Dennisimo Ciao! Great to see you back on the thread again!

Newforest: The craft in question was G-SPEY (formerly G-BIGO) and I was also told about her association with RR but would like to learn more.

As far as I was aware the last 'corporate' helicopter to be owned by Rolls in those days was G-BATB (a Bo105) which was bought by Ferranti who then operated her under contract on behalf of Rolls.

NJT: Great stuff! :ok:

I'm sure we shall happen upon some more stories as time goes by - hard not to with a character like that!

Because the records showed Cadbury as being CHOC's first owner I mistakenly believed that Cadbury had bought her new from CSE (given that she was a Bell as opposed to an Agusta). Then on page 11 Tarman disclosed that CHOC had originally been D-HMAC below:

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/__...7gY4/DHMAC.jpg
Bell 206B D-HMAC

https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/__...she%201978.jpg
G-CHOC at Blackbush in 1978 (Photo courtesy of Helipixman)

I was intrigued when I saw HMAC because I was imagining the Cad requesting that his craft be repainted in an identical scheme to HMAC's - even including the white piping around the circumference of the windshield - until it dawned on me .. the Cad .. ordering a full repaint? No! And I am now fairly certain that the reason CHOC's scheme followed HMAC's so faithfully is because he probably settled for having the red portions painted over in the Air Pegasus navy blue as opposed to ordering a full strip down and respray. At least that's what happened to the Pitts Special he bought from Rothmans!

Do you have any recollections of importing HMAC from Germany?

S.

G-baks & g-bcwm
 

KS and WM were both aircraft operated by Dollar at Coventry. I remember KS as the heaviest 206 as it had floats (at the time) and also a Janitrol heater. Only one I ever flew with one - fuel burn changed from 26US gp/h to 29.5.

Looking on G-INFo, I note that WM was owned in it's early days by the now Sir Norman Foster, a very smooth pilot who I had the pleasure of flying with on a few occasions.

NJT - I think you are mistaken with G-BCEU - it is a Cameron hot air balloon according to G-INFO

Aaah, the missing apostrophe! The owner of the helicopter had a Rolls Royce car in those colours, there was no connection, as far as I know, with Rolls Royce, the aeronautical company. The registrations quoted don't ring a bell (!).

.
Newforest: It is interesting because, as mentioned, SPEY was rumoured to have had something to do with Rolls. If this was the case then certainly it was somehow connected with Craggan Chaise in Edinburgh who were the initially registered owners of SPEY.

https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/__.../s720/spey.jpg
AgustaBell 206B G-SPEY

In her early days SPEY always wore pop-outs and became fairly well known in the UK after being bought by Roy Flood's outfit when she became the communications relay aircraft for G-BHXU in a television series they (Castle Air) were involved with.

Seeing as we now have a trio of ex-Mann PPRuNers who regularly visit this nostalgia thread I am hopeful that someone may be able to identify the green and gold aircraft in question. There were not terribly many 206's in those colours in the UK during the late 70's early 80's, two perhaps three at most.

Re: BCEU, NJT perhaps meant BBEU?

I have additional details about BAKS (and BBEU for that mattter) but its getting late so I shall leave that for another post!

S.

Thats how I remeber her as well, do you have any other Twyford Moors related photo's? I worked there a young un-licensed Engineer between 1973 and 1974 just before their demise, unfortunately all my old photo's from that period are lost!

S

.
Stacey Hi

Yes, there are several PPRuNers with images of Twyford ships and at least a couple of pilots who flew with them have visited this thread. I shall browse through my image bank and see what I've got.

In the meantime .. any registrations you might be able to russtle-up would be great. :ok:

Most importantly would you be able to describe a little about TMH, some of the characters involved, what sort of work they did, where they were based etc.

Brgds

S.

Speaking of TWM's machines


WA-341G, c/n 1073, produced as TWM001 for Twyford Moors; regd 16/5/73 G-BAZL for Westland Helicopters Ltd.; delivered 17/9/73 at Southampton to the Twyford Moors (Helicopters) Ltd.; regd 25/9/73 same reg to Twyford Moors Helicopters Ltd.

