

and what of the Dixie Chicks????

Excuse my ignorance, is this an official Bristow badge? BRISTOW HELICOPTERS.WIRE EMBROIDERED PILOTS CAP BADGE. | eBay

When I joined in 1980, I seem to recollect that the centre disc on the cap badge was embroidered with the "Jet Ranger" silhouette (not sure if it had an original name) when we drew our uniform from the BCal stores in Gatwick. Later the disc was an enamel version of the same and sometime at the end of the last century the "Bob the Builder" logo appeared. So in short - yes it could be.

My "formal cap" badge was enamel TOD and I got my cap at the same time as you. Not sure when the embroidered ones came into being.

Looks decidely dodgy to me! Mine had the enamel centre too...

I wore my enamel badged cap, once, for the graduation photographs.

Once upon a time Alan Bristow bollocked one of his pilots in the Middle East for flying in shorts and trainers.

"Why aren't you rearing the uniform you were issued with?"

To be safe when I flew him around in the Redhill S76 I used to wear my headphones clamped over the top of my uniform peaked cap.

Just been up a ladder. August 1978; enamel badge.

TOD.....you joined a lot sooner than the 80's young lad!

You might as well have been company issue!:E

That wasn't a Jet Ranger on the old Bristow badge,it was a compilation of the aircraft the company operated designed by one of the boys who also did the Company calenders which were collectors items in their day.His name escapes me but he was ex-Navy and Smudge jumps to mind.

Wasn't it Tugg?

I thought the only person to wear his uniform cap with his headset was the infamous Peter Royston and then only because he had followed a children`s TV hero Gary Halliday and thought it looked cool. The fashion in those distant days, long before immersion suits and even Uvic jackets, was full uniform, jacket et al and black polo necked sweater.

Cap Badge
 

I still have my nice enamel version of the cap badge issued in 1975.

G :)

Gordon Mitchel (mahatma coat) used to wear his all the time in Sumburgh. I seem to remember old Dave Tink wearing his from time to time.