Ops-Normal.org

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/travel/trave ... ation.html

Some excellent photos in this one. Usual DM inaccuracies, for example :

"A BEA Viscount 800 receiving its passengers. The Viscount is the most successful British airliner ever to have been developed and it was in service from 1948 to 1964."

If that "DM inaccuracy" is, as I suspect, a direct quote from the book, and representative of the book's veracity, I won't be putting it on my Christmas present list.

Nice to see The Trident at Prestwick doing circuits and bumps, takes me back to my childhood, as they used to fly over our house at regular intervals, along with 747’s , VC 10’s and other types from the BA fleet, did any of our members do this?

This members father. Brought me back to my childhood, or so I thought, with my father pounding the circuit at Prestwick in the Trident. Then I checked his log books and I find that he only ever visited Prestwick in the Trident when diverting from Glasgow as a result of fog or crosswinds. Apart from one BOAC charter. His log books revealing that he once had a nosewheel fall off whilst taxying in at Prestwick and on another occasion his First Officers window slid open on finals at about 200’. All his time training others in circuit bashing in the Trident was at Shannon.

Some years later he was bashing the Prestwick circuit being trained and later training others including Gulf Air pilots in the TriStar. BEA never had enough money to fit anything other than DME/VOR kit to their TrStars but Gulf Air were awash with cash so fitted their TriStars with INS. I never forget Dad coming home in complete amazement having flown Prestwick to Marrakesh and back and the INS telling him he was only a few hundred yards away from his actual position. He was in total awe that something could be that accurate.

".........did any of our members do this?

Yes. 707 Command training. Circa 1974,

The Tridents also did training at Nicosia, I remember being deafened when working up there in Dec 1973.
"Croydon to Concorde" by Capt RE Gilman (ISBN 0-7195-3741-X) is also an interesting read of aviation in this period, recommended,

The promenade deck on the Shorts flying boat must have been quite and experience.

Latest outbreak of nostalgia from BA




For any plane spotters the aircraft is G-EUPJ, currently in Shannon being repainted.

And the venerable DC3 has seen 'em all come and go.

In 2013 it was estimated approx 2,000 DC3s and military derivatives were still flying - a testament to the durability and design of the old girl.




She'll also see those pregnant waddling duck 380s scrapped and rusting in the desert too I reckon.

This one,G-BNLY might even make it to CPT

Saw it in the flesh today at Perry Oaks International

Apropos of nothing but the above reminded me of the time I shared digs with a BEA pilot, he reckoned he used to attend a 6 monthly Sim. session to practice .... 4 engined landings ! He also reckoned that the flight deck was so wide that the Captain couldn't hit him.

ExSp33db1rd wrote: ↑

Mon Mar 04, 2019 11:03 pm

Apropos of nothing but the above reminded me of the time I shared digs with a BEA pilot, he reckoned he used to attend a 6 monthly Sim. session to practice .... 4 engined landings ! He also reckoned that the flight deck was so wide that the Captain couldn't hit him.

Viscounts, Vanguards

Here’s G-BNLY repainted back into LANDOR livery

I remember the BEA Vanguards circuit bashing at Luqa. They would 'attack' the runaway. I don't think I have seen any other aircraft nose down on approach.

Woody wrote: ↑

Sat Mar 09, 2019 4:48 pm

Here’s G-BNLY repainted back into LANDOR livery

Operating BA211 to Miami from T3, nearly 2 hours late