Autair Helicopters
 

Does anyone recall Autair Helicopters? There was one in Montreal and I believe there was one in the UK, maybe Reading. The one in Montreal had a rather colorful history I think. I spent one summer flying for them in the Angikuni Lake area of the NWT. Not long after that I think they folded. Not sure.:confused:

Fijdor: Great photos, bravo! :ok: It looks as though you have had a very interesting career.

Sillohed: Freddie Wilcox was a dear friend to my godfather and someone I met many times. It was due to him that my godfather accepted one of his last flying assignments - flying for Freddie's outfit in Kenya.

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Autair S-55 CF-KQD at Sept-Îles Airport, Quebec on 24th July 1970 (Photo: Alphie Tufnell)

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Autair Agusta-Bell 206A JetRanger G-AVVH (Photo: Helipixman)

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Court Line Aviation Bell 206A G-AXMM (Photo: NA Archives)

Freddie had associations with many different companies including Trent Helicopters and Court Line Aviation.

My godfather was involved in a number of business ventures with Freddie (mainly selling aircraft) but .. I'm not fully au fait with Autair's operations overall so it would be good to hear from someone with a more complete awareness of their history.

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Fabick Aircraft Co. Bell 47D NC194B in Alberta, Canada in 1949 (Photo: Helicopter Heritage Canada)

This 47 made its way up from Lambert Field, St. Louis, Missouri in 1949 to assist in a gravity meter survey in Chard, north of Lac La Biche in Alberta, Canada. The United Geophysical Company were searching for suitable areas in which to perform wildcat well drilling operations and were able to complete the survey (thanks to this and one other 47) without any major road construction.

Evidently Fabick Aircraft Co. of St. Louis made several seasonal return trips to Canada in the late 40's and early 50's.

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Hiller UH-12C G-APDV as seen at Stapleford Aerodrome in July 1971 (Photo: Brian Bickers)

'DV' began her time in the UK with Fison Airwork of Cambridge in 1957. Fison was then subsumed into Airwork Helicopters of Redhill (which is .. I guess .. what Bristows decided to call Fison Airwork after buying them) and was shipped-out to Trinidad in 1961. In '68 the craft was officially registered to Bristows and the following year bought by The Hon. Peter Irving Pellew (aka Viscount Exmouth) who sold her to Shackleton Aviation in 1970.

At the time of this photo the craft was owned by Gerry Clark trading as (and I kid you not) 'Nobby Field Helicopters' of Aveley in Essex. (Almost as good as Pork Farm Helicopters!).

Brian Bickers (who took the photo) says: "It was so long ago that I can scarcely remember visiting Stapleford."

Well, we are glad you did!

Hiller G-APDV.


I was working at Redhill when the 12C was bought by the Viscount, I well remember his coat of arms being painted on the tailboom.

Autair was Bill Armstrong, an old world helicopter dealer who in the UK mostly operated from Luton and Panshangar but also had operations in Africa. He was a Bell agent there for many years but also wheeled and dealed in buying and selling other types,especially with African government sources...wink...wink.
He started up Court Line ,with ex Royal Navy Sikorsky built Whirlwinds in South Africa and BAC One Elevens at Luton! Fingers in many pies over the years I think.
Much of his document archive with pictures is at the Helicopter Museum along with the remains of a couple of ex Danish S55s that he gave to my company in lieu of a debt !

Heli1: You are absolutely right of course, Bill Armstrong it was. Its been so long since I heard that name!

Sillohed: I know you are most likely searching for information on Autair's Canadian ops but the available information seems to be somewhat scarce. I have another S-55 photo and that's about it!

In the meantime and from their UK operations ..

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Autair Bell 47G-2 G-ATZX at Luton Airport c. 1970's (Photo: NA Archives)

'ZX' was imported to the UK in 1966 and (as with Brian Bicker's G-APDV above) was sold to Shackleton Aviation (does anyone know who they were) in 1972. The same year she moves on to F & DM Hewitt Ltd. and the following year is bought by Tywford Moors. ZX ended up being bought by Bristows in 1974.

