Ken Fostekew sent these photographs over, from the person who was involved with the equipment installation for Fairey Surveys. Unfortunately his contact details have been lost, but the photographs tell the story. The first two photographs are of G-AZFS, and the others are all of G-AZOH. UPDATE 13/05/2025: Graham Dives was the photographer, working for the company that modified the planes for FSL: see comment below.
Doing a quick search on G-AZOH brought up the attached accident report published on the Government Air Accident Investigation Branch website. Looking at the date, and the pilot details, the pilot was probably Geoff Milsom, who kept the plane under control when a wheel came off after landing at White Waltham. Does anyone have any more details?
To see larger versions of the photographs, right click the photograph and select ‘Open image in new tab’
Hi, The photographs of G-AZFS and G-AZOH above are all MY photos. I was the Drawing Office leader at a company called Curtis and Green Ltd in Uxbridge Middlesex. We were a CAA appproved organisation and designed modifications to Civil Aircraft. Initially we were engaged by Fairey Surveys at Reform Road Maidenhead to modify G-AZFS for aerial photographic survey work. On completion of this we were then engaged to modify G-AZOH for aerial geographical survey work. G-AZFS was modified at White Waltham and G-AZOH at Manchester Ringway Airport. This was in July 1972.
If anyone would like more information, please contact me. I would love to know what happened to the aircraft.