Fencing material lift by Dollar’s Bell helicopter Registration No G-BGAM
The images are courtesy of Peter Weir, Glencoe, who worked as Forestry Commission ploughing tractor driver for many years. Here he is one of the team distributing and erecting a fence in some of the most spectacular scenery in Scotland. The fence went from a low level of around200m elevation in the glen above Ballachulish to over 800m before it crossed over into Glen Duror. Fortunately Peter was a very fit member of the Glencoe Mountain Rescue at the time and able to endure the daily hike up to these high levels. Glencoe Forest at this time was formed from a combination from the original forests of Glencoe, Glen Duror and Glenetive. The latter still had a forester and its own squad in Peter’s time but clerical work may have been carried out in the main office.
Peter comments on the operation:
“When the helicopter was working with us we were on steep wooded area and as he was coming in with a load he caught the tip of a tree with his rotors. Back then he did not have a automatic hook so he had to drop down so that we could manually unhook the load. The pilot phoned for a engineer to come and check for damage and was given the all clear to fly as there was only a small bit of paint of the tip of a rotor. In the photos you will see the helicopter landing on the mountain as we were getting a lift up every morning to do the unhooking work”
“After it finished lifting the fencing material that helicopter left us and went to the Loch Nevis area and crashed into Loch Nevis. As far as I can remember the pilot got out and swam ashore but the passenger did not survive.”
The PDF below shows more of the helicopter at work and also picking up the one of the fencers to drop them off on the fence line so that they could unhook the loads. The last part of the PDF shows the view from the helicopter of some of the steep slopes they had to work on and also a view of the Ballachulish Bridge.
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Groups: Aircraft in Forestry Work, Forestry Areas, Forestry in Action
3 Comments
was killed in the accident. Comment left on 12 May 2021 at 17:34 by Andy