End of an Era at Aberdeen
 

I believe the last 3 based AS332 L1 Tigers departed Aberdeen on 3 low loaders on Tuesday. GTIGC GTIGS and GBLZJ have departed for pastures new. This ends about 40 years of the L1 at Aberdeen and with CHC gradually flying their L2's into storage in Poland will leave only Bond with L2's here.

The first L (L1 came after) was S/N 2023 G-BJXC then re registered G-TIGB and was delivered in late March 1982. It first flew commercially to the Thistle Platform around mid - April that year after route proving flights. It ended up in Australia.

G-TIGC was the second 332L delivered to ABZ and was contracted to Amoco for flights to the North West Hutton. G-TIGE followed for Marathon Oil (Brae A) then G-TIGD, another Amoco aircraft.

G-TIGS was delivered in 1983 and went on contract to Mobil for flights to the Beryl A Platform. G-BLZJ was a newcomer, it must have come after I left ABZ so I never flew that one.

Any guesses which and how much the highest timed 332L in the world is?

GTIGE must was the front runner, three trips a day, minimum, for Marathon, but GTIGC must be in the running for the widest traveller of the Bristow stable.

G-TIGE had almost 41,000 hours over a years ago.

G-TIGE passed 42000 Hrs and leaves Norwich on a lorry tomorrow so sad times as no more AS332L/L1 left :{:{:{

Only a handful of the S61 on the UK register passed that figure, so something of an achievement.

332L (Tiger for you BHL guys!) - horrible twitchy thing. :yuk: RIP

Tiger was never an L1, it was a cheap and cut down L. No brakes on the LHS, etc, well done Bristow!

My mistake, I didn't know there was a difference between the L and L1.. must have been impossible to spot.. other than the Bristow colours.
Does anyone know where they're all going?

Thanks
Jeez! When I left them they had about 20k hours and they were manky then!
God knows what they were like at the end.
Off to get scrapped?

Off to Vector Fleetlands I was told, probably to be rebuild or split up for spares.

Same happening in OZ with the 332,

I know of 3 that went on the back of a truck last week to be split up for spares.

Yes, it is - the L has the Makila 1A and the L1 has the Makila 1A1 with slightly better OEI performance in hot/high conditions. Not sure that would be of any use in Aberdeen though!

The majority of military Pumas and super Pumas only have one set of brakes. When Bristow ordered them that was the norm.

The British Airways ones certainly were brakeless from the LHS.

Really nice aircraft when it was all set up and working. My memory though is of weekends as an FO doing endless ground runs.

Fly one again, yes but I'd take a 61 first. Happy days.

The AS 332L Bristow Tiger suffered in its early days from insufficient developmental test flying by the manufacturer prior to introduction into service. It was certainly not merely a stretched Puma and several of the new innovations proved inadequate for the tough regime of the North Sea.

Problems with the Main Gear Box and drive shaft fairings prompted hasty first aid fixes from the manufacturer which then had to be trialled by line pilots on revenue flights, a far from satisfactory state of affairs.

A visit to Aberdeen by the Chief Project Test Pilot for Aerospatiale produced stunned disbelief at the intensity of the flying programme and the comment, `No wonder you are having problems!`

The Tiger eventually went on to serve with great distinction as witnessed by the numbers of hours amassed over the years.

Bristow, having not been successful gatting the registration GTIGA off it's Tiger Moth owner, then went the whole hog and used up the rest of the alphabet apart from GTIGQ which was verboten. They started running out of contracts with GTIGW so there was a problem with the other three.

They arrived at Redhill in a green state and they were sold/leased on to Canadian Helicopters where they received Canadian registrations. Fortunes changed and they came back to to UK and went onto the North Sea in British Airways Helicopters/BIH livery but with a Bristow GTIG* registration.

I have a feeling that Bristow tried to buy them back but helicopters were like hen's teeth then.

My recollection of the original BAH AS332Ls G-BKZE, G and H was that they were fitted with LHS brakes. Perhaps they were introduced at some point after delivery, assuming Border Reiver is correct?

G-TIGZ was the only ex BHL machine that found it's way back to the UK with BIH/CHC. The other two (X and Y) never did. The re-use of TIGZ was very deliberate by BIH management. :E

Re: G-TIGA, the re-allocation of any registration on a different airframe is not permitted in the UK. So it was not the Tiger Moth owner that spoilt the plan, it was CAA policy. Here's an extract from the CAA website:

"Any UK registration marks that are currently in use or have been registered in the past are not re-issued to a second aircraft to avoid any confusion. An individual airframe may have more than one registration mark in its lifetime, but a particular registration mark can only apply to one airframe."

A Chinese registered 332L, B7951 was the first one bought by the then China Overseas Helicopter Corp. That was quite early in the production run, somewhere around GTIGH. That had twin brakes, three axis autopilot, digital fuel guages and nice Sogat seats. A slight problem was that it had metric instruments calibrated in kilometers and metres as opposed to the knots and feet of the G reg on site.

We used to step from one to the other with no problem until somebody at Redhill found out then we had to go through the rigmarol of having a 'differences' book plus intensive briefing.

Their subsequent aircraft went to knots and feet even though China still has metric flight levels but it was nice sitting there at 250 indicated and a very stable altimeter.

