Built at Brooklands, 1958
As with all V.806 Viscounts, construction of G-APIM's fuselage began at Hurn, near Bournemouth. It was the 50th V.800-series Viscount started at the factory.
The partly completed fuselage had arrived at Brooklands by 21 December 1957, when main assembly began. It moved to the finishing hangar on 5 May 1958, and G-APIM took to the air from Brooklands on 4 June 1958. It received its certificate of airworthiness on 20 June and was delivered to British European Airways at Heathrow on 24 July 1958.
Two days later "India Mike" made her first passenger flight, from London to Barcelona. The captain on that inaugural flight was Ray Piercey, Stephen's father.
With British European Airways
BEA's Viscounts were known as the Discovery class, each named after a famous discoverer. G-APIM was named Robert Boyle, after the Irish scientist born in 1627 who gave us Boyle's law, one of the key gas laws of physics.
The V.806 Viscounts were all built with the powerful Rolls-Royce Dart RDa.7 Mk 520 engine. These were later removed to give more power to the underpowered Armstrong Whitworth Argosy freighters in the BEA fleet, and "India Mike" and her sister ships received the Dart RDa.6 Mk 510, as fitted to the earlier V.802 Viscounts.
In her original configuration, like all BEA's V.800 Viscounts, "India Mike" carried 42 tourist and 16 first-class passengers. From her Heathrow base she flew BEA's European routes, reaching as far afield as Tel Aviv, Moscow and Tripoli, and in the early 1960s G-APIM was used for route-proving flights to Budapest and Prague.
With Cambrian Airways
After more than ten years on BEA routes, "India Mike" was put into open storage at Cambridge Airport from February to November 1969. She then returned to BEA service for two years, until G-APIM was transferred to the associate airline Cambrian Airways on 2 November 1971, flying to her new home at Cardiff (Rhoose) Airport the next day.
On 18 January 1972 G-APIM emerged from the paint shop resplendent in Cambrian's new colours: an orange upper fuselage and tail with a stylised Welsh dragon.
With British Airways
A few months later Cambrian Airways was absorbed into the newly formed British Airways, and G-APIM left the paint shop on 12 November 1973 in BA colours with small Cambrian titles.
On 7 December 1977 G-APIM was flying as BZ762 from Aberdeen to Kirkwall. Landing on runway 10, which was wet and slippery, "India Mike" skidded off the concrete and ended up bogged down in the grass. The passengers left by the starboard rear door slide. Thankfully nobody on board was hurt, and the aircraft suffered only minor damage.
By 1982 "India Mike" was the last of her type to be retired by BA, and she was flown to Cardiff for storage pending sale.
With British Air Ferries
In 1984 the Southend-based airline British Air Ferries (BAF) bought G-APIM along with several other ex-BA V.800 Viscounts. She was ferried to Southend with her undercarriage down on 3 February 1984, underwent a major overhaul, and was ready for service with BAF by July 1984.
With BAF the V.800 Viscounts were configured for either 76 passengers in an economy layout or 7 tons of freight, on routes across Europe. In one of life's little twists, "India Mike" returned to Heathrow on 18 and 19 January 1985 to operate British Airways' Jersey service, because the BAC One-Elevens that had replaced BA's Viscounts were unable to operate in the heavy snow.
Named Stephen Piercey
In that same year, 1984, Flight International's chief photographer Stephen Piercey was working at the Hanover Air Show when, on 20 May, he was tragically killed in a mid-air collision. Stephen had also founded and edited Propliner, a high-quality quarterly magazine devoted to piston and turboprop transport aircraft around the world.
Such was the esteem in which he was held in the aviation world, and among his friends at British Air Ferries, that they offered to name one of their Viscounts after him. The choice was simple: it had to be G-APIM, the aircraft Stephen's father Ray had flown on her inaugural flight from London to Barcelona back in 1958.
The honour of naming "India Mike" fell to Stephen's parents, Ray and Patsy. You can see a picture of the naming ceremony on the home page.
The accident at Southend, 1988
G-APIM's flying career came to an abrupt and untimely end on 11 January 1988. While she was parked at Southend Airport, a taxiing Shorts 330 of Guernsey Airlines, G-BHWT, lost hydraulic power, causing its brakes and steering to fail. The Shorts collided with the empty Viscount, destroying the left-hand side of her nose, and came to rest with the Viscount lodged under its wing.
The Viscount was assessed as beyond economical repair. She was stored and later gave many serviceable parts to other Viscounts in the BAF fleet. The errant Shorts 330 was not so lucky: it was taken to Biggin Hill and scrapped.
That is where the story of G-APIM should have ended, were it not for a group of strangers, who later became friends, who saved "India Mike" so that future generations could climb aboard.