Hi Droopy.
Sadly Jackie passed away a few years back, also I haven't heard any news of Helen.

Fleet List 1981
 

https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....b16596146.jpeg
Having a New Year clear out and found this little gem from 1981. The era before the 332L

Are you on the very active BOGS facebook group? All activity seems to have migrated there.

XA290. We have all emigrated to the Bristow Old Gits Facebook group for a few years now. Your posts would get far more appreciation over there and you would find a lot people you probably knew from the 60's onwards.

Spotted this old newspaper cutting (apparently dated Jan 29th 1999, but based on further information, likely 1979) on a recent visit to the Lecht.

This specific S61 does not appear to have a bubble window or a mirror fitted, so I can only assume placement was made by some means other than direct pilot vision.

Interesting to see the quoted section weight at 1,600lb (~725kg) - seems a light load given the lift capability of the S61, making the choice of machine all the more intriguing!

https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....e579e8ed2.jpeg

Looks like there is a crewman voice-conning them from the cargo door - That would have been the standard Bristow MO in UK.

As for choice of machine - I seem to recall that a Bristow 61' Captain (not the one flying) was a founder of and major share-holder in the Lecht ski centre so that may well have been a factor in the choice of a Bristow S61.

Thanks OvertHawk - I appreciate that additional information.

Indeed - PDP

Thought so - Had forgotten his name momentarily (although i remembered it had a continental flavour).

He took me through a CRM initial many moons ago and he came across as a nice chap.

More pics of the 61 lift at the Lecht ski centre from earlier in this thread: https://www.pprune.org/5487309-post1143.html

Thanks Watson1963 - I hadn’t realised there had been a post about this already.

It looks like the handwritten date at the top of the article was wrong (or I couldn’t read it accurately!) - 1979 seems more in keeping than 1999.