Many memories for me too. Visiting the Beehive at Gatwick, Battersea Heliport, Redhill and Fairoaks — places where most of the heli ops were at the time.
My interest in helicopters started in 1974 and I managed to see most of the first fifty. I regularly flew in G-OJCB when owned by Yorkshire Helicopter Centre and used by Lothian Helicopters. G-WOSP I flew in many times when owned by Lakeside Helicopters and lastly G-BMAV at Cumbernauld with PLM Dollar Group.
Helipixman
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Great stuff Elipix!
A fair few memories for me among that lot!
It seems as if the initial registrations were issued on condition of maintaining the first in-sequence letter, which in the 70's was 'B'. Would be glad to have this confirmed though.
If this was so, then the first 'truly' out-of-sequence registration would have been G-WASP in 1977, followed later the same year by Peter Cadbury's G-CHOC.
The list includes two of the 'stars' of the Nostalgia Thread, G-WIZZ which was delivered from Frosinone by Geoffers, and G-TALY which was the craft I performed my PPL training in.
Meanwhile James McCaughey's G-JAMI remains one of the fairest LongRangers I have seen, even to this day, while the Agusta-built and Ferranti-equipped G-OJCB was well-known within certain circles and was flown by the late John 'Chalky' White, someone whom I got to meet numerous times as a youngster. Chalky's flying never failed to entertain!
Douglas Bunn's G-JUMP was the first JetRanger I saw landing at Battersea without pop-outs fitted, in fact just some weeks after Douglas bought her, while G-BTWA was Charles Hughesdon's runabout, commonly flown by Geoff Cox for Tradewind's charter assignments, and which craft I encountered frequently, typically at Battersea and Brooklands during the early 80's.
Douglas Arnold's G-DOUG was, IIRC, originally intended for delivery to Ferranti who sold her (pre-delivery) back to Mann's amidst uncertainties surrounding Ferranti's future, while G-WOSP ended-up being flown by Aviafora co-founder Filippo (Phil Croucher) who also flew G-DOUG when she was registered as G-TKHM.
G-DWMI was John Dicken's 'breakout' machine in the forming of a new company resulting in what is today known as Starspeed. John was an ex-Ferranti driver and was a good friend to the Colonel.
I remember Heliwork's Don Donnelly inviting the Colonel to fly G-SOLY in order to provide feedback on its performance as part of their publicity for the Soloy conversion, and which he duly did, while G-LONG was Air Hanson's first personalised registration and their second LongRanger and a craft I encountered frequently.
Similarly, I came across G-HEAT numerous times at various airports in the months following her delivery and G-HELY I remember was the first 109 in the UK to wear a personalised registration.
More notes to share, but these to begin with at least.
Absolutely love the shot of G-BBTV (if anyone knows the location please advise) as well as the fact that while revealing G-BDAW you 'quietly' incorporated G-HUSH!
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