Les Marr has
sent in some
photos from 1998.
See them here
The fall of Dollar and rise of PDG
1990 to 2000
Dollar Helicopters
Last Logo
PDG logo
It opened in November 1990 in a small corner of the hangar we have now, with a workshop, stores and office built on the mezzanine roof by Mike Dobie and me (with a little help from Sue my wife, who helped me put up the roof beams!).
This base became the most successful base Dollar Helicopters ever opened and soon I was looking after seven aircraft (on my own!). In time we took over the whole hangar as we became PDG. But I'm jumping ahead here.
The Forestry contracts over this time had started to decline in volume but it was still a major part of our work. I had so much work that one person could not cope alone so Shaun Strain, the current Chief Engineer of PDG, became the second member of the Cumbernauld engineering staff. We had already gathered a pilot, Adrian Earlam and an administrator, the excellent Maddie Kilgaur.
Then in 1992 disaster struck and for reasons that will one day be evident David Dollar sold Dollar Helicopters to the Lynton Group. All the staff were told that their jobs were safe and they were until the contract was signed. Then the main Coventry base was shut down and all bar a handful of staff made redundant.
It was a great pity as Dollar was an internationally successful company and the superb team that worked in Coventry did not deserve that treatment.
I will draw a veil over the next two years and only say I did not enjoy working for that sort of company. (you spend so much time looking after your back you don't get any work done!)
In 1994 the vestiges of Dollar Helicopters was merged with PLM Helicopters to form The PLM Dollar Group. PDG.
During this time the major changes in the forestry operation involved the guidance system. Since the mid '80's we had been using the DelNorte Flying Flagman. This system used a two beacon system based on the Decca principal. This involved setting up two ground stations on two nearby hills with transponder, a battery and aerial at both. This took time. I decided it would be quicker if the ground stations could be set up back at the spreading site and underslung out to the hill and invented the "Decca Lander". This speeded things enormously. It was a tripod with a gimbaling mast assembly that kept the aerial vertical on sloping ground by using the battery as a counter-balance. The aircraft came in after the ground crew assembled it and hooked it up then flew out and placed it on the hill. Then after the job was finished they picked it up, all with out having find somewhere to land on the rough ground. It took the pilots a wile to learn how to hook it up but they soon got the knack.
Then as the Global Positioning System satellites became accessible to the general public we switched to the GPS Flagman. The GPS system required a single ground station rather that the two needed for the Decca so I modified a Lander to make a "MADIE" that is a Mobile Airborne Data Information Equipment. Of course in the best traditions of having something named after one, Maddie was made redundant shortly afterwards (sorry Maddie!).
The ground station provided a differential signal for the GPS. With out a differential signal the GPS guidance was only accurate to about 50 meters but with it one could get millimeter accuracy. Then in '95 we started to use the Racal LandStar satellite for the differential signal and no longer needed any ground station.
That takes us to the present day.
The Future
Unfortunately the Forestry operation seems to be winding down nowadays and is but a shadow of it's former glory. However for the last thirty years we have all had a lot of fun doing it, along with a lot of pain but we have also made a lot of friends, drunk lots of beer and kept the New Zealand economy solvent.Slatts
5/2/2000
And please if you have anything to contribute please get in touch.
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