jpinx I think you need to use a different image host :(

photobucket or ImageShack

images
 

I was trying to post them from the laptop, but there seems to be a block on that. I'll try again later.

Fwiw Eric - that's a squirrel ;)

Here's a couple more..
G-HOOK lifting live seals and G-BAFD on an exploration rig

http://picpaste.com/GHOOKIsleofMay-G0xbG0oT.jpg

http://picpaste.com/ScanImage005-DJ6IGVfD.jpg

We started out from the failed Gleneagle Helicopters that Tommy Dickson had funded, but never got enough work at a surviveable price. Alec Smith joined Tommy Dickson and the resurrected company was formed. Unfortunately there still wasn't enough work and they decided to sell the company to Patrick Orchard and myself, as we were the only 2 pilots/managers/dogs-bodys left :)

We started out with a one month lease on the last remaining 2 Jetrangers G_AWOL and G-AWLL. They were owned by Dickson motors and Kinross Plant (Alec Smith) but they were desperate to cash in, so we leased G-AZZB from AirHanson. When we got the training contract with ATS Perth, we had to expand quickly and got a Bell47 through Bill Bailey G-**VM and a 206A G-**YW which was soon converted to a 206B. We occasionally pulled in G-HOOK from Graham Taylor, and a 206L from a guy in the midlands whose name escapes me.

Burnthills were running the helicopter bus route Glasgow_FortWilliam (and other routes) based on government funding, but that soon dried up so we bought Burnthills Helicopters complete with G-WOSP and G-BAKT. That gave us a base in Glasgow for a while, but the charter market could not support an operation there without some other income, so we withdrew to Edinburgh where we were doing well. G-BAKT was sold off, G-AZZB was written off in a fiery crash (no injuries) and we acquired the Bolkow G-BAFD from British Caledonian. There was never any intention to do anything for the oil industry -- notoriously penny-pinching and late payers ;) 'FD was used for fisheries patrols and similar - right up to when I was invalided out of the flying game.

Fortunately for us there was interest in the company and it was sold off -- me signing the papers from my hospital bed :( Pat continued flying for the new owners, I went to recuperate in the Adriatic. I lost touch with everyone when I went travelling -- living and working (non-flying) in Peru, New Zealand, etc I'd like to know what happened to the guys -- Paul Harbottle in particular was a mainstay, along with Eric Patrick, and Joanne MacIntyre who ran the office.

Gleneagle Helicopters Services (Scotland) Limited was a very special time for all those involved. Thank you.

I did some casual flying in 1977 or so in a Bell 47 for Gleneagles Helicopters. I found them to be a great bunch & paid me every cent owed.

I also spent some time in YZ on North Sea flying.

Ah memories!:ok:

I knew that!!!!

I spoke to Paul Harbottle recently, he spends his time bending spanners on Bell 47's.
Something of a niche job in the UK these days. I Haven't spoken to Eric Patrick for many years, I believe he was working for Black Isle helicopters at one point but that must have been almost 25 years ago.
I remember BAFD well and also when you had the sad remains of AZOM in the "Fire Station".
I also seem to have a vague memory of you coming down to Bourn to survey BAFD after it had been paint stripped and abandoned!!!!!

There's a name from the distant past. In my school years I lived very near to Graham and his father, Dan, who used to fly together. As teenagers a whole bunch of us used their garden shed in the orchard as a den. I recall Dan drove an Aston Martin DB5, very cool, seeing as James Bond 007 drove one too.

Glad to hear Paul is still going strong. :) Bell-47's are iconic and I am sure he has no shortage of customers - he knows that machine inside out.

Yes - indeed we took both Bolkows to make one work. I don't remember the details -- things were maniacally busy in those days. It was an engineering marathon, but the guys did very well to make BAFD work for the last couple of years before I was invalided out of flying and sold the company. I believe Bond bought it back after the new owners took over.

G-BAKT went to Kwik-Fit I seem to remember. YW was involved in that terrible fatal mid-air collision, and I don't know what happened to WOSP.

I've not used this forum to try to keep in touch before but I'd be very happy to hear from any of the guys who are still around. :)

G-BAKT
 

G-BAKT doing pleasure flights in the Strathclyde Park Hamilton in 1985
Gleneagles had just purchased Burnthills

https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7527/...39e9ec6f_c.jpg

G-WOSP
 

G-WOSP is still flying in Sweden SE-JIP i think,
and here is WOSP in Maxwell House livery

https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7503/...2238c6a4_c.jpg

G-AWOL
 

and one from further back 1980

https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5180/...b70255bd_z.jpg

At one point BAFD was working for the Sussex police out of Shoreham. Paul asked me to drop in on it from time to time as it was a long way from home. The pilots were complaining about a tail gearbox oil leak that the operating company leasing the aircraft from Gleneagle had failed to fix although they had changed the seals more than once.

