That’s exactly how I remember ‘EB (the sole S-61NM), when my grandad used to show me around on Sunday mornings.
Penzance was less affected by fog than Lands End, but the real advantage was that the S-61 could fly in lower viz and had a lower minima, both in viz and wind terms.

My aunt on St Agnes absolutely relied on the helicopter, 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 for this and flew the flowers directly to Penzance rail station. It had a good cargo capacity compared with the fixed-wing alternatives.

The helicopter may have become an unbankable luxury, but there was a word in use in BEA and BA days which unfortunately doesn’t exist any more in business – and that’s service.
My Grandad always said the turning point for him was just after Robert Maxwell brought BAH and turned it into BIH.

BEAH (British European Airways Helicopters) was not funded by its nationalised parent, it was entirely self funding and had to generate the profits for its own survival, though being a wing of BEA undoubtely helped with any government led help.
The helicopter was the most viable replacement for the three Dragon Rapides which could only carry eight pax each, and often flew in pairs, the new aircraft could carry 24 (from 1974 32) on one flight, and in the first year of operations carried 40,000 passengers, 14,000 more than the last year of Rapide operations.
Also worth bearing in mind that St Marys airport was a very limited proposition for larger fixed-wing aircraft at the time, and even now with a hard runway is still regarded as bit of a challenge to expanding fixed-wing ops.
The passenger figures forecast by Jock Cameron (that many 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) in fact until 1976 the Penzance Helicopter service was the only profitable internal service within British Airways.

The North Sea oil boon in the late 1960s was undoubtedly a huge bonus to the company, allowing them to expand to 23 S-61Ns, 2 Wessex, and 5 Chinooks helping to support the Scillies route, it certainly seems that as the oil industry started to ease back, and BIH contracts were lost to Bristows that the fortunes of the Cornish operation turned for the worse.
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. The heliports’ siting next to the main rail station and end of the A30 undoubtedly was a master stroke in the plan to make the service viable.

What does come out shining from this is the Sikorksy S-61s themselves, 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 (preferrably Echo Bravo!) will be preserved and displayed one day.

I get that I do sound a bit rose tinted about the helicopter service, for the record Brymons’ aircraft fleet and early service was helped forward by friend of the family, and I have had many lovely flights from Newquay to St Marys on the Skybus Islanders and Twin Otters (including good old G-BIHO), I even chartered a Christmas flight from them for ATC at St Mawgan.

To me this is a step back in aviation service, at time when we are meant to advancing.

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Pics by Chris England