PPRuNe Forums - The Rotary Nostalgia Thread

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Sav................

'tis Biggin Hill.......... Express Aviation hangar, always worth a visit in those days.

Planemike

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'tis Biggin Hill.......... Express Aviation hangar, always worth a visit in those days.

Aye! Tho I first set eyes on it till about a decade later (1975), when it would have been partially obscured by a Britannia from that viewpoint! 'NFH could be seen flogging the circuit with Bristows at Redhill in '75...

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but .. someone might recognise the Piper hanger.

And I should have been among those who would recognise it given how often I visited there as a youngster with my late father!

Planemike: Thanks. The Express Aviation hangar .. which side was this on do you recall? The same side as the Decca hangar and Air Touring or on the opposite side with Fairflight and Surrey & Kent?

I remember that somewhere 'in between' was a 'Sportair' semi-circular roof hangar outside of which a red and white Hughes 500D would sometimes pitch up (mid-to-late 70's).

Someone emailed me last year telling me that Gordon King of King Air at one time had a helicopter but .. I've been unable to verify this.

Mamma mia! I never thought I would see her again!

It brings back some memories (not all of them grand).

Shall have to dig out the ones I have of MPN.

Great stuff! :ok:

The Express Aviation hangar was also the Decca hangar - Decca's fleet (in 1975 the Bell 47, Jetstream and Percival Prince) occupied the western end with several other residents - there was a wall or partition as I recall.

The Sportair hangar is the blister hangar set back in the trees close to the threshold of 29 - apart from Sportair's fleet, it also used to be occupied by Micro Consultants who had a Shrike Commander and SF-260 and I think there was a Hughes 500 at one point. they eventually got a Citation in there I think!

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Planemike: Thanks. The Express Aviation hangar .. which side was this on do you recall? The same side as the Decca hangar and Air Touring or on the opposite side with Fairflight and Surrey & Kent.

The photo is from the very early 60s, I am guessing 62. At that time the only hangar down that corner of the field was the the black Bellman. Express were in the east facing end, towards the woods. treadi is correct the Decca Prince and later others were also in that part of the hangar. AA Rapide (later an Apache) was also a resident.

As I recall the opposite end was occupied by a company that operated several American registered Bell 47s. Cannot bring the name of the company to mind. Edit: 08 May. It was World Wide, see this thread: http://www.pprune.org/rotorheads/513...licopters.html

Just checked my notes it is 50 years ago this month that I first visited BH for the first Air Fair 04 May 63.

Planemike

PS The hangar is visible in the background of this photo.http://www.abpic.co.uk/images/images/1108326M.jpg

Quick bit of sleuthing with GINFO - the Hughes 500 was G-BESS! MCL owned her between '77 and early '81.

Ah ... dear old G-BESS. So good to see her again. I started Skyline Helicopters at Wycombe Air Park circa 1982 when one of our first acquisitions was the G-BESS 500D for my co-director Peter Milward. Now scratching my head, I recall the occasion we used a second 500 (G-HOOK?) to lift G-BESS from where she landed safely following an engine failure auto into an Oxford college field of standing crop. The college wouldn't allow us to go in with a lorry so we simply removed the C-20 which dropped the weight to something in the region of 1300lbs and long-lined her back to safety.

The wonderful, Guy Ralph Scott was of course the Express MD at Biggin Hill, and in the late 1970s I regularly visited him as a co-Piper dealer. He was a great diner and would take us down to the pub in Westerham, (Kings Head or Crown perhaps?) but now a block of flats or some sort of business HQ although it still bears the name of the pub! .... I'm also trying to think of the name of the research TV firm who owned the Citation and whose boss was later knighted, but the brain cells are not what they used to be! He also flew an AS350 Squirrel.

And thanks for the Hong Kong blues song. Ain't life weird! ... At the time George Harrison seemed surprised that anyone would have known of the blues tune ... certainly when he played his version for myself and Barry Sheene. And great to hear that Barry's life is remembered with an annual run down under. Does Stephanie take part in any way? I'm sure many are aware of Barry's previous 500, G-STEF.

