....and a few people pics of which we may have seen a couple before but were left in my "to post" folder.

Being useless at remembering names I will not embarass myself by guessing them all wrongly!

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The first picture is of Alan Green (original ops director) & Clive Wright.

The third picture is of Tim Collins, some politician, & Mike Wood.

Unless I am totally wrong (which I might be at the grand old age of 63), I think the 4th picture is of "Johnny" Johnson, my first Chief Pilot in Bristows.

When I got married in 1969, Johnny flew me and the Mrs away from our reception in a Jetranger "borrowed" for the day.

I wonder whether Johnny is still with us

John Whale

I've got a few hours in HAM (Mss Piggy) but either don't remember or never knew that guy walking away from that fine aircraft.

Hi John
I think you are right about that last photo being Johnny Johnson, especially if he had a bad stammer. I met that Johnson in 1974 in Doha when he was the manager of Gulf Helicopters. Decency prevents me from saying more!:ok:

When I was in Teheran in 1968 there was a South African engineer in town on time off from the Zagross operation who looked a bit like the guy in the photo. Johnny Johnson did my 206 conversion in Khorramshahr in March '68 and I'm sure he was a lot older than the chap in the photo?

Definately Johnny Johnson..seen here in the left seat of G-SOLY during a test flight and featured for flight international.

1979 | 3657 | Flight Archive

That South African engineer was probably a Rhodesian called Don Murray, we were in the RRAF together. He was my best mate and died in Jedda in about 1969/70.

real glad you posted that article on the bell 47, remember reading it once and wishing I'd kept it but have now been able to print off yours. Happy days!

My guess is that 42 years ago he would have appeared alot older than perhaps he was ;). When I arrived in Aberdeen I thought Terry Young was old - I now realise he was younger than I am now! :uhoh:

Bolkow I'm glad you enjoyed the article...just a small piece of UK helicopter history that JJ was involved in. :ok:

Jeez! JJ it is then, makes me wonder just how old I looked in those days!:)

.....and a couple of early Aberdeen I guess....lots of tractors in those days!

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They obviously didn't bother with immersion suits in the old days, did the passengers have life jackets?

I resent the queen of the skies being called a tractor :*

Hi Dave

It must have been pre Lee Smith ditching in "HN" as there are no mods to be seen on the S61N from the photo

Reference Immersion Suits, I can't remember. Senility strikes again. I know when I started flying the S61N in Aberdeen in 1973, it was shirt sleeve order. Nothing until after Lee's ditching and then there were those horrendous flotable orange jackets. Mustang was it? I do remember the pax had to come and pick up their own cases though

Looking through my logbook, I see the names of my Co-Pilots then. - Mike Green, John (101) Allerton, Jerry Wright, John McGregor, Kit Chambers, Alan (The Glove) Price, Mike Kennedy, Peter Barnes but to name a few.....



JohnW

Hey Parabellum

I note you leave your age off. Thats not fair. We are all getting older!!!

Are you sure it was March 68 that JJ did your 206 conversion cos I just checked with my logbook and he did my line check on 20th April 1968 in Ws55s3 G-APRW in TanTan, Morocco

Now wouldnt your motto be more impressive if it was

Cha togar m' fhearg gun dìoladh

Best wishes from Wales

JohnW

Russ Smith?

Russ Smith's ditching was in G-AZNE. I have heard the story of the G-BBHN ditching though.

Tip Cap - John, JJ was only visiting Iran to do conversions to the 206 as he was one of the few TREs then, he signed me off on March 24th so could easily have been in Morocco a month later, he was quite famous for his expenses I seem to remember!;)

Don't think your motto would look so good on a Black Watch cap badge somehow, but would be equally relevant!

No, don't put my age up, (was 69 last week), I used to fancy older women but now I fancy younger women!:)

Hello John W
 

Hello John, Rhys here.

[email protected]

I seem to recall whirlybirds in sumburgh dishing out really crappy orange survival suits in about 77-78, but can't swear they were the first. I know alot of the guys were trying to get into Jenny's suit !!:ok:

Ahhhh..... Jenny wet suit.:D:D:D
3D..;)

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FH
 

The above picture reminds me of the time I was in the club cinema at Port Harcourt, in the early seventies watching one of those rubbish James Bond type spin off films that were around at the time.
If my memory serves me correctly. the hero was played by Dene Martin.

At the end of the film, our hero was floating around in the ocean in a life raft, when what should come chugging into view but FH. The last time I had seen it was looking sad outside the Redhill hanger.

The rest of the aedience was amused at my cheering, and justiculating, "theres FH"

Early Aberdeen
 

When I started at Aberdeen in 1971 as a co-pilot, there was just VR-BDU which became G-AZNE later ditched by Russ Smith and John McGregor (sadly both no longer with us) off the Glomar North Sea. The second S61 was G-AZDC, the Elivie rebuild carried out at Redhill which arrived around 25 Jan 1972. That was about the time that the first Bristow hangar was finished. Before that, most maintenance was done outside and the office/crew room/check-in was the old RAF Dyce Station Headquarters building. Aah, the days of Decca plots and Spilsbury Tindall HF aerial tuning! Bill Law, Gabby Gaard, Bob Balls and even Alastair Gordon. Mike Green was the only other co-pilot in the very early days, if I remember correctly.