Here Goes for names of the 'Top of me Ead'

Colin York General Manager
Mike Janes Chief Engineer
Brian Hazel Inspector
Martin Veneman LAE
Roger Leale LAE
Chris Elms LAE
Henry ? Fitter
Tony Brown Fitter
Dave Chapman (Deceased)
Dave Blake Fitter
Simon Cousins Fitter
Chris ? Stores
Sid ? Overhaul Shop

As for registrations memory vague but G-BAZL stands out as she was the first Aerospatiale Gazelle in UK I believe.

Aircraft types

Bell 47 D1, G, G2, J2A, Enstrom 28 including one that had been converted to turbine and back to piston again, like to know the story on that one!, Hughes 269A, 269B, 300's, Fairchild Hiller F110's and a Westlands Dragonfly parked around the back, whose blades were written off by the labourer driving the grass cutting tractor over them when they were stored underneath the tailboom for safe keeping!!

The sketch of drinking beer with Vfr440 and reminicsing sounds like a good Idea!

Thats her!!

S

Stacey, glad to help you recall some good memories :)

Re the first civil Gazelle in UK, actually it was also Westland produced c/n 1039 G-BAGL regd Oct72 for Point-to-Point Helicopters ;)

Stacey,

Where did Roger Leale go after TM?

G-BAZL was used for special-branch operations in and around London when TM had the Metropolitan Police contract.

Jim

Roger went back to Bristows for a contract in India I believe, then to Dubai where I met him again in 1978 when he was chief Engineer for Aerogulf along with Marti Slater and I was with Bristow Dubai, he then left there of into the wild blue yonder to resurface again in Doha as Chief Engineer in 1981 he left long ago around mid eighties I think and Thats where the trail goes cold I'm afraid, if he's still kicking he must be creeping into his eighties by now!

S

Roger Leale

Roger Leale was last seen when I was doing an engineering audit of the Oman Royal Flight in the early nineties, when he was about to spend a weekend camping on an island. Roger was the C/E of the Oman Police Wing. He is probably in his seventies!

TMH, recall and booze (forthcoming)
 

Stace, good recall there. Mike Janes is now retired and living in Cardiff. Haven't seen him in a bit but he has a full head of black hair (still!). :suspect:

As to the 'taking of tea', I am sure that S and TRC would be delighted to have your company. I believe you have been known to sip the occasional G & T; have you advised S or shall I............?!! :)

Take care and love to the family catch you soon? ~ VFR

Joe McGachy MD of Clyde Helicopters
 

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2547/...5939a744_b.jpg

Joe McGachy MD of Clyde Helicopters pulling LR STVI onto the pad,1988, seems only like yesterday.

Also George Muir the 'Eye in the Sky'
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2803/...acf19d4c_o.jpg

for griffothefog
 

at Clyde's Heliport doing shuttles to the Golf at Troon 1989.

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4097/...3624d9d2_b.jpg

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5135/...40e03910_b.jpg

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5058/...d6a4ba0f_b.jpg

G-AZAG

This aircraft is memorable (for me anyway) for two reasons in particular.
It had self-stripping paint – a previous re-spray by someone hadn’t been done too well, and every time it got back from a trip there’d be another bit missing. We reckoned that it enabled the pilot to find his way back by following the blue specks on the ground.
The other reason is that the Fairoaks Cricket team were very kindly loaned AG by Donald McQueen (a charming man, who either owned it or had a fair bit of authority over what it did) for a return match against RAF Odiham. They had turned up in a Puma for the first game, so not to be outdone we visited them in a pair of 206’s, with a run and break over their airfield. (We found our way back using the bits of AG as a nav aid).