Shackleton
 

Hallo Savoia ... I love it when a few of the old names crop up especially when I had trade with them at one time.

It doesn't seem to long ago I had a deal with Bill Armstrong up at Luton. I had been offered two B 47s from the MAF but didn't know enough about the various models at the time I suspected they were a good buy though and raised the item with Bill and in no time he had acquired them as a pair and I guess soon found a buyer. I thought that was the end of the matter until I received a decent cheque from the man with a nice 'thank you' note for the introduction. Now that's old fashioned trading.

Now Shackleton ... a quick look through some early 1970s FLIGHT will see their regular advert. They had a London address and operated from the light brown hangar at Coventry for many years. I think the guy I talked to a couple of times might have been a 'Something' McDonald but as I always say, the brain cells aren't what they used to be. The daft thing is I still remember aircraft registration 30-40 years down the road! Best wishes. Dennis K.

Ciao Denissimo!

Hope this finds you well.

The Colonel also had some 'trades' with Bill the last of which involved an ex-Ferranti client, his 206, and Autair sending the craft out to join the Uganda Police Air Wing!

The 47's you refer to .. MAF .. as in the Royal Malaysian Air Force?

Ah Flight .. yes, I should have thought to check there!

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Shackleton Aviation advert in Flight International, 2nd December 1960

Brgds

MAF
 

The 47s were from Malta Sav. DRK

Fabulous 47
 

Sav,
That is one fabulous 47 all dressed up in it's skirts and everything. There are not many pictures around with the enclosed tail boom! :D

Autair Helicopters Canada
 

I managed to dig around in my old log books and came up with a couple of tid-bits regarding Autair Canada. It was actually Autair Helicopter Services, Inc. and was based in the Timmons Aviation Building, Montreal, Quebec. The president was a guy named D.W. Connor. There is an old news clipping that states that they were the first turbine helicopter operator in Canada following the purchase of an Alouette II in 1958. In 1961 they were registered with the Aerospace Industries Association as having 2 Sikorsky 51's, 3 Sikorsky 55's, 15 47G's and 6 47G3's on order. I don't believe there was a direct connection with UK Autair Helicopters but I could be wrong. I only worked for them one summer around 1964 or thereabouts. As I understand the story and the reason I was looking for some more direct information is as follows: Doug Connor was an American operating under Canadian rules in Quebec. He apparently chafed at the restrictions placed on his company by the DOT and did everything to ignore the feds who were just across the street. Following several summons to appear and explain his actions and failing to do so the feds marched across the street, removed his operating certificate from the wall and effectively put him out of business. Apparently Connor had a reputation for bending the rules and having an attitude about the rules of bureaucrats. I heard this all second hand but it makes a great story if anyone out there can correct or embellish upon it.

In reference to Sollohed post. Article copied and pasted from a Canadian Helicopter magazine called "Helicopters" There is also a pic of a S51 which don't show here. They refer to Autair Helicopters Services.

Jacques

Canada’s First Turbine Helicopters.
First turbine helicopter was imported to Canada in 1958 135-lookback When the first turbine helicopter was imported to Canada in 1958, it cost twice as much as the ubiquitous Bell 47G-2 and consumed substantially more fuel. Performance was impressive, but it was not until the mid-70s that turbine helicopters finally outnumbered piston models in Canada.

France took an early lead in introducing the turbine helicopter. The Sud-Est SE.3130 Alouette II was the first turboshaft helicopter to enter production; its prototype first flew on March 12, 1955. US fighterjet maker Republic Aviation in December 1957 agreed to market the Alouette II in North America. Republic demonstrated the Alouette II to potential customers in Montreal in August 1958, resulting in a quick sale to Autair Helicopter Services Ltd., the first commercial operator of a turbine helicopter in North America.

Compared to piston models, the four-passenger Alouette had impressive performance. It started easily in cold weather, cruised at 110 mph, climbed at 1,000 fpm, carried a 1,000- pound payload, and held the world helicopter altitude record of 34,000 feet. But CFKMW came to an abrupt end on May 13, 1959 when the helicopter nosed over on takeoff at Labrieville while carrying Daniel Johnson, Quebec’s minister of hydraulics (and future premier) on an inspection tour of hydro developments.