Hey . I just heard that the chief Eng . Lee Bannister had died from Cancer .

Had a few laughs with him in Eket , PH and Lagos too ..... decent bloke , sadly missed .

Hope his missis will be ok ?

G-AVNE last year, under restoration at Weston-super-Mare

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Stewart McKilligin
 

Picked up from the Press & Journal and passed to me by Peter Donaldson

Notice of Death: MCKILLIGIN Stewart Fiddes, of Helendale House, Lerwick, Shetland, peacefully, on Tuesday, June 8, 2010

Acknowledgement: MCKILLIGIN The family of the late Stewart Fiddes McKilligin would like to thank all relatives, friends and neighbours for their kind expressions of sympathy extended to them by cards, flowers and phone calls following their sad loss. Thanks to Alan Richardson for conducting the service, to Goudie's (Shetland) and Ian Esslemont (Huntly) for efficient funeral arrangements, to The Forbes Arms Hotel, Rothiemay for a lovely tea, and to all who paid their last respects at the chapel and graveside. Sadly missed.

It is sad to report the death of Stew McKilligin (RIP) from ill health at the age of 70. Stew was Chief Pilot of Qaleh Morgi in Iran when I arrived there in 1969. I know he also was CP at Unst on the S61N in the early days

Peter Donaldson, Dave Smith, Malcolm Mead and Richard Hambly were present at the funeral representing those from Bristow Past.

JohnW

I flew Stuart in Unst in the mid 90's when he returned from Kerteh. A real character. He was number one on the senior captains list at the time.

I'm sad to hear of his death.

B****y hell, yet another gent departs.:sad: What a character! I also knew Stewart in Unst, fine times!
RIP.

3D

TipCap

John Allerton finished his career with British Regional on the 146 some years ago circa 2002/3. As far as I know he stays local to Aberdeen and is a skilled metalworker in his shed.

Thanks Kiltie

Yes I remember "101" was pretty skilled outwith flying. It is nice to know he is still local and not done a "runner" like some of us!!

JohnW

Wasn't it more like wuun oh wuun....

Remember old grumpy Jim in the radio room.....I used to dread being on radio room duty as a co pilot when old Jim was on duty...he was a good guy but didn't like co pilots much!

Remember Kedge Good and then Jack Westwell?
DC

Names From The Past
 

I was sorry to hear about Stewart McKilligin, he was a great guy. He was based in the early days here at Aberdeen. Kedge Good, a real gent, as I recall wore a cravat most if not all of the time while he was working in the radio room which at the time was located in the corner of the original hanger here at Aberdeen. Nobody will ever forget Jack Westwell, handlebar mouser and little orange beetle. Even after he retired he still came back to see us every so often. These guys, among many others, were real characters and made Aberdeen what it was. I met Malcolm Mead last year at a charity day in Dyce and this Wednesday bumped into Fred Small at B&Q, looking good and keeping occupied by sailing and touring, still lives in Aberdeen.

.....and a miscellaneous collection, which are the last of the Bristow archive photos I was sent by my undercover operatives at Redhill. There are a few slides to post when I get a minute to scan them on my cheapo Maplins slide scanner.


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Nice to see the pictures in the recent thread of G-ANFH ( now looking very sorry for itself at The Helicopter Museum awaiting some kind retired people to volunteer to restore it ..any room at Aberdeen or Redhill where more bodies might come forward and be available ??),G-AODA (also at the Museum but in fine fettle(),Wessex GAVNE (Progressing slowly..but mainly now in the rebuild stage) and the Widgeon ,mostly restored now but still looking for a couple of the cockpit glazings to be replaced...the curved ones unfortunately ).

enjoying to see them photos:ok:

Have someone any photos of frederick .W. Legrys as i don't have any photos when he was young .

Thank you muchly

Just as a change from dragging through the black & white achives here are a couple of shots from Briistows recent operation for RAMSI (Regional Assistance Mission to the Solomon Islands).

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That used to be GTIGU once upon a time.

A very select bunch of pilots and engineers flew on this most Easterly of Bristow operations. Twenty-four hour Casvac and SAR cover for over a thousand islands. For this there was Nitesun, sponson and internal overload fuel tanks and GPS suitable for airfield approaches.

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On a beach by a police station on the South side of Guadalcanal. One of our tasks was to undersling 6 barrels of diesel to Rennel Island some 125 nm south. The departure was at 20,000lbs, a climb to 7,000 over the mountain range and then down to 2,000 ft, 90 knots across the sea. Drop it, land to unload the internal cargo and then fly back without refuelling.

For those who have been to Belize; there are worse places.