G-AZYB

We had to do a spruce insert repair to one or the M/R blades after the owner whacked a trailing edge into something in his showroom while wheeling the machine out to come to us for it’s annual birthday. The first we knew of the damage was when we heard what sounded like the Flying Scotsman coming towards us. It had been ‘temporarily repaired’ with masking tape by the well-meaning owner.
Geoffersincornwall might remember doing a compass swing on a very hot day – if he pedal turned left the helicopter would land uncommanded.
She ended up at the Heli Museum after an engine failure, and the subsequent forced landing cracking the casting at the end of the tailboom. With no spare available worldwide that was the end of her working life.

NJT

Hello Nick, great to hear from you after – what – 31 years or so? We’ll have to all meet up at Savoia’s expense and catch up.

G-LIFT

A Bell 47G-2 owned by Donald McQueen and imported by him. Memorable for two reasons again. Engine oil pressure that was always a bit on the low side, and also the fact that it had no hydraulic shut-off valve when it arrived. We had to ‘retro-fit’ something that should have already been there.

G-BBEU

Should be made famous for being the reason why Manns built a 206 fuselage repair jig to replace its roof.
Went to BCAL and that’s the last I saw of it.

The green and gold 206 in question is almost certainly G-SPEY.

TMH

I remember watching a TMH 269A on the Met Police contract overpitching into the Thames one hot summer morning. It was replaced on the contract with a B47, and then the Gazelle – we always assumed that was why they went to the wall, running a contract with a 341 at 269A prices (probably a wrong assumption though).
The auction of TMH assets was (I’m quite sure) administered by the infamous Wally Holmes. All the stuff that was left to auction had been carefully arranged so that anything worth having would be accompanied in the same lot by a load of worthless junk. Two well known CEs of the era conspired to bid against Wally in the hope that he’d end up with some of the crap, it backfired a few times and we ended up with things like an almost complete set of 206 fixed float tubework, and a B47J cabin that was so battered you couldn’t have kept chickens in it.

Did Brian Hazel go to PLM/PDG?

G-BAKS
 

Great reflections on Bond and Clyde (above) as well as Twyford Moors - please keep the stories from TMH coming!

On the previous page I posted a screenshot of G-BAKS in response to something similar by WiganAirways on page 22 where G-AWJL appeared in an episode of The Saint.

G-BAKS was first mentioned on page 3 of this thread when, as we discussed John Crewdson, PPRuNer Low Flier noted that John had handed over the job of flying BAKS in the Bond movie 'For Your Eyes Only' to Marc Wolfe. It was of course this movie which made BAKS 'famous' as it were and herewith is the flying sequence from the 1981 film:


Here's the interesting thing (well, for some at least); at the time BAKS performed her role in Bond #12 she was owned by the Lord Dulverton who's first 206 (G-AZAG) appears on the previous page (courtesy of Helipixman) - we are still on the lookout for anyone with recollections of Lord Dulverton and his helicopter operations.

BAKS, an AgustaBell 206B, began her life in 1972 being delivered to her original owner, Galliford Construction of Banstead in Surrey, in December the same year. Galliford's pilot was a chap called Chris Powell an ex-RN Commando role pilot. When Galliford's closed in 1976 Chris joined the Ferranti team, initially at their Gatwick base then moving to Shoreham. Chris went on (as did many of Ferranti's pilots) to join BCalH and was posted to ABZ where he became S-76 fleet manager. (Details courtesy of PPRuNer Speechless Two).

After Gallifords BAKS was bought by Lord Dulverton of Oversley Castle, Wixford, Alcester, Warwickshire, who kept her until 1994 when she was sold to Stephenson Marine of Wrecclesham, Farnham under whose tenure BAKS met her demise.

It was on 14th November 1997 that BAKS was destroyed while returning to Goodwood in Sussex from having completed a charter to Basingstoke in Hampshire. The accident report reads: "The fuselage had impacted in an almost inverted attitude with initial ground contact made by the aircraft's nose followed by the cabin roof. Prior to this, one rotor blade had already struck the ground destroying that blade and causing the detachment of the rotor hub from its mast." The accident was weather related and the pilot was killed. (I would been keen to know if anyone recalls who was lost in this tragedy).