The second customer for a turbine helicopter in Canada was the aviation arm of Ontario Hydro. Purchase of the $90,000 helicopter was authorized in 1959 to enhance the utility’s productivity spraying powerline rights of way. Alouette II CF-JMC arrived at Toronto in June 1959.

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Silloed: Here's the other Autair Canada Whirlwind .. err okay .. S-55! :)

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Autair S-55 CF-JJL as seen at Sept-Îles Airport in Quebec, Canada on 24th July 1970 (Photo: Alphie Tufnell)

I think the Shah was somewhat partial to Whirlwinds because ..

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The Shah of Iran visits West Burton Power Station in Lincolnshire courtesy of Westland Whirlwind XR487 HCC12 of The Queen's Flight and is seen here being escorted by Sir Robert Laycock, Lord Lieutenant of Nottinghamshire, on 6th March 1965 (NA Archives)

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Bristow Helicopters Westland Whirlwind WS-55 Mk III G-AYNP as seen at Redhill in May 1972 (Photo: Brian Bickers)

Another pleasing contribution from Brian with an additional point of interest in the form of a Percival Q6 Petrel, G-AFFD, seen beneath the Whirlwind's tail.

This Petrel was serial no. 21 and had been owned by Sir Philip Sassoon who served as Private Secretary to Field Marshal Sir Douglas Haig from 1915-1918 and Under Secretary of State for Air from 1924-29 and again from 1931–37. He was also the Hon. Air Commodore of No. 601 (County of London) Squadron, Auxiliary Air Force.

Sassoon had previously owned a Percival Gull, G-ACGR, in which he competed in the King’s Cup and Folkestone Aero Trophy Race.

As Under-secretary of State for Air, Sassoon carried out the first general inspection of British overseas air stations which he accomplished by touring the various locations in the three-engined Blackburn Iris flying boat. As a result of his travels with this craft he wrote 'The Third Route' published by Heinemann in 1929. (Blackburn Aircraft were of course the firm which built the Turmo turbine under licence from Turbomeca [later to be named Nimbus under Bristol Siddeley] which powered the first Westland Scout).

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Sir Philip Sassoon (1888-1939)

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Sir Philip Sassoon with Field Marshal Sir Douglas Haig aboard a train carriage (which Haig used as his office) on the Western Front during World War I (probably taken in the summer of 1918)

Philip Sassoon's cousin was the poet and decorated soldier, Siegfried Sassoon.

Awwww...you've ruined the thread now Savoia....talking about plank wings! Now the Whirlwind in the picture was converted from an ex RN Mk 3 bought at a bargain price no doubt and pioneered the Bristow SAR ops,based at Manston.
I know I visited the Flight and have the pictures to prove it but not the time or expertise to locate them and put them online I'm afraid.

Heli 1

I have just donned my anorak and beg to differ with your assessment of the Bristows SAR cab being and ex RN Whirlwind Mk 3 - and will probably get shot down by Savoia and others......................!

The Mk 3 had a straight tailboom and droopy aft stabilisers as shown below - or I think it did when I flew it.

What do you think?


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Ciao Baston!

I'm afraid its a wee bit of a conundrum not helped (if that's the right term) by the numerous Navy (as in RN) designations for the various Whirlwinds they employed in their service.

Regarding G-AYNP (above) the records do show that she was formerly a Navy craft (ex XG576) and designated as a HAR.3 evidently entering service with the Fleet Air Arm in August of 1955 .. and that's where the conundrum begins .. for the 'modified' tailbooms (at least according to Flight's 'Aircraft Intelligence' briefing) came about in early 1956:

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G-AYNP (sn WA71) now lives in Germany as a static exhibit (below):

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Westland Whirldwind (take your pick of Series number) XG576 CU 590 as seen at the Sammler & Hobbywelt Museum in Alten, Buseck, Germany (Photo: Marc Lehmann)

The only 'solution' that springs to mind is that this (and many other craft from the same period) were modified?