Several leaky ground runs left me slightly baffled but highly suspicious. Removal of the whole gearbox and tail rotor assembly revealed a large crack down the forward face of the gearbox
which clearly was not long for this world.

During this process I received an irate phone call from the operator demanding to know what the hell I thought I was doing carrying out maintenance during the day.
My comments are best left out of print.

Graham Taylor I also remember. He gave me a lift home in G-HOOK one weekend. Chickened out of landing on the adjoining school playingfield next to my house but dropped me off on the hill half a mile away!!!! We lived about 15 miles south of Grahams base. Actually I wonder if that flight was in Grahams previous aircraft G-BEJY, long time ago now almost 35 years. Grahams engineer was Mike Janes who although long retired is still going strong. Left me message on the answerphone last sunday.

Wow, blast from the past...
I worked freelance for John and Pat back in the late 80's (87 I think) when I was doing 1 week on/off with Bond on the 40's field in the 365N.
What a great bunch, always ponied up on time and some of the west coast scenery was to die for. Glad to hear JP is still alive and well :ok:
Marcus.

Now theres a name from the past, Mike Janes, he was my Chief Engineer at Twyford Moors 73/74.

S

Twyford Moors
 

Then do you remember a pilto called Alec Parker, ex-paratrooper and if so, is he still about?
With fraternal greetings,
ambi

Stacey

Sent you a PM.

Alec Parker & MIke Janes
 

I met Alec flying a J/R in 1976-ish, he brought it up to Blackpool for maintenance. As I recall his employer was a truck company on the East Lancs road (?). Can't for the life of me recall the name, but remember seeing one of the trucks say 2 months ago and the (old) brain made the connection. :ooh:


And delighted to hear Mike is still around, we had some good times around the mid 90s, myself at Manns, him at Veritair. Yes he did indeed retire and it's be VERY good to see him at some point. Thanks for the memory jogging! - VFR

Memory is dim now re the 70's but might Alec Parker have been working for Suttons Seeds in the early/mid 70's?. Also vfr440's mention of maintenance at Blackpool at that time prompts me to ask if anyone knows what happened to Bob King and Matt Casey who had a maintenance outfit there?

Marcus was one of our favourite free-lancers. ;) Always on his game and thoroughly charming and professional. The customers loved him - and so did the girls in the office !! :)

On another note -- does anyone remember David George's brief foray into commercial helicoptering -- around 1973 I think. Guided by Peter Boitel-Gill we set off to conquer the world with some Hiller 12E's ferried back from a disposal sale in Belgium. Nick (the Greek) was chief engineer. We were based at Sywell and I had the honour of giving Ash his first shot at flying rotary-wings. His prior experience included just about every type of aircraft in the RAF as he had been a ferry pilot in the second war. He used to fly an old Moth around Sywell on quiet days. I believe he was about 80 years old then and as ATC he still struck terror into the hearts of visiting pilots.
Other names associated with Sloane Helicopters were Mike Horrell, Peter Nutting, and a link with Gordon Neal of G & SG Neal in Holbeach.
P.S. Nick-the-Greek was Chris Neoclaus. Light-bulb moment last night :)

Bob King was working for Bond at Strubby. He retired to live on a barge on the French canals.
I haven't seen or heard of him for more than ten years.

I have a feeling that Matt died some time back but not sure about that.

At least one of the engineers from the old Sloane days Roy Huntingford is still with us, long retired.

Peter Nutting died many years ago.

Rollcall?
 

Roy was a great guy -- he took care of the 12E at Management Aviation back in about 1972. That was a fun place to be in those days with Dave Bond larger than life and frequently blowing his top. "Curly" Truslove was ops manager but spent a fair amount of time keeping the lid on things. Wayne Janisch worked there at the same time as me - we went through the Avigation college course together just before to get the civilian licence. He was from South Dakota if memory serves. I believe he went back there to sell insurance. The Bonds launched North Scottish Helicopters towards the end of my time there and the first Bolkow 105 showed up then too. Mike and Jeff Bond were the only ones who flew it at first. The rest of us were doing electic line patrol and forestry spreading.

P.S. Just remembered Roy's bionic knees !! :) He was mad about bikes and had baled out a few times I gather... ;)

I believe Roy still rides as does Mike Janes, they should both know better at their age.
Curly is reported as still being around. Roy and Curly were both still working the Hillers for Bond as was I to the bitter end in 1986. The last two were sold off to John Holborn, Holborn Helicopters at Ropsley near Grantham.

