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**Savoia** · 23rd May 2018, 19:22

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!

**Helipixman** · 24th May 2018, 11:49

Western Air (Scotland) Partners seemed to like the Out of sequence registrations having four of the first 50...
G-BUZZ, G-CHIC, G-WASP and G-WOSP.

Helipixman

**Helipixman** · 27th November 2019, 12:29

G-ROOT Agusta Bell 206B JetRanger II

I have always wondered what this registration means, there does not seem to be anything obvious linking it with owner Godfrey Hope Aviation Ltd in 1982.

It was originally registered in the UK as G-JETR before G-ROOT and had the subsequent UK registrations of G-FSDG and G-COUR before being sold in Austria as OE-XLM

Photo Helipixman Collection

**Savoia** · 3rd December 2019, 20:16

Originally posted by Helipixman View Post

I have always wondered what this registration means, there does not seem to be anything obvious linking it with owner Godfrey Hope Aviation Ltd in 1982.

To get to the root of this registration conundrum was only going to be solved one of two ways: a) By making contact with Godfrey Hope or b) By making contact with the person who sold him this aircraft.

Thankfully when it came to the latter option, the person in question happens to be an Avia member

who writes to us as follows:

G-ROOT was an A model 206 (fitted with a C-18A) which I imported from a company based at Ghent airfield Belgium in 1982. The aircraft (originally OO-CDP) was purchased in a part-exchange deal for one of our training Enstroms G-LERN, which appears as number 2 on Helipix's list of personalised registrations, for this aircraft began as G-BBRS. (This was the early non-turbo Enstrom 28A version and was used on contract with the Metropolitan Police. The G-BBRS registration was of course in recognition of Bertram Roy Spooner who founded the Spooner Aviation group at Shoreham circa 1972). Once in the UK, OO-CDP was registered as G-JETR and then re-registered later the same year when I sold it to Godfrey Hope.

Now there is little chance of deducing the reason behind G-ROOT's registration unless you are familiar with the following: Godfrey, who was a lovely man and an absolute gentleman, was of Ghanian origin and one of the first African helicopter owner/pilots in the UK. In the late 70's (when we had just three TV channels) there was a series called 'Roots' which dramatised the story of a slave who was brought from Africa to America. The main character in that series heralded from West Africa, albeit neighbouring Gambia. Godfrey, in his characteristically self-depreciating manner, thought it would be fun to name the aircraft 'ROOT' partly in tribute to the title of this series (which had been quite popular) and also in part as an acronym pointing to his Ghanain Roots.

Regarding some of the other entries on your forum, I saw G-WIZZ mentioned. I bought her (damaged) for the princely sum of £17,000 (yes, that's seventeen!) in 1984, had her fixed up, and sold her to the Hubbard Group in Suffolk the following year. A little story you might like about G-WIZZ involves the sign writer we used for our registrations. Somehow, he managed to double the second letter to produce G-WIIZZ! The daft thing is I flew that helicopter around the country on public transport/air-taxi work for several weeks before someone spotted the error, a sort of ... "Paris in the Spring"... situation!

G-BUZZ was also one of mine from the 90's and I flew G-CHOC but never owned her. G-KENY was always assumed to be mine, and I did buy her (originally as G-BJFG) but then sold her to Ken Stokes. Ken's business traded as 'Business Forms' so his next helicopter became G-KSBF ... Ken Stokes Business Forms.

I won’t go on too long ... but just to say I probably allocated nigh on one hundred private (out of sequence) registrations to the 298 fixed-wing and helicopters sold through Spooner Aviation in the 1970’s and 80s. After Spooner with Starline Helicopters I ran through the entire SHAA, BB etc. sequence ending with G-SHZZ, a Bell 206 which I sold to Mark Thatcher. Then with Skyline Helicopters at Wycombe Air Park I began the sequence G- -SKY and finally with the G-OSHA, B, C series at Redhill.

I also registered a Hughes 300 G-DRKJ which I had bought for my son DRK Junior.

Best wishes to all Aviafora members.

Dennis Kenyon

God love you Denissimo, we are so appreciative of your contribution!

Denissimo mentioned that G-ROOT was originally OO-CDP when he bought her and of which I happened to have a photo in my collection:

...Agusta-Bell 206A JetRanger OO-CDP as seen in Belgium in the 1970's

**Helipixman** · 8th December 2019, 20:59

As mentioned above Dennis Kenyon purchased G-BPPW a Schweizer S269C (S.1172) and re-registered it G-DRKJ for his son, seen below at Shoreham. It went on to become D-HHSL and is now rgeistered as OE-XRF in Austria.

Look out for the next post with more Dennis Kenyon Helicopters.....the SKY series

Photo Helipixman collection

**Helipixman** · 9th December 2019, 14:07

The Dennis Kenyon G-*SKY series all for Skyline Helicopters Ltd

G-CSKY Agusta Bell 206B Jetranger III (8588) ex G-TALY was registered to Skyline on 16.6.83 and sold to Freddie Starr and became G-JOKE and G-JLEE before becoming its current marks G-DATR.