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/__...osiezny%29.jpg
BAKS outside the Dollar hangar at Coventry on 27th June 1979. (Photo: Alan Mosiezny)

https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/__...%20Bell%29.jpg
BAKS at the Leicester Airshow on 26th August 1979 [on her way to collect the commentator for the Red Arrows]. (Photo: John Bell)

https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/__...Parliament.jpg
BAKS over Westminster painted in the colours of the MI6 front 'Universal Exports' in the role that made her famous during the filiming of Bond 12.

S.

.
TRC's post 'landed' as I was preparing mine .. great stuff!

I've noted yours and Stacey's and VFR's comments re: the shindig. I shall take care of the tab for the 'lost evening' to be!

TRC, I will PM you prior to my next visit to the UK and you can then perhaps coordinate with the others. Hopefully you can choose somewhere reasonably central for us all to meet and, given our intentions, it is probably best to identify somewhere with accommodation as I doubt whether driving will be on the cards for a while afterwards.

Best

S.

That's a very generous offer - but have you taken leave of your good senses man?? You'll have to thumb a lift back to sunny Italy after sponsoring such an evening.

I'll gladly sort something out with the others - NJT, VFR and I are fairly handy for London, but Stacey will have to wangle some leave from lovely Doha.

I'll leave any further invitations to you and your bank manager.

.
TRC: According to your own recollections you drove my godfather on the back of a motorcycle from Battersea to the Waldorf at a time when he was unable to secure any other means of transportation!

Let's call it my appreciation for getting him there in one piece.

S.

Brian Hazell
 

TRC
Yes he did. In fact, though a little fuzzy, I believe he initially went to Scotland with the intention of running a rabbit farm? If I am wrong someone please correct the addled brain cells. But then did some occasional contracting work. I shall see PB next week and HE will know. Will report back.

I saw him from time to time whilst travelling about but am fairly sure he went to the big bar in the sky - where he has joined old mutual friends in racking up my bar bill, (and I'm pleased to settle it when the time comes!!) _ VFR

That's true, but when I offered it was very tongue in cheek.

Chris, in that case it is the person I thought it was, and I can confirm that he is sitting on a stool in that bar. Lovely bloke.

Savoia

I can't give you the name of the pilot killed in G-BAKS, but as I recall, it was a guy who initially did his PPL with Bruce Holben at Blades (as I did) and then went on to do his CPL.

It's been interesting watching this thread - the way I got into helicopters in the first place was that I used to charter Geoff Cox in his Jet Ranger back in the early '80's, who used to fly me, along with clients in an out of Battersea to our family home in Surrey. I used to drive to Brooklands to meet him to get a few extra minutes flying time out of the charters.

The Jet Ranger he used (I'm afraid I can't remember the registration) was later sold to a man in Greece, and he and I flew it out there. He retired thereafter.

.
Estepo: Ciao!

On page 10 Charlie Hughesdon (owner of Tradewinds Airlines) was discussed. At that time I enquired about his pilot who I had met several times at Brooklands. On page 12 TRC confirmed that Hughesdon's pilot was Geoff Cox. I recall him being slightly tall, slim, greying and extremely polite. I was only a young lad in those days but he always took time to indulge my inquisitiveness. A true gent!

I don't know the full extent of Hughesdon's rotary fleet but a couple of pages back on page 22 Helipixman posted an image of G-BAKU (one of Peter Cadbury's 206's) and, barely visible in the hangar behind it, was G-AXGO. Hughesdon bought AXGO in October of 1975 but the craft crashed and was written-off three years later in April of '78. Brief details of the accident appear in post #433 of page 22.

Hughesdon then bought G-BTWA a Bell 206B which had been owned by Baron Heinrich von Furstenberg in Germany. Hughesdon took delivery of TWA in October '78 and, intriguingly, kept her in Furstenburg's old colours even retaining his Baronial crest which appeared on the craft's tail.

As you say, the craft was sold to Greece in June 1985. Please tell me that you took some photos of the delivery flight!