What I can tell you is that the Whirlwinds flown by my late godfather (see below) when he was Chief Pilot of Christian Salvesen's Antarctic operations in the early 60's, were indeed Mk (or series) III's and did have the straight boom as well as the inverted 'V' tail:

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Westland Whirlwind Series 3 G-AOHE belonging to Christian Salvesen & Co. as seen at Newcastle Airport on 19th October 1960 (Ian MacFarlane)

G-AOHE is seen here awaiting to join the MV 'Southern Harvester' docked at South Shields. She would be fitted with fixed floats for her work in the Antarctic and was accompanied by an additional Whirlwind III.

What we really need is someone with a bit of 'savvy' when it comes to Whirlwind designations!

.

Whirlwind tails
 

Sav and Co,

What's the domed fairing above the tail half way back? If the tail boom had to be drooped by 3 degrees ultimately, surely a few of these fairings must have been in the firing line sooner or later.......... By the way, love the yellow painted rotor head, so retro!

It's quite amazing where wayward blades can get to once free of the droop stops; if I recall correctly a '76 blade tip cap once came into contact (just) with the leading edge of the tail fin on one aircraft (ABZ area circa mid 80s). Over exuberant aft cyclic during an engine-out training manoeuvre was deemed the culprit.

BastOn as usual is quite right that when we went through training, the 3 had a straight boom & the 7 drooped plus different hydraulics & engines. Maybe when they converted that Whirlwind, they did the droop mod too.

In OZ I'm aware the 76 on two occasions managed to strike the fin with the blades. Just shows you how much they can stretch as if you just pull it down, the blade won't reach the fin!:ok:

I thought I would be agreeing with Nigel and BastOn on this subject but on looking in my logbook there is a photo of XG588 - you'll have to believe the registration as I can't get a clear scan of it to reproduce here, but I can see it with a magnifying glass. It was taken by me on the 705 dispersal at Culdrose in November 1964. I've logged it as a Mark 3 but it has the cranked tail boom! I am confused!

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UK Serials shows it to be a Mark 3 as well, Serial WA83, first flight 30/9/55 well before the date in Savoia's Flight article notifying of the change to cranked tails. Note there are no droopy aft stabilisers - just the straight ones associated with a Mark 7.

Looking in UK Serials at other HAR Mk3's I've flown there are photos of XJ402, XG577 and XG586. All have cranked tails and straight stabilisers and the photo of the latter is dated as 9/59. The HAR 1 such as on HMS Protector had the straight tail and droopy stabilisers.

The undated photo of Mk 3 XG574 at UK Serials taken at some point prior to storage in the FAA Museum shows it has the straight tail/droopy stabilisers, yet my own photo taken in the Cobham Hall storage section of the Museum a couple of years ago shows the same machine with a cranked tail/straight stabilisers.:ugh::ugh:

BastOn and Nigel went through 705 a couple years before me I think. Maybe most of the tails/stabilisers were changed in the intervening period?http://i1123.photobucket.com/albums/...ps0a1ed24e.jpg

Bear in mind that Bristow completely rebuilt G-AYNP,with the Series 3 nose mod for the Gnome and new cranked tail.In fact the only original Mk3 bit was the centre section. To be really anoraky it was delivered to Westland at WSM in late'69 to have the structural changes made to the front end before going to Redhill by road to have the new tail boom and everything else fitted.
Modifying just the tail boom was a fairly simple operation and several of the late production RN Mk3s were retrospectively fitted under Mod 170 with the cranked version in service.It was standard from 1056 on the Mk7.

I also went through 705 as a stude and flew Whirlwind 3's XG585 and XG588 in October/November 1965 and I believe they both had the drooped tailboom then.

Whirlwind savvy.
HAR Mk 1 and Mk 3 RN with Pratt and Wright piston engines
HC Mk2 and Mk4 RAF Ditto
Series 1 Civil equivalent of HAR Mk 1...Bristow ,C Salvensen, Shell etc
Mk5 RN trials variant Mk3 with Alvis Leonides engine.
Mk HAS 7 RN with Alvis Leonides engine
Series 2 Civil equivalent....and military export.
MkHCC8 Queens Flight version of Series2
Mk9 RN conversion with Gnome turbine
Mk10 RAF new build and conversions with Gnome
Series 3 Civil equivalent....and military export.
Mk HCC12 Queens Flight version of Mk10

When they modded the tail on the 3, did they also change the hydraulics & engine to make it a 7?