David George sold the 12E operations of Sloane Helicopters to Central Helicopters. I was in Argyll spreading phosphates on the forests at the time and I remember getting some instructions to change the name on the van. For whatever reason I only got around to doing one side and it was a point of great jocularity with the locals that we were 2-faced :)

I free-lanced for Central or a short time - Jim Koty was a field engineer they sent up. Then I went to work for BEAS for a season's crop spraying in Lincs followed by more forestry. Phil Slattery was the field engineer for a while and he introduced me to StarWars when it first came out - so that pins the year to 1977. Geoff Kitto was over from Nelson NZ doubling his crop-spraying seasons around that time. Gordon Neals outfit were a pleasure to work with. Bob Towsland(?) was the rep for the local area and did a fine job. I even got to like the "Boston Stamp Collection" managed by Pat It was quite a challenge to get into some of those tiny fields and squirt the roses. I read somewhere that G-BDRY was wrecked. That had been the aircraft they had kept for my use. What happened in the end? Where did John Neal go? They had some great footage on home movies of Dave Bond spraying with a hang-stick Hiller 12A and Paul Midgley in a Djinn.

Names from the past
 

Ah,.... now then, Phil Slattery is at Cumbernauld with PDG. Had a long natter to him in the hangar last October, he's well but no Hillers or Lamas, all on 355s now.
And Paul Midgley (Midgers) in a Djinn - I didn't know he was that skilled :hmm:. Would he be the Midgers who flew a J/R for Streeters in the early 80s, then transferred to Manns as their Ops Manager (I think)?


As TRC will remember we had this contract with an A109 down in the Basque country (Bayonne?) on 2 week rotations. PDG, Midgers + beer and wine and tremendous seafood :D


Thanks for the memory-trigger!! - VFR

G-BDRY was written off in November 1984. Neals were still operating a pair of Hillers in 1987 G-BLDM and G-HILR from Holbeach, both sold in 1991. I think that the advent of low pressure ground vehicles plus the legislation finished off their Air Force!!!
Neals was an ag chemical company that operated it's own aircraft so I think they just continued with ground ops. Nice to hears Phil Slattery is still on the go.

I met Geoff Kitto when he was buying a spray rig for a Hughes 500.,

PDG is the successor to PLM from Inverness isn't it? John Poland and Dave Clem ruled the roost in the far north for quite a few years as PLM. I believe there was some re-arrangement of the company and John Poland left. I spoke to Dave Clem briefly some years ago -- after he came back from Chile. Eric Patrick was working for them too. Peter Walker used to fly for both PLM and us at Gleneagle. Great guy and a great loss.

Black Isle Helicopters was a small outfit run by the MacCallum brothers. I met them a few times - lovely guys and lots of fun.

Chris Winters had an Enstrom that Pat taught him to fly. He was living somewhere out near Glenrothes. We also ended up looking after a Piper 180 which I refreshed my FW licence on and used a few times.

I don't know how long Pat was flying after we sold Gleneagle Helicopters. I lost touch and the next thing I heard was that he had died, but I never found out what happened. I lost contact with the 2 office managers who kept tabs on everyone .. Joanne and Linda. I believe Linda went down to the Midlands and married a helicopter engineer there, and Joanne was living with her husband Johnnie MacIntyre and family over near Burntisland. He was working on the rigs. Any leads? ;)

Alan Cameron was a frequent and welcome coffee-scrounger in the office in Edinburgh while he was flying the various Barrett machines. A very proficient pilot and capable guy all-round. When we had the ICI pipeline contract Pat often ended up in Liverpool overnight and if there were issues with the machine it was Matt Casey's team that we called on.

Having stopped flying and lost contact with that world for so many years (25) means my memories are patchy, but it comes back the more I write. Apologies in advance for any errors - and thanks for the jogs :)

John Poland
 

As a young cadet at Dartmouth we visited RNAS Culdrose one day and I had my first ever flight in a helicopter and guess who was at the controls - yes JP.

I later met his cousin (?) Pat Poland who was SNO Engadine in the mid 70's. I also had the pleasure of meeting John's mother (?) Lady Poland when I was the Sea Cadet Liaison for Padstow SCC. (She was the patron). Seems his Dad (RIP) was a famous Admiral during the war although I don't know much about him.

Our paths crossed once or twice but he was generally lost up in the wilds of Scotland whilst I pottered around with AMH and Air Hanson.

