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..........Bristow Base: Cyprus

By me, Dave Edwards.

A few years ago I remember walking along the sea front at Porta Polenca,
North East Majorca and after observing a small Search and Rescue operation
across the bay I commented to Jan how wonderful it would be to work on an
SAR operation in a holiday destination. Well, here we are in sunny Cyprus.
Blue skies, crystal clear, warm, turquoise seas, thousands of bars and restaurants,
ice cold beer and Premiership football in every bar, topless tanned babes litter
the water parks and beaches........OK, enough I hear you say.......What about
the operation?

For those of you who failed CSE Geography, Cyprus is
at the eastern end of the Mediteranean - not far from
a lot of the worlds trouble spots. The first Bell 412 arrived
in the first week af April 2003 amidst a great variety of
coalition aircraft supporting operations in Iraq. The 412s
had been through a tortuous mod programme at Bristows
Redhill and FBH at RAF Shawbury which involved the fitting of an SAR avionic
package, new hoist, lightweight floatation, ADELT, EXIS, 4-axis autopilot etc etc.

F B Heliservices is a joint venture company between FRA Bournemouth and Bristows
and primarily bids for military support contracts. The contract is to supply and
operate four modified Bell 412EPs on a five year contract hopefully to be extended.
They replace 84 Sqns ageing Wessex that were based at RAF Akrotiri for many
years. The primary role for the aircraft is to provide fifteen minute SAR cover for
the various fighter deployments that typically use Cyprus for gunnery practice, or
in the case of the Red Arrows, pre season display practice. They are also tasked
to carry out trooping and surveillance missions as required by the Army units
detached to Cyprus.The aircraft are on the military register, civilian owned, overseen
by the CAA, maintained by FBH civilian engineers and flown by RAF crews.

They are also tasked with detachments in support of military exercises to places
such as Jordan and Turkey.

A typical start to the day and the coolest in mid summer when
temperatures can approach 40C. The aircraft are unsocked,
pre-flighted, fuelled and windows cleaned.

The dawn peace is soon shattered by Tornadoes or Jaguars
tearing off in pursuit of target towing hawks. On fifteen minute
standby just in case they miss the banner and shoot down the
Hawk!

Cyprus in the Summer is very, very dry and consequently like
a tinder box. The RAF offer the aircraft, which have Bambi
Bucket carrying ability, to the Cypriot Goverment to help
fight the numerous bush fires around the island during the
summer months.

A few names for this operation:

Engineers: C.Eng Pete Brennan (ex Bristows), Dave Edwards, Geoff Dyer (DC),
Steve Brobin, John Roberts, Ken Wiltshire, Roger Turner, Dick Lawtey,
Brian Graham, Geoff Hymas and "Kes"