Planko/Nigel: I 'get' the blade flapping phenomenon and I think most manufacturers have had to deal with it at some point in the development of their rotorcraft. Its the blade 'stretching' that I find amazing .. as in your 76 incident!

We had a driver come into the crew room one day telling us that the main rotor struck the boom on the D model 500 he was flying after he had shut down. Apparently a 'freak' gust of wind! It just glanced off the boom and evidently there was no significant damage done but, it was disconcerting to listen to the ease with which this happened.

When they stretched the Gazelle (just a couple of inches) they had to all but remove the vertical stabilisers, mind you the Gazelle blades are so 'bendy' one would think you could make animal shapes with them!

I once shut down a 206 and was unable to stop the main rotor (no rotor brake). They just kept on and on milling round (the wind was approx. 25-30kts and there was a slight updraft). After nearly 15mins (thinking the wind would drop at some point) I had to re-start and fly away telling the engineers (post and telecommunications working on repeaters) that I would be back for them later. I found a village green surrounded by trees .. a bumpy approach with the wind as it was but .. once below the tree line the worst of it was gone and I was finally able shut down.

To answer your question on the Salvesen Whirlwinds .. I'm not a 100% sure what the 'bump' is but .. I have a feeling it was an ADF antenna because the Salvesen whaling ships were fitted with NDB towers. I know the 'Whaling Whirlwinds' had a small amount a 'special' avionics (I think a marine band as well as the standard VHF radio) and then, as mentioned, the ADF.

I've only ever seen this tail-mounted housing on Antarctic Whirlwinds, as per the photos below:

And shown below with the cover removed:

Oh and yes .. I would agree with you and say that the antenna (or whatever it was) probably came pretty close to the main rotor on occasion!

No they didn't - The HAR3's when I was on 705 were all with modded tails and had P&W engines but the HAS7 had the Leonides. I seem to remember it being much easier to fly than the HAS7 from the point of view of collective/throttle correlation. With the HAS7 in the cruise you were on the point of the cam and RRPM control was much more difficult than on the HAR3.

Also on the 7 you could close the throttle to idle to do a practice EOL but on the 3 you had to be really sure of getting to the spot for a practice EOL as the engine actually had to be shut down as if left at idle it would increase engine RPM when you raised the collective. HAS7 was cartridge start but for the life of me I can't remember what it was on the HAR3. Must have been electric start but the mind has gone blank after nearly 50 years!.

In my time in 705 all the 3s were straight booms with an electric start radial engine. Also only 1 set of hydraulics plus an ECU which gave you engine oil pressure laterally on the cyclic, the theory being we should be strong enough to pull the collective & push forward on the cyclic! Quite tricky!
I think the engine was a Wright Cyclone??

The 7 had twin hydraulics & basically wouldn't fly if both failed unless you had the strength of Arnie. The cartridge was prone to pop the little disc in the nose; in Borneo we found the Malaysian 10 cent coin fitted perfectly! To prevent hydraulicing, we had to crank the engine 72 times to make sure none of the cylinders were full of oil! Great fun!

There should probably be some sort of medal (or at least a few rounds of drinks at the local Aero Club) to those who had to fly aircraft which required starter cartridges! :eek: :D

After getting my Whirlwind licence at Redhill in September 1969, I had to supervise the removal of all the components from the 6 ex-Navy Whirlwinds. I understand that Westlands converted some of the airframes but Bristow's bought the jig and finished the job. I was abroad so I don't know the full details, I'm sure someone knows.