I worked with Peter Walker at AH and as you say a great guy and a great loss. As were Colin Bates and 'Spotty'. Cripes !! Also John 'Ackers' bit the dust, Nigel Thornton and Tim Ridgeway. An Awful chapter in the SW London scene.

That said I have many happy memories, they were interesting times.


G. :ok:

Not forgetting Peter Faulks and Tommy Sopwith's first wife lost in that AMH Bell 47 accident in 1975. I was passing through Alan Mann's on that awful day just after the news came through.

JP is now retired to Pembrokeshire and the last I heard about three years ago he was flying tugs at a gliding school.

Alec Parker ditty.
 

I just have to drop in at the mention of the Alec Parker name as I have a neat tale to tell ... (hope he gets to read this)

It would have been circa 1974 or possibly 75 when I first met dear Alec ... who at that time was working for Sutton Seeds. He was instrumental in buying one of the early Enstrom 28A models, G-BBHD, a blue machine I seem to recall! I think I did his type conversion at Shoreham. A truly lovely big hearted guy for sure.

But here is the ditty. Apparently he used to lift-off for duty most mornings which involved flying over an office block. On several occasions he spotted a girl leaning out of the office window waving. Naturally he waved back. After a few occasions, he gets back from a sortie one day to find a hand written letter on his desk. It was an invitation to meet on a blind date and was signed ... 'From the one who waves.'

Alex was a single man at the time so promptly dropped in to the offices to enquire about said lady being the 'The one who waves.'

And yes, they did meet and carried on the friendship ... and in no time were married. Isn't that story one for the woman's magazines! So ladies ... don't wave at helicopters. As they say - you may just get what you wish for!

Alec, if you are out there, please drop me a line. Dennis Kenyon.

VFR

It was in Bilbao.

jpinx do you remember this Yankee Whisky, i think

http://picpaste.com/Yankee_Whiz-BXLQMsdC.jpg

YW
 

Not sure about that photo....

is that CJG at the controls?

YW
 

Outside Raasay House, John ! But before the epic, night sea crossing during a westerly gale (now a legend) and post the buttered daffodil tasting.

YW and daffodils
 

Good grief !!! .. I thought that had been mercifully forgotten.! The memory brings back the flavour! :{ RJMcD Has a lot to answer for! :ouch:

Ok, so I had done my LPC with Pat Orchard and it had gone well... Some weeks later JP said he wanted to fly with me as a sort of line check, so we launched somewhere over Edinburgh and he asked me to simulate a photo sortie by hovering at 2000 feet... No problem 😛
Then he said "let's go backwards at 20-30 knots". I didn't really feel in my comfort zone doing this but he was the boss so.... And then he chopped the throttle 😱
I thought "mother ****er" but he was determined it was to be recovered all the way to the ground... I think it was over a golf course we used to land at while doing the "eye in the sky" for radio Forth.....
Well, I made it and I think the circle of trust was established on that morning..
John, I wish you all the very best :ok:

Pat Orchard (known as Rick in his military days) was a brilliantly smooth and capable pilot and instructor. We had lots of fun doing "mutual training" flights for annual checks, etc. As a member of the Panel of Examiners, he rose to the top of his profession. I am forever indebted to him for putting up with my more hard-nosed attitudes, but we worked very well as a team. A gentleman in every way, he didn't like to push people too far out of their comfort zone -- that tended to be my job ;)

When I was based in Shenzhen I had to fly one of those approaches once a month to keep my rating in date. Bring a training trip we could only do it at the crack of dawn and the procedural circuit was incredibly long and high. It was a real pain in the neck and the scenario around the checkerboard was wasted.

However medivacs at night gave one a fantastic view of Hong Kong with all the lights on. Should we pick up a Chinese National from a platform we were routed low level directly across Victoria Harbour, then between Lantou and the New Territories to the Pearl River and onwards to Guangzhou. They built a bridge across to Chep Lap Kok but it didn't seem to make any difference to our transit height.

Departing from Shenzhen and crossing Hong Kong outbound you could tell when you crossed the border between China and Hong Kong. The Neons changed from all red to another series of colours.

Sharks
 

Hi,
found an old photograph from my time in GB, when I had the pleasure to visit the airshows with the Sharks (I towed the caravan :})
http://www.polizeifliegerstaffel.de/...harks_smal.jpg
in higher resolution:
http://www.polizeifliegerstaffel.de/test/Sharks.jpg

Found this via Pinterest... some nice old photos
 

FLYING BULL - please resize your massive photo

http://www.pprune.org/pacific-genera...ng-pprune.html