Penzance Heliport

[PNK]

I remember seeing the helicopters in 1968. We badgered Dad to let us fly to the Scillies. Mum wan't to meet Harold Wilson. Sadly it was too expensive for us for a day trip.

[Pillboxman]

Really sad to drive past on the A30 and see the hanger doors closed; I cannot remember seeing theme closed before.

[mawganmad]

BEA Helicopters

British European Airways established a rotary-wing 'experimental unit' in 1947 which as well as it’s government funded research work, contracted out its helicopters, (Bell 47, Bristol 171 Sycamore, WS-51 Dragonfly, & WS-55 Whirlwind) for passenger, cargo or any other service particularly suited to helicopters, ie rescue and underslung load lifting. This venture was largely driven by the vision of Captain ‘Jock’ Cameron and his small team at BEA.

By 1963 it had become increasingly obvious that the three biplane DH Dragon Rapides that were in service with BEA on the ‘Islander’ service between Lands End and St Marys, Isles of Scilly, were becoming obsolete, replacing them with another aeroplane was proving hard due to the tight and exposed airfield at St Marys and the prevailing weather conditions in the winter. The airport was a very limited proposition for larger fixed-wing aircraft expansion at the time, and even now with a hard runway is still regarded as bit of a challenge to growing fixed-wing ops. The Scottish Aviation Twin Pioneer was briefly looked into but didn’t satisfy requirements.
BEA then considered using helicopters on the route. The Whirlwinds had already been used on occasions from Lands End, and indeed competing Mayflower Air Services Rapide owner/pilot, Captain Cleife, life was most likely saved by one of these machines after his crash on St Marys.

It soon became apparent that the helicopter was the most practical, if most complex and expensive option, and in a forward thinking move the airline created a separate entirely self funding subsidiary with £1M with which to start operations. British European Airways Helicopters (BEAH) was formed on January 1st 1964 and the new Sikorsky S-61N was chosen as the type to serve the route.
In late January the two new Sikorskys, G-ASNL & G-ASNM (£700,000 worth) arrived from America at Southampton docks, where they were assembled and flown to the company headquarters at Gatwick. The S-61N (the amphibious variant) also had safety built in, most of the 25 minute flight was over sea, in an emergency situation the twin T-58 turbo-shaft powered aircraft could auto-rotate and settle on the sea with its boat like hull and float sponsons, a feature that proved life saving when both ‘NL (Mar ’83) & ‘NM (Nov ’70) would later ditch in the North sea.
On May the 1st both helicopters were at Lands End to fly the inaugural helicopter service to the Scillies.
Passengers satisfaction was guaranteed at low-level flight along the Cornish and Scillonian coast-line, aided by the large cabin windows, even the excitement of the moving machinery above their heads didn’t detract from the experience!

Penzance

The masterstroke in the operation was the realisation that the service would be far more attractive from Penzance, a fantastic empty site at Eastern Green existed next to the sea right at the end of the main A30 road and the British Rail line from London, and it was chosen to build the new purpose heliport with hangar for two aircraft and terminal.
The new terminal opened on the 1st September 1964, at first the service was seen as very novel, but it quickly became routine, with just one S-61N, the other having gone to the Gatwick/Southampton, and later, Beccles, route.
The Sikorskys were an immediate success, the Rapides could only carry eight passengers each and often flew in formation pairs on the route, the new aircraft could carry 24 (from 1974 32) passengers on one flight, and in their first year of operations carried 40,000 passengers, 14,000 more than the last year of Rapide operations.
The passenger figures forecast by Jock Cameron (50,000 per annum, that many originally doubted) were very soon exceeded and the totals for some years with just one helicopter are incredible, 96,500 in 1980 (67,000 over the busy 6 months of 1986).
British Airways absorbed BEA & BOAC, BEAH becoming British Airways Helicopters (BAH) when it inherited the seven S-61s in March 1974. The success of the helicopter operation is bourn out by the fact that until 1976 the Penzance helicopter service was the only profitable internal service within the whole of British Airways.
The aircraft themselves would be regularly upgraded, the most obvious of which was the addition of the weather radar ‘thimble’ to the nose.
The service at Penzance and Scilly was renowned for its slick operation (92% reliability of service at peak), friendliness of its terminal staff, and hard work by the maintenance staff, which was considerable when the helicopter was utilised so highly. Turbine washes every four flights to keep salt errosion down, daily maintenance checks, and deep maintenance, including engine or gearbox change if needed, on Sundays helped keep the schedules operating well.