As an inexperienced student at the time, the only differences I can remember between the Whirlwind Mk.7 and the couple of Mk.3's on 705 in late '65 were the engine types and the "extra" experience of my instructor switching off the hydraulics and my flying the Mk 3 in manual before being sent off solo. I see that exactly half my Whirlwind time in training was on the 3 instead of the 7 and that on several days I flew in both Mks., so they must have been pretty similar. I believe both XG585 and XG588 went to Fleetlands in February 1966 for modernisation but presumably they were not modernised as both were awaiting disposal in September '67 and were sold to Bristows in October '69. Were these perhaps the last of the flying R.N. Mk.3's?

I'm young enough to be able to say that I only flew the Gnome engined Mk10, just before they were replaced by the Gazelle.

We used to be required to qualify for solo engine-offs as basic students at 2 AFTS, RAF Shawbury. Was this also done on the earlier Whirlwinds? It certainly wasn't something that was done on the Gazelle basic course.

During my time in the RN, engine-off landings were only done when flying with a QHI. My first solo EOL was therefore at Tern Hill in a Whirlwind 10 on the QHI course.

You didn't need to practice engine offs in the early Whirlwind 7s.......oil circulation and overheating in the hover meant you got them for real!

A true Whirlwind 3 story, at least I was told it was!
An instructor was taking a 705 student down to Predannack at 500 feet when the student asked what happens if the hydraulic fails in the cruise or faster. Now remember the requirement for hydraulics off was around 50 or 60 kts which is below the cruise speed. The instructor sped up to 90 kts & switched the hydraulics off. The nose pitched up & the 3 banked sharply to the left, making a perfect descending barrel roll & ended up tearing along a field at 60 kts! A typical granite Cornish hedge then stopped their forward motion very suddenly. The 2 pilots still strapped in their seats & the instrument panel took off clearing the hedge & ended up sitting side by side in the next field unscathed! The OAT gauge stuck in the tree about 25 yards away like a spear.
The instructor is reputed to have said " & that is what happens if you switch off the hydraulics going too fast"!
I'm assured this is true! Maybe bastOn knows more as this happened a few courses before us.:ok:

Nigel

Apocrypha are statements or claims that are of dubious authenticity. :ok:

I think that this is one of them. I have never heard of it - does not mean it did not happen, but as I may have my faults, being wrong is not one of them.;)

There was a Hiller 12 E accident, I think on Goonhilly Down, where the crew flew unharmed through the bubble in their seats after an 'interesting' landing. Happy days.

Another true Whirlwind story. A certain French exchange QHI arrived in UK not able to speak a word of English. Communication was difficult at times.... However, he was ex-Alouettes and until he flew the Whirlwind 10 he had only ever flown turbines with a manual throttle.

His students didn't often get to fly using the fuel computer - he preferred them to fly using the manual back-up.

To carry out a full to-the-ground EOL in the WW10 one had to take out the flight idle stop so that when the speed select was retarded the engine went right down to ground idle (if this wasn't done the engine responded as the collective was raised). A course colleague of mine was instructed by the French QHI to fly his GH in manual. He was told to carry out an EOL at Ternhill, as was the norm towards the end of the later sorties.

He took out the flight idle stop, lowered the lever and manually closed the throttle. No problem, EOL done. He was then told to take off and do another...but the aircraft was still in manual control. This wasn't the usual configuration post engine start but my fellow student pondered for a mere second and then opened the throttle. Apparently the flame from the jetpipe was quite impressive, but the engine was cooked!

This happened just before lunch. By 1430 on the same day there was a new order in the FOB which said EOLs must not be flown in "manual control"!

David,

The student I believe was Nick Boyd, maybe if he's around he could verify. I've forgotten the instructor's name.

When I was heard that story many moons ago I was told the instructor was Colin Moorcraft and the student was the late Nick Boyd. I think the former is down in your part of the world Nigel?

Edit: well that simultaneous post shows there might be some truth in it....!

Thanks C16, I'm glad my memory bank is not entirely shot!! What happened to Nick, I had no idea he had died?

Colin I believe was flying in Hong Kong many years ago, another pilot I've lost contact with over the years!

Some thoroughly enjoyable stories being retold! :ok:

Pray tell .. were there some similarities between the Westland Whirlwind and the US Army's H-19 'Chickasaw' which was a variant of the S-55?