G-HSKY Hughes 369HM (49-0036M) ex G-BDKL, G-VNPP was registered to Skyline on 23.1.84 and cancelled by the CAA 15.8.88 after a mid-air minor collison with Bell 47 G-AXKO. It force landed with 16 inches of one of its main rotor blades missing, and going through cable just prior to touchdown on 5.2.86 at Tudeley near Tonbridge.

G-WSKY Enstrom 280C-UK Shark (1037) ex G-BEEK registered to Skyline 25.7.83 and sold to First Class Furniture Ltd 8.2.84. It is still current in the UK withBrian Rutterford.

All photos from Helipixman Collection

**Helipixman** · 10th December 2019, 10:42

G-KNDY Bell 206B JetRanger III (4100) ex C-GFNO and SE-HUG was registered to Dennis Kenyon t/a Aviation Bureau on 21.10.91. It was sold to ASP Helicopter Co and then exported to the USA c.1994 becoming N144H. It then found its way to Mexico becoming XC-JCG and XB-KRK. It was during its time as XB-KRK it crashed at Vallescondido Golf Club, Atizapan, Mexico on 5.6.10

Photo from Helipixman Collection

**Savoia** · 18th December 2019, 11:08

Some further reflections on personalised registrations .. from Denissimo!

It’s getting dark at 15:00 hours ... the office window is streaming with heavy rain. Low stratus is hiding the tree tops and if I could see down to the River Wye, no doubt the banks are flooding.

So, I thought I would have a quick 'dash’ through a few log books for some special registrations obtained for the businesses I worked with as well as some customers in times long gone by.

I seem to remember selling G-HOOK (an MD500) to Dan Taylor whose son demonstrated her at a 1970’s Farnborough. I also displayed the Enstrom at Farnborough.

Then I come across G-KSBF (another 500) that I used for the first micro cine camera attached to the Lotus/Camel sponsored team at a Spa F1 race. At the time I trained a purchaser on his Enstrom that I registered G-ECHO. He of Echo Hall fame in Spa, Northern Ireland. The buyer, Harvey Bicker was a Commander in the UDF and how well I remember being 'warned off' by a Republican sympathiser who threatened me with all sorts of ills if I continued to teach the owner. Harvey's good lady was the locally well-known Elisabeth Bicker ... a concert pianist of note in NI. Look up her piano recording "Irish Fancies".

Another 500 was G-OSPG sold to the amiable Steve Giddings. A true English gentleman who formerly owned Enstrom G-COLL. At the time I was running the flying for fun business of "Heli-Sport" a sort of golf club system where pilots bought a club membership that gave them access to a fully maintained MD 500 that I promptly registered G-HSOO (the S became a 5 when she was free of maintenance!).

Next came G-KLAY ... an orange Enstrom Shark purchased by John Turvey whose business traded as Klay Electronics. I remember flying her one very early morning (5am!) for a TV naturalist whose 6 foot wing span eagle had escaped. The idea was for me to keep the birdie airborne until she could no longer fly and had to land. The Land Rovers then netted and scooped-up the offending bird. The national press had a field day slagging me off, not knowing the eagle was likely to take a small child if it got really hungry. Officialdom would then have had the bird shot! I could imagine the headline had the bird downed me. Eagle 1 ... Helicopter nil!

I quite liked the G-HOVA we attached to an Enstrom turbo Shark. Sold to Eddy Coventry of the mighty ‘B & C Windows.’ Eddy and his partner Les Briggs then flew around the coast of UK for a charity gig. Enstrom G-PALS was displayed at Biggin Hill Air Fair for the owners ... Property Associates Limited. The helicopter was also featured in an episode of ‘To the Manor Born’ with Gaye Barrett taking the part of Penelope Keith (the social climber lead star, Mrs Forbes).

Gary Miller of the Lons Country Club in Bristol purchased an Enstrom G-LONS as did Federated Homes, G-OFED. G-BDAW was owned by Tony Wilson of Auto Alloys and G-CTRN by Gordon C Taylor being an ex-Royal Navy officer.

G-KENY was sold to Ken Stokes and G-RANT to Sir Phillip Grant Suttie in Scotland. G-BGWS was sold to Bernard George Stevens and G-POPS for Enstrom buyer Bob Popplewell. All Enstroms, not forgetting Enstrom Sharks ... G-SHRK and G-LERN for my own flying school at Shoreham as well as G-SHGG for my Starline business at Biggin Hill.

Three of my log books (out of eight) show a further 68 'Out of Sequence' registrations on Enstroms, 500s, Bell JetRangers and a few Schweizer 300s. G-WISK and G-BNBH were brand new 300's I recall. I probably have photos of at least half of them. Oh and the Southernair business owner Stanley Powell had the very first Enstrom 480 serial number 5001 registered G-OSKP. His daughter a show horsewoman named Dupe had G-DUPE of course.

