Inuvik about 1981
 

C-FAHX (originally Associated Heli) was one of the very first Sperry 212's. She lived in the Beaufort Sea for many years under OKie colours. When this was taken she was on contract to Imperial Oil.

We had switched to skids to sling an OKie 206 from the Firth River to YEV after an engine failure.

Problem was, when we got back to YEV no crane was available, so, .... good old Canadian ingenuity.

We cleverly put a barrel of fuel in the right two man to level her out. What we forgot to do was ground her. Many sparks when the cross tube brackets connected with the saddles.

Crew chief was Guy Murrison and meself was flying.

And yes, I did a (very fast) circuit.

oleary, that must have taken some co-ordination to get the crosstubes in place: and how fast was 'fast'? ;)

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Actually, it was surprisingly easy. Obviously the sling mirror wouldn't do it so we put a guy out front where I could see him to give me directions.

How fast was "fast"? Harold Baba didn't need to know. ;)

I see you say "one of" the very first Sperry 212's. I was always under impression that Bow had THE very first Sperry 212.

Right you are, mate, C-FBHF.

When Okie bought Bow we inherited 4 x 212's. BHF (full Sperry), BHX (full Sperry), BHJ (Sperry but no FD) and BH(?) wrecked at Naskusp on a power line job before we got her.

Sadly, Fred and Jimmy smoked BHX on a night approach to Imperial Oil's Rig 3 NW of Tuk in about '83.

I have MANY hours in both of the HX's.

Excuse my ignorance: if it wasn't Sperry what else would it be?
And "full" Sperry is with autopilot as opposed to just SAS/SCAS?

Have time in both AHX and BHF.
Can't recall- AHX was a single Batt switch - but was BHF also?
Always funny when someone engaged the autopilot without centering the heading bug...LOL

It would be a Bell IFR machine.....the one with the big fin on the roof.

Yes it was. All the 212s up to SN 724 (I think) were single batt.

The heading function was pretty abrupt all right. That's why we didn't use the VOR/ILS capture function, it would scare the pax. Early FD days for sure.

The "full" Sperry was Heli 1 & 2 plus Flight Director (autopilot). Some aircraft (BHJ) just had Heli 1 & 2 but no Flight Director.

Once we got the sensitivity adjusted correctly the VOR / ILS function worked very well. You are correct ...if it wasn't the ride was interesting.
Of course with the Bell System we got very good at rolling those little wheels.

Dear God don't remind me of that setup. :ugh:

For night slinging it was hopeless. We usually just turned off the AFCS and hand bombed it in SCAS.

I saw that helicopter at a Helicopter Convention in New Orleans. It did belong to Clint Eastwood. It was a Bell 206 modified to look like a Bell 222. It had a stub wing attached near the cabin floor housing the main retractable landing gear. The retractable nose wheel went up into the former landing/taxi light space. New lights were on the stub wing. Parker Hannefin supplied the landing gear for this helicopter as well as many experimental fixed wing aircraft of the day.
The paint job was kind of dark but the overall appearance was quite beautiful. I believe it had all leather grey interior. Totally executive.

Dis one:

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