Thruxton Helicopters: 21 year old R22 arrives for repaint

Wednesday, June 10, 2009

21 year old R22 arrives for repaint

G-OTOY arrived today from Heli Air at Wellesbourne for repaint, on G-INFO it is pending a registration change to G-VVBE, so assume the transformation will take place whilst at Thruxton.

Weather earlier today wasn't brilliant, so an instructor from Heli Air brought it down through the patchy showers late in the day.

Photo credit - Graeme Lovell

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Overview

This blog sets out to try & keep up with the helicopter movements & activity at Thruxton Airport, near Andover, Hampshire.

With 10+ heli's based here & several companies onsite involved in either maintaining, operating or painting helicopters, there are numerous visitors.

Thruxton used to be a regular stop off point for power & pipeline survey aircraft, but not so much nowadays. It is also a regular stopping off point for fuel on the way to & from the South West and on race days although the airfield closes officially there are normally a few heli's attending the motorsport events throughout the year - so at times its a busy place!

If you need to contact me, please email - mail@michael-rice.co.uk

Airfield based businesses

Heliwork Services Ltd. (formerly INAER UK Maintenance Ltd.) - a Bell, Robinson & AgustaWestland approved service centre, with Allison approved overhaul shop. Regular maintenance visits from a good number of aircraft, mostly Bell, Robinson, Enstrom, Schweizer & Agusta. In November 2013 a management buyout took the business name back to where it all began & a welcome return of the hangar signs with Heliwork on them was seen.

Edmondson Aviation Ltd. - specialist aviation paintshop with a well established track record of excellent, quality work on all types of light aircraft. They carry out all kinds of contracts from complete bare metal repaints to minor scheme changes & paint repair. With such a good reputation, Simon & his team are never short of work. They have consistently been very busy for the last couple of years with 30+ aircraft being completely repainted annually. I think they produce the best quality work in the UK today, given their client list, and a healthy order book, I am sure everyone else in the industry thinks that as well.

Heli Air Ltd. – national training school taking over the old established, but now defunct FAST Helicopters base that was.

Hampshire Air Ambulance - the service started on July 1st 2007 using a Bond Air Services Eurocopter Mbb Bo105 - G-NAAB, this provided a long awaited HEMS cover for my home county for the first few years. Initially the service was for 5 days per week, as of December 2007 it went full time to 7 days a week. As of 2010 it operates with an EC135T2+ - G-BZRS. The long awaited new aircraft EC135T3 G-HIOW (1190) was imported in late August 2015 & started operating in October 2015, with night mission capability as well. The service appears to have been incredibly busy since it started, not a day has gone by when I haven't seen the aircraft speeding over the skies of Andover to or from a job.

Recovair Ltd. - aircraft recovery and transporter operation, very intolerant of enthusiasts as they undertake work which can sometimes be of a sensitive nature.

Composite Technology Ltd. – closed in October 2019 with all business being transferred to the US operation. However, in December 2019, I heard that there may be some good news as the building & tooling may have been bought, and a new business could soon start up doing much the same work on site.

Residents list

Heliwork Services (Hangar 1)

Regular maintenance visitors include

G-BKEW B206B
G-BVGA B206B
G-BXKL B206B
G-CHOA B206B
G-CHWJ G2
G-DONE B505
G-EIMS B505
G-ENHP EN480
G-GATT R44II
G-GERS R44 Clipper II
G-HELE B206B
G-IGGI B505
G-JGXP B407
G-JRXI B505
G-JRXV B505
G-LLLY EN480
G-LILY B206B
G-OCDO G2
G-ONVG G2
G-OSAR B206L
G-SANJ G2
G-NGLZ B206B
G-VVBH G2
G-WLTS B429
G-XFYF G2

Heli Air (Hangar 2)

G-EEZR R44II
G-CECX R44II
G-JANI R44
G-TPTP R44II
G-WRWR R22B

Edmondson Aviation (Hangar 3)

nil based

Recovair Ltd. (Hangar 4)

No access

Hampshire & IoW Air Ambulance (Hangar 2A)

G-HIOW EC135-T3

JPM Ltd. (Hangar 2B)

G-MSVI A109S