Want another Bazza story? ... Circa 1986/7, I attended a Castle Donnington Motocycle GP. There I met my old student Barry in the car park, which we were using as a helipad for our camera ship 500. My company March Helicopters was covering the event for the early days of David Earl's TV2 micro-wave system. Having landed after the morning practice, Barry asked if he could do the camera ship flying for the race. So off he went and with his knowledge of race tactics, probably did a better job than I could.
Take care all ...... Dennis K.

PS. G-BESS pictured at the Aviator Hotel. Sywell of course. DRK

Sav,

G-ANFH finished up at Bristow's in 1969 and was used at Blackpool for several months.

Best Regards.

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AA Rapide (later an Apache) was also a resident.

https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-p...ughes%2529.jpg
Automobile Association De Havilland DH89A Dragon Rapide G-AHKV at Biggin Hill in 1959 (Photo: Jerry Hughes)

A great shame this photo is not in colour for, if it were, you would see the delightful Rapide in bright yellow with black piping.

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-P...amlin%2529.jpg
Automobile Association Piper PA23-160 Apache G-APZE at Biggin Hill on 12th May 1967 (Photo: John Hamlin)

Planemike: Thanks for the further description. If it was one and the same hangar as the one used by Decca (as Treadigraph suggests) then I remember it well.

G-ARIA (the Decca Bell 47) and her pilot 'Robin' Hood have of course be covered earlier in the thread on pages 71 and 80.

Sadly there weren't that many blitterblats at Biggin in the 60's and 70's. I remember that if you passed to the right of the Decca/Express Aviation hangar past more curved roof hangars at the very end was an Air and Space Autogyro owned (I think) by someone called Chris Devere? Anyway, whoever it was ended-up landing the thing on our property in the early 70's when my father used to keep his planks at Biggin.

Treadigraph: Thank you for your investigative work! Great to discover that the craft I saw at Sportair ends-up having so much relevance and was also to be found in 'Eric the Ferret's' photo album!

Denissimo: I remember BESS well too .. as Peter would regularly fly into Booker in the mornings using this craft. Do you recall the incident where he 'dinged' the tail rotor on one of the chain posts surrounding the helipad at Skyline? Nobby had to run out and tell him to shut down (he was doing the 2-3 minute cool down) before the tail shook itself to pieces!

Oldlae: Many thanks. :ok: Its been too long since we heard from you last!

Dennis, would that be Peter Michael who - so Wikipedia tells me - founded both Micro Consultants and Quantel - never knew what they did till I read the article on Wiki!

Sav, a mere tickle compared with your heard work!

Yes I can only remember those two as regular helicopters at Biggin, and rather more when the British Grand Prix was at Brands Hatch.

The two blister hangars beyond Express contained some interesting airframes. the far one as you say had the Air & Space 18A plus a dilapidated Commander 500 both owned by Interflight - Chris de Vere was certainly associated with Biggin Hill.

The other blister hangar next to Express contained an American Lear 25 for a bit. Both blisters collapsed under the weight of snow on separate occasions in the 1980s/1990s.

Master Bates, Mrs Grundy and The Great Sempini

The F4 Phantom was introduced to Royal Naval service in 1969 and this September Air Day was the navy's first chance to show off this spectacularly powerful and beautiful aircraft.

The pre-display briefing started as a rather intense and detailed affair. The room was crowded and after Met Briefing it developed into a detailed discussion between various stovies about wind direction, maximum allowable crosswinds and runway changes. One felt it was a day for the helicopter fraternity to be seen but not heard. It was not our party.

But, half way through the session Cdr (Air) asked whether there were any questions so far. At the back, a young RAF Flt. Lieutenant, on exchange with 845, stood and asked if his Wessex V could be positioned further down the dispersal area for the start of his display. Cdr (A) said all aircraft positions had been carefully planned and was this change necessary. The Flt. Lt. said it was otherwise he was going to have to overfly the display line at low level and he was anxious that his piano should not fall into the crowd by accident. All faces were now turned back toward this intruder. Rather nonplussed and anxious to get things back on track quickly Cdr (A) said to do whatever was safest and were there any more questions.