In 1974 an S-61NM, G-BCEB, was purchased specifically to serve the Penzance operation. This was unusual in being fitted with underfloor freight doors, deletion of the mid passenger door, and replacing the forward cargo door with airstairs door for passenger access, this allowed for seating for 32 and quicker turnaround and handling times. This came at the cost of fuel capacity and range which dropped from the 'Ns 500 nautical miles to 250 n.m, of course this wasn't a problem for the 30 n.m route.
The heliport gained a ground refuelling installation which allowed a rotors running passenger embarkation on the site, which it was already doing as routine on St Marys.
A service and landing ground to the tourist attractive off island of Tresco was established from the summer of 1983.
My aunt on St Agnes absolutely relied, and benefitted from the flexibility of the helicopter service, as a regular passenger to 'freedom' on the mainland, one medical trip, and getting her flowers to Covent Garden ahead of the competition. The helicopter landed on St Agnes especially for this and flew the flowers directly to Penzance rail station, it also had a good cargo capacity compared with the fixed-wing alternatives.

The North Sea oil boom in the late 1960s was undoubtedly a huge bonus to the company, allowing them to expand to eventually 23 S-61Ns, 2 S-58T Wessex, and 5 Boeing 234LR Chinooks. The extra S-61s often helped to support the Scillies route in times of high traffic or unservicability. Charter work including freighting, underslung lifting, and SAR (Aberdeen S-61s saved 118 lives between 1971-77) all the S-61s being winch capable, all helped to subsidise the Penzance operation.

The helicopter service did change day tripper access to Scilly. Some may hate it for this, but others (including my family members on all but one of the off islands) came to cherish it, indeed the service was more heavily seated on its late return trips because of the ‘experience’ by some passangers of the out going trip on the Scillonian steamship! The heliports' siting next to two main transport links at Penzance obviously was a major contributory factor.
Penzance was also less affected by fog than Lands End, but the real advantage was that the S-61s could fly in lower viz and had a lower minima, both in viz and wind terms over fixed wing types, this proving a huge advantage over both ends of the route.

That is not to say that the service was without competition or problems, from 1972 fixed-wing operations from Brymon Airways with Twin Otters at Plymouth & Newquay, and from 1985 the Isles of Scilly Steamship Co/Skybus Islander from Lands End were starting to eat into the market, though both carriers combined carried 10,000 passengers to the 67,000 on the helicopter in the summer season of 1986.
On the 23rd of June 1983 disaster struck the service and the company for the first time when a substitute S-61N, G-BEON, at low altitude and at cruising speed, flew straight into the sea, this resulted in 20 of the 26 passengers on board sadly losing their lives. Both pilots, two children and two islanders survived.

Robert Maxwell/Mirror Group brought BAH and turned it into British International Helicopters in 1986. From then on the operation passed through various owners. Along with the increasingly more cost effective competition from the fixed-wing operators, certainly it would seem that as the oil industry started to ease back with chater work, and BIH contracts were lost to Bristows that the fortunes of the Cornish operation turned for the worse.

The Sikorksy S-61s themselves have proved to be fantastic workhorses, the service that each individual airframe has given is quite remarkable. The service was the longest and most successful helicopter schedule anywhere in the world, and yet was flown by single airframes 12 times a day, 6 days a week, over 30+ years - that would put to shame many fixed wing types, indeed it was referred to as the Dakota of the helicopter world, being a major advancement in passenger rotary flight.
I do hope that one of these machines (preferably Echo Bravo!) will be preserved and displayed one day.

My Grandad served with BEA on St Marys, from the Rapide era in the mid 1950s to the helicopter period in the mid 1980s, and he was incredibly proud of the service (including being in involved with Cliefs’ rescue), I spent many fond times as a child looking around ‘EB at Penzance on Sundays and some of my earliest memories were formed by trips in this helicopter.

With the end of the service in October 2012, the emptying, and soon demolition of the hangar at Eastern Green, it seems to me that this is a step back in aviation service, at time when we are meant to advancing.

Some nice pics of the S-61Ns while with BEAH & BAH by Chris England

http://www.abpic.co.uk/popup.php?q=1158570

http://www.abpic.co.uk/photo/1155226/

Nice memories page here, http://www.colinduff.co.uk/air/scilly01.html

[A30yoyo]

I went down to the Heliport last Monday and got these photos....I'm told the buildings are all gone now and foundations are going in for the Sainsbury's store on the site


heliportApr2013C1400 by A30yoyo, on Flickr


heliportApr2013B1400 by A30yoyo, on Flickr

[mawganmad]

Thanks for sharing your photos, but what a sad scene.
For all my life the sight and experience of the heliport and its hangar provided the excitement for days out in Penzance.
In these days when we are seriously reappraising our financial situation and the idea of large out of town shopping areas damaging the comerce and atmosphere of our town centres, you would think that the last thing that Penzance needs is to deprive itself of a valuable aerial link to the Scillies which connects to the main rail head from London and the end of the A30, while accomodating a new supermarket just 1000ft away from a Morrisons and 1500ft from a Tescos.

[PETERTHEEATER]

Sad, and not even forced by progress.