In the accident report for G-BAKS the following is mentioned in relation to the pilot:



https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/__...ADU/gbtwa1.jpg
Charles Hughesdon's second Bell 206, G-BTWA arriving at Battersea and doubtless being flown by the venerable Geoff Cox and perhaps being chartered by Estepo!

S.

D-HMAC to G-CHOC
 

CHOC arrived at Fairoaks as D-HMAC from Germany. I’m not certain but I think Nigel Thornton collected it. To my recollection we (engineering) had not carried out any inspection prior to purchase. The UK mods and C of A was carried out by us under the watchful eye of Jack Clifton our CAA surveyor. I am a little hazy on this (help TRC) but I think we had to open up the main Transmission for a visual inspection. One of the spider bearings was all stripey, so we sent it all off to JGS at Heliwork for repair. A nice surprise for Mr Cadbury.
I do remember being very envious of a beautiful barrel roller spider bearing and gear ( with zebra rollers) which Roy Matthews acquired as the most expensive paperweight in Kent.

G-BBEU was the 206 I was thinking of, it was owned by The Lord Glendyne, or so the steel ID plaque said. The Jig repair was carried out before my time but I have a horrid feeling that someone in their wisdom decided that Cherry rivets were stronger than the original solids and would be ok. The whole repair was repeated when the CAA /Bell decided that Cherry rivets had to come out ! Then again that may have been Tony Walkers first machine? reg ?? Tom?

I noticed last year that Donald McQueen has passed away. I had no Idea he was such a celebrity :- Lieutenant-Commander Donald Macqueen - Telegraph

Savoia


Thanks for the reply! To my horror, and shame, I don't think I do have any photos of our flight to Greece. I remember clearly though, that when we got there, the new owner was there to meet us, and wanted Geoff to take him on a brief flight to welcome the machine.

Geoff would have none of it, saying that the machine's insurance was valid for the ferry flight only, which left the new owner slightly bemused......... He probably jumped in it anyway as soon as we'd left.

I remember a few photos of TWA outside our house - mostly because I was about 20kgs heavier than I am now (too many business lunches), and I always seemed to look like I should have just rolled rather than climbed out of the helicopter. The photo of TWA landing at Battersea is 90%+ one of our charters because I'm pretty sure I recognize the person in the back from the Rank Organization.

I used to suffer incredible guilt trips by never seeming to offer clients a trip in the front - I just couldn't bring myself to do it. They were clients after all, but my interest, generated, and encouraged by Geoff Cox meant that I've now enjoyed 25 years of rotary flying - I now own G-LEDR, a Gazelle which is usually here with me in southern Spain.

Happy days!

And of which I posted an image on the Gazelle Thread 11 days ago!

If you happen upon any photo's of TWA (when you were heavier) please do post them and, if you were down Surrey way you might have been not far from TWA's owner, Charles Hughesdon who lived in Ripley.

Also in Ripley was an outfit call Ben Turner Helicopters about which I am keen to discover more information.

Happy flying.

S.

G-BBEU
 

.
NJT: Thanks for the clarification on CHOC's ancestry. Can you also confirm that you painted over HMAC's 'red bits' or whether she was stripped down and repainted?

I mentioned Ben Turner Helicopters in the previous post and G-BBEU (a Bell) was delivered to Ben Turner Helicopters in August '73. From BTH she moved on to Heli-Air then Alan Mann. In January '78 she was bought from Mann's by International Messengers, a courier company founded by Andrew Walters, a close friend to my godfather Col. Bob.

Andrew had in fact approached Bob requesting whether Ferranti could supply a good quality used 206 but, since this request came in '77, the year Ferranti lost G-AVSN at Biggin Hill, there wasn't much they could do. SN had swiftly been replaced by the veritable G-BAKT which Ferranti was unwilling to sell as their fleet was fully committed at that time.

Bob did however manage to persuade Andrew to purchase a new Agusta-built 206 and shortly thereafter Ferranti placed this order with Mann's. The new aircraft was delivered in November '78 as G-OIML and was, to the best of my knowledge, the first Agusta-built JetRanger III in the UK. She was owned by International Messengers but operated by Ferranti. Unusually for a managed aircraft, IML wore Ferranti's livery complete with the Royal Mail cypher.