Colin Bates, or Mrs Grundy as we must now call him, stood and asked if he could park his Hiller closer to the hardstanding on completion of his display, as at present he was going to have to walk 500 yards across soft grass in a tight skirt and high heeled shoes.

This rather upset the gravitas of the rest of the briefing.

Colin's display went well. The PA had been calling for some time for Mrs Grundy to go to the Control Tower as she had won the draw for a trip in a helicopter. I positioned the Hiller in front of the crowd, the doors having been removed for ease of access. Mrs Grundy duly appeared and tottered toward the aircraft. Since she was obviously "Having difficulty with the straps" I left the aircraft and walked around to help her strap in. Once Colin was happy he gave me the nod and to ensure things got off to a flying start I tweeked the twistgrip open. Colin grabbed a handful of lever to control the revs and he was off.

The sight of the poor little old lady trapped alone in the helicopter and obviously out of control always shocked then entertained the crowd and Colin did it extremely well.

The Wessex with the underslung piano went equally well but for all the wrong reasons.

The commentator announced its arrival from stage left,

"Carrying one of the priceless pianos from Lord Bath's collection and today being played by Sempini the world renowned concert pianist, who is playing a short selection from his repetoire".

The piano was on the underslung hook, Sempini on the winch wire secured to the piano by a short strop. Inside the piano was a Marker Marine flare.

Honky Tonk music was being played over the PA as Sempini, dressed in top hat and tail coat was flown down the crowd line.

When suddenly,

"Oh dear, Sempini's playing seems to have set fire to the piano".

Sure enough smoke is seen billowing from the piano. The Wessex climbs slowly away and after what seems like an age and at a great height the piano is seen to fall away and crash noisily onto the intersection of the two runways, thus halting all proceedings until the wreckage has been cleared. An unusually good shot for the RAF!

What we did not realise at the time but found out later was that the Marker Marine, usually immersed in seawater, had really set fire to the piano. The heat being such that Sempini had to lean away from the piano which had made it extremely difficult to release the strop. As flames started to lick toward the belly of the aircraft the pilot wanted to release the hook but was prevented from doing so because Sempini was still attached to the piano. Eventually Sempini managed to release the strop and was winched in, allowing the pilot to drop the piano with the result already described.

The moral of the story must be not to take part in Air Days.

ICO: Fantastico! Bravo! :D

Thank you very much for taking the time to relay this amusing story, much appreciated! :ok: Sounds like you all had great fun.

Do you suppose any of these displays was ever captured on cine camera or the like?

The Summerlee Files ..

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-l...an+on+lift.JPG
Jim Summerlee with Westland Whirlwind on lift with Capt. Maclean (not sure which ship)

https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-W...off+Cyprus.JPG
Jim Summerlee, with crewmen Mitchell and Hazel (testing winch) aboard HMS Eagle on 14th June 1956, off the coast of Cyprus

For Treadigraph.

Yes Sir ... With memory jogged it surely was Peter Michael who became Sir Peter. Around the early 1980s when your TV became capable of all sorts of changing picture perspectives with subject words flying off one corner of the screen ... you can thank Peter Michael and his business Quantel for that technology. The word was that he exhibited his system at an electronic show event in America and the resultant interest and orders launched his business to stratospheric levels.

Many of us will remember dear Colin Bates who was sadly lost with a tail rotor failure on his Bell 206. I think he was with Air Hanson at the time.

Regards to all. Dennis Kenyon.

PS ... the great man was Semprini. A classical and modern concert pianist. DRK

More Summerlee ..

The Navy Days

https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-7...e+distance.JPG
Freddie Wilcox with Dapper Berrill. Admiral Sir Philip Vian further along the deck

I think the insinuation here is that Wilcox and Berrill had the Admiral in the 'palm of their hands' which, viewed obliquely, could be a little worrying but .. not altogether unusual for Navy types! ;)

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-f...Staff+Type.JPG
Waiting for a Boat: (L-R Seated) Danny Kaye, Jim Summerlee, Freddie Wilcox, Duncan Lang and Jack Hayster. (Standing) A staff type c. 1950's

Back in the days when most people didn't possess massive wardrobes .. but what they had allowed them to appear respectable! ;)