**Helipixman** · 18th December 2019, 21:14

Having just looked at some early registrations used on helicopters I am wondering If I/we may have missed a few ?

G-BALE owned by Patrick Everard of Brewery business (maybe Dennis could verify this one ?)
G-BAML owned by Alan Mann Helicopters Ltd
G-BBHL owned by Bristow Helicopters Ltd

Maybe not registered out of sequence but could be personal registrations for owners.

**Savoia** · 20th December 2019, 18:48

Originally posted by Helipixman View Post

G-BALE owned by Patrick Everard of Brewery business (maybe Dennis could verify this one ?)

Denissimo replies:

It must have been mid 1970's when I flew in to one of Tony Everard's Enstrom gatherings. I have a photo of the day somewhere (around a dozen Enstrom 28A's). G-BALE was an in-sequence number.

My first ever flight in the F-28A was with G-AVUK which was imported by Ken Reid of Twyford Moors Helicopters in Southampton. I think my first ex-Menominee factory purchase was Bill Spear's G-BAIB. Another early sale was G-BAAU to Sam McDonald Hall of the Jecco firm. An interesting aside is that Sam supplied the seating for the original Concord fleet.

More heli memories on request

Dennis Kenyon

**Helipixman** · 23rd December 2019, 14:14

Some more Enstrom Helicopters previously owned by one of our members on Shrieking Gazelles.... Mostly out of sequence registrations and even an American registered example with the owners initials. Quite a prolific Enstrom owner before he moved to the Gazelle !

G-BPOZ Enstrom F.28A-UK (281)

G-OSAB Enstrom 280FX (2024)

G-OSKP Enstrom 480 (5002)

G-OSWA Enstrom F.28C (138)

N485A Enstrom 480 (5029)

So who is the owner ?

**Helipixman** · 23rd December 2019, 15:31

Now the Dennis Kenyon G-SH** series of registrations, all for his company Starline Helicopters Ltd

G-SHAA Enstrom 280 Shark (1011) Sold to Norman & Carmen Bailey of Manchester Helicopter Centre. Seen at Cranfield

G-SHBB Bell 206B JetRanger III (2291) Crashed 2 miles from Biggin Hill in low cloud sadly killing the pilot and his 4 passengers

G-SHCC Bell 206B JetRanger II (1172) Sold to Humphrey Mining Services Ltd. This is one I flew in many times when owned by Yorkshire Helicopter Centre.

All photos from Helipixman Collection

**Helipixman** · 23rd December 2019, 15:36

G-SHDD Enstrom F28C (431) Sold to Malthouse Securities Ltd (this was previously registered as G-BNBS to Skyline Helicopters)

G-SHFF Enstrom F28C-UK (369) Sold to Norman & Carmen Bailey of Manchester Helicopter Centre

G-SHGG Enstrom 280C-UK Shark (1112) Sold to Haversham Helicopters Ltd

All photos from Helipixman Collection

**Helipixman** · 23rd December 2019, 15:43

G-SHJJ Bell 206B JetRanger III (2757) Sold in germany and became D-HHFS

G-SHKK Hughes 269A (111-0029) Cancelled by CAA. Sold in New Zealand as spares source ?

G-SHLL Hughes TH-55A (76-0625) Sold to Exec-H Ltd

All photos from Helipixman Collection

**Helipixman** · 23rd December 2019, 15:52

G-SHNN Enstrom 280C-UK Shark (1119) Sold to Farm Supply Co (Thirsk) Ltd

G-SHPP Hughes TH-55A (36-0481) Sold to Richard Bateman & Anthony Bethwaite

G-SHRR Agusta Bell 206B JetRanger II (8052) Sold to Vanplass Glass Design Ltd

All photos from Helipixman Collection

**Helipixman** · 23rd December 2019, 15:57

G-SHSS Enstrom 280C-UK Shark (1060) Sold to Free Flight Aviation Ltd (This was previously G-BENO !!!)

G-SHUU Enstrom 280C Shark (1221) Sold to Harvey Ingham

G-SHVV Bell 206B JetRanger II (925) Sold to Grampian Helicopter Charter Ltd and re-registered as G-GHCL

All photos from Helipixman Collection

**Helipixman** · 23rd December 2019, 16:02

G-SHWW Enstrom F28C (348) Re-registered as G-MHCA by Starline then sold to Norman & Carmen Bailey at Manchester Helicopter Centre

G-SHXX Enstrom 280C Shark (1173) Sold in Ireland becoming EI-CCS.

G-SHZZ Bell 206B JetRanger III (2584) Sold to Corporate Enterprises Ltd (Mark Thatcher)

All photos from Helipixman Collection

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UK Out of Sequence/Personalised Registrations

UK Out of Sequence/Personalised Registrations

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