Back to BBEU; IM sold her to Hanson in July '81 whereafter she was exported to Uganda (via Autair) in June of the following year to become 5X-MIA. There she flew for the Uganda Police Air Wing until, as with every rotorcraft they have operated, she crashed during operational flying.

But .. I am at a loss to understand EU's BCal livery as she was never actually registered to BCal. One can only suppose that while owned by Hanson she was perhaps leased to BCal. Similarly NJT's recollection of her being owned by the Lord Glendyne - perhaps that was during her time with Mann's. Can anyone elaborate?

Any finally, what happened that necessitated her roof being changed?

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/__...0Lovell%29.jpg
BBEU at Brooklands (I think). (Photo: Graeme Lovell)

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/__...brooklands.jpg
BBEU at Brooklands wearing the BCalH livery. (Photo courtesy of Speechless Two)

BBEU was of course one of a pair bought by Ben Turner, her sister ship being BBET (below) but that is another story!

https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/__...sMQSU/BBET.jpg
Bell 206B G-BBET seen at Greenham Common on 6th July 1974. (Photo: Peter Nicholson)

S.

Ben Turner
 

S ... as you know, Ben Turner was based alongside the old wharf north of Ripley village. Don Donelly was one of the principals. I landed there in the early 1970s to demonstrate the new Enstrom to Don. I seem to remember he was a New Zealander or at least had the accent. In fact an ex-girlfriend, one Sylvia ... worked as their receptionist for a year and I used to drop her off for work most mornings. I'll go through my logs and see if I can come up with some reg numbers of the time.

I also landed in the back garden of the local Ripley manor house but can't recall the names involved. I do recall playing cricket for the Ripley Village team when I couldn't concentrate on the ball due to the noise of the Helicopter party over the brick boundary wall! The Hon CF Hughesden I understand. Happy days once again.

Dennis K.

Nigel Thorton

I was with Nigel in Abu Dhabi 1972-73, I heard that he had an accident but I do not have the details, does anyone have the story?

G-BBEU

The roof was changed due to suspected honeycombe delamination as per the Bell rep. It was decided to build a jig at Fairoaks rather than send the fuselage to Sweden (I think). During the 6 months or so that it took to sort the jig out, EU sat in the corner getting steadily smaller as the duty ‘Christmas Tree’.
We cut various bit out of the old roof after it was replaced but it seemed sound – oh well.

Tony Walker

He owned two 206’s consecutively – the second one was G-BTWW - can’t remember the reg of the first, and I think it was WW that needed the jig after a rather abrupt arrival into a ploughed field in S. Yorks.

Which roof job had the wrong rivets installed is beyond my capacity to remember, there were a lot of 206’s through that jig over the years, including a Ferranti machine.

Nigel Thornton

Nigel was killed when the Alouette II that he was flying hit wires in Yugoslavia while working on the film ‘High Road to China’ in 1982. Also aboard were a fixed wing pilot and the helicopter engineer, Andy Anderson, who had replaced me only the day before.

G-BAKS

The name Stephenson keeps ringing a nagging bell on this one.

G-SPEY
 

TRC
Wasn't G-SPEY 'lost at sea'? I seem to recall an engine failure en-route to the Channel Isles, ditched (no injuries, fortunately) and then sank. This was post our sale to Castle Air, I think.

NJT
I remember with great affection CAA's Jack Clifton; super chap. At my interview he told me that he was going to go for an OU degree in History upon retirement. I hope he succeeded; if he's still with us he'll be an 'elder' of the tribe; if he's not, then he'll be imbibing the odd glass of red wine upon my (huge) bar tab up there. Cheers Jack!