Their subsequent L1s, built as L1s as opposed to being re-engined were far faster and more economical than any of the Ls or ex Ls..

Certainly at delivery the co pilot had no brakes. As one of the first two FO's on the fleet it was a big difference after the 61. Certainly one run on landing on the short runway at Shetland revealed that the Captain had forgotten.

With high back pax seats, carpet and IFE they delivered a different product to the Tiger. Different in having external life rafts as well I think?

My involvement finished after 18 months with a move to the 214 a totally different experience. Where these days would you get 3 large types in 4 years?

Just looking at my Log Book my first line flight in G-TIGB in May 1982 for BNOC resulted in a diversion to Sumburgh with an MGBCH light.

I can also see that I ferried TIGD when it was green from Marignane to Erith (Metair installed the interiors and Dave Ware's team at Redhill did the spray painting).

I believe the clostest the Tiger came to disaster was when one landed on the Thistle with a severe 1R vibration. Investigation revealed the the rotor head had cracked in the vicinity of a drag bearing.

Another session of six heads and gearboxes simultaneously airborne in the hanger.

When I joined Bristow I went on to the Puma 330J. To my surprise they still had the old rubber stop for the incllined shaft cover. I had flown the Puma for seven years in the RAF and I pointed out that they had substituted a locking plate to prevent the hinge wire from coming out. I was effectively told to shut up (crab) and it was ignored. A few weeks later one started migrating and was protuding about 15 cm at the end of the flight. A rapid series of phone calls to Odiham and then they all had locking plates.

Fast forward a couple of years. Doogal Douglas (RIP) and I were looking at a shiny new Tiger and we both noticed that there was a rubber bung holding the pin in, albiet a bit bigger. We brought this to the attention of somebody but we were told that this was not a Puma, this was a Tiger. We all know the end of that story.

Don't get me started on the S76A.

In the begiining of 1984 I was bumbling along on the Tiger fleet when GBHAI, a 330J arrived. They were short of Puma jockeys so I was refammed and flew both. We simplified it by flying the Puma like a Tiger ie. 15.5 degrees of pitch instad of 15. In May they were short of S76 drivers so I was refammed again to help them out so I was current and operating as PIC on three types. In July I airtested and deliverd GBERH from Redhill to Southampton to go to China. That was the last Puma left in the UK so I then went down to two.

FED

It was a cracked Visco Elastic Frequency Adapter (Damper) and if I remember, it was Peter Hall who had the failure in the East Shetland basin.

After that, there was no more 16.5 degrees of pitch and Laurence Bristow's famous direct ABZ to the ESB at 145 knots marketing ploy became more like 130-135 knots at 15.5 or 16 pitch if I remember.

In 1984, I moved down to the SNS and flew the 76 for many years, I much preferred the short range busy flights than flogging to the ESB in a 332L

The frequent failure of the inclined drive shaft fairing securing latches, which prompted Tiger pilots to be issued with speed tape for en route repairs, culminated in one such fairing detaching and taking off the tail rotor of an aircraft in the late stages of approach to Aberdeen. The aircraft impacted on its side on the runway but luckily no one was seriously injured, although the captain permanently lost his sense of humour.

One passenger who was interviewed by local TV played down any thoughts of disaster by calling it just a normal Bristow landing.

Was that the captain who used to take his rig meals home, calculate the cost and dock it off his missus' housekeeping?

FED PH's wife was a doctor, as I found out one day, but that's another story.

I think I still have a photo of TIGD, I think, between the hangers at Sumburgh, with a "GREEN" tailboom having almost lost the other due to severe vibration.
I seem to remember that I was told in the aftermath, there wasn't very much holding the tail on when it landed.

retirement
 

Finalcheckplease,

Perhaps there's somebody from Vector reading this thread that could enlighten us the fate of each 332L, not only these 332L's roaded from Aberdeen & Norwich but also the others they currently have at Fleetlands, rebuild, spares or scrapping ?

Far East Driver,

Not that I was aware, although he was Scottish!

The one I am thinking of who definitely did gravitated to Trengannu where he had a nice little scam going with some of the rigs to bake proper expat bread then he would take it ashore and flog it.

He also used to bring frozen beer to barbecues and then take it home at the end. Needless to say, his leaving party was a bit of a dry old do.

Vector appear to be overhauling them for lease...certainly that's what happened to the initial batch shipped to their Canadian facility.

Towards a Humanitarian Airwing
 

I thought you may be interested to see this.

Airbus Helicopters

I can think of no better use for these 'mature' beauties. The innocent and power less families caught in the grip of a natural or manmade disaster will have a powerful new friend to look to; when all hope is gone. I am sure that Old Man Bristow would fully approve.

I believe that some of the Tiger's predecessors, 330Js, are still operational after their tours of China and Australia. They were bought by an American company that uses them for vertrep of US Navy ships.

Starlite in South Africa are still operating a number of 330's not sure if any are ex Bristow.

Some BHL Tigers went to German Police a few years back.

I think they lost a couple when one landed within the rotor disc of another during a night anti-terrorist exercise.

This one?

https://youtu.be/yeajdJFZmFM?t=2m8s

Not night, snow.

They went to the Bundespolizei as very different animals I assure you. I spent months working on just one of them, serious amount of modification carried out on them.