Frank Robinson has just completed a week’s tour of the UK accompanied by his daughter Terry hane, covering three principal events.

Starting last Tuesday 5th, he made a very well-received presentation at the Royal Aeronautical Society – their annual “Cierva Lecture” – to an audience of over 150. The venue was very much “standing room only”, and benefited from the sponsorship of Sloane Helicopters, the UK’s original Robinson dealer. Frank’s inimitable style and dry sense of humour was still very evident, despite his recent retirement at the age of 80 from day-to-day involvement at the eponymous helicopter manufacturer in Torrance, California. Frank has handed over the running of the company to his son Kurt – see the Helihub.com story here.

Sloane’s exclusivity for the UK and Eire was only broken by Robinson’s decision to allow two dealers per geographical area, and Frank’s venue on Wednesday was the second dealer, Heliair. This company hosted a fly-in of their customers, with 29 Robinson helicopters noted outside their facility at Wycombe Air Park.

Finally on Friday, Frank was Guest of Honour at Sloane Helicopters’ headquarters at Sywell Aerodrome in Northamptonshire. Frustrated by low cloud and poor visibility, a planned arrival in one of his beloved R44s was instead replaced by an environmentally friendly Lexus hybrid 4×4 SUV. The weather also held off any arrivals by air, and the very restricted invitation list included three board members of the Helicopter Club of Great Britain and HeliHub.com’s owner Jeremy Parkin.

Look out for further articles taken from Jeremy Parkin’s interview with Frank Robinson each day this week – Photo above shows HeliHub.com’s owner Jeremy Parkin with Frank Robinson

This is one of a series of five articles from HeliHub.com’s interview with Frank Robinson – here are links to all five
* Frank Robinson completes UK tour
* Frank Robinson talks to HeliHub.com about the market for the R66
* Frank Robinson promises he will make it to 100
* Surviving the recession, by Frank Robinson
* Frank Robinson prefers R44 to R66 (and other anecdotes)