As an anecdotal tribute, just so everyone knows, Jack was the CAA liason officer with the development of Concorde. Had all the French team going with the response "Mustn't grumble" to the frequent "Comment ca va?" Completely confused!! :D He also endeared himself (to us, if not the French partners) by listening to a presentation by the Chief designer which everyone applauded. When asked what he thought of it he announced, loudly "Never heard such a load of bollox"............ :oh: This got him an interview at (then) Brabazon House, and the appointment as Surveyor-in-Charge at Weybridge.... !

Of such memories is the chequer-board of life fabricated. ~ VFR

G-SPEY wasn't the Castle Air B206 "Lost at Sea", she's still going strong still with Castle Air. She's joined the company in 1982, was sold in 2004 only to bought back in 2008

It was the actual star of 'Treasure Hunt' G-BHXU that ditched off Alderney on 29.6.95 piloted by Michael Malric-Smith, en-route Liskeard-Deauville. The engine gear box packed & engine stopped 17 miles from Alderney at 1000ft. Michael carried out engine off landing & ditched in sea - aircraft rolled over and started to sink in about one second. Escaped under water using short term air supply system (STASS) (first time used by civilian crew in anger). 2 crew Picked up by Navy about 45 mins later and flown to Guernsey, then back to base with Keith in G-TELY. Rigged the spare (G-SPEY) left at dawn the next day to France and completed job on time. G-BHXU sank & was not recovered.

Speaking of Green & Gold helicopters... my first experience of the B206 was in the green and gold G-BALC of Pork Farms - almost exactly the same colours as one of their Pork Pies. We were treated to a low level flight across flooded fields around Gloucester after completing a compass swing at Staverton one Saturday morning in 1977.

I don't suppose any one has any photographs of G-BALC in her Pork Farm livery?

Few pics of G-FILM taken day before the accident:
High Road to China_0002 pictures from college photos on webshots

There are still bunch of pieces at the Grobnik airfield (near Rijeka, Croatia) hangar...

Ben Turner
 

Ben Turner was a firm of agricultural engineers and tractor distributors, however when I googled them an interesting report from 1972 came up:

"Ben Turner & Son (Helicopters) is 45 per cent owned and last year was appointed sole UK distributor for “Agusta” one of Europe’s largest helicopter manufacturers. Earlier last year Lieut-Col Robert Smith, managing director of Ferranti Helicopters was appointed a non-executive director of Ben Turner (Helicopters)."

Quite interesting in the context of this thread.

I didn't know BT had been the Agusta distributor. I thought it had always been Alan Mann. Wonder who the other owners of BT were?

Finally the account mentions that the Chairman and MD of the parent company was John Wakeham - wasn't he later a minister in one of the Thatcher governments? But more interesting, didn't he also own helicopters via a company called Patgrove? I seem to recall a JetRanger & a Hughes 500 in the seventies followed later by B206 G-BKCM in the '80s.

Perhaps another of Dennis Kenyon's customers?

.
De Havilland: Col. Bob spoke to me about a 206 emblazoned with the wording 'Pork Farm Sausages' so I am also keen to discover an image of BALC so painted!

Well there you go, something else I didn't know about him!

Further details relating to Ben Turner Helicopters would be keenly appreciated.

There is a back story involving Ferranti and Agusta and which would not have pleased old man Mann. Negotiations between the two were being conducted in the mid-70's and included elaborate plans for a new distributorship facility but .. the details of that story will be brought out in the Ferranti site.

VFR: SPEY was involved in an incident, although not a ditching:

G-BHXU and G-SPEY
 

a couple of shots of Castle Air's BHXU / SPEY and one from the Jersey local paper 1986 in action filming an episode from the Island, and BHXU crashed near Alderney, the northern most Channel Island.

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5138/...3beb245a_b.jpg

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5258/...8afc0874_b.jpg

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5252/...649ab756_z.jpg

Pork Farms helicopter operation was known to us as 'Pork Choppers'.

Annekas bum...
 

Back in the late 80's while flying G-BAKT for Gleneagles, I had the pleasure of following Annekas bottom as it ran out of the Castle air 206 and up to the control tower at Carlisle airfield. It was even better in the flesh than it looked on tv.. :ok: