Britain's most successful airliner... outdid the Convair, Martin and Lockheed marques in that market.
Viscount.JPG (37 KiB) Viewed 6823 times
Convair.JPG (24.89 KiB) Viewed 6823 times
Martin 2-O-2.JPG (42.94 KiB) Viewed 6823 times
Lockheed Electra.JPG (45.65 KiB) Viewed 6823 times
Re: In memory of the Vickers Viscount
Posted: Sun Aug 16, 2020 12:34 pm
by G-CPTN
3 Viscounts in service in 2004, all in Africa.
Re: In memory of the Vickers Viscount
Posted: Sun Aug 16, 2020 1:09 pm
by tango15
The Viscount has a very special place in my heart. My early days in aviation were spent with Cambrian Airways at Liverpool and they were a joy to work with. Unfortunately, we lost one to an accident when it landed on a mothball factory while on finals to Speke. Even more unfortunate was the fact that I saw it happen. The reasons for the accident have never been fully determined. The second incident was when Oscar Echo lost the use of its brakes while on taxi trials at Speke and tried to enter one of the gates in order to stop:
Unfortunately, we lost one to an accident when it landed on a mothball factory while on finals to Speke. Even more unfortunate was the fact that I saw it happen. The reasons for the accident have never been fully determined. The second incident was when Oscar Echo lost the use of its brakes while on taxi trials at Speke and tried to enter one of the gates in order to stop:
Unfortunately, we lost one to an accident when it landed on a mothball factory while on finals to Speke. Even more unfortunate was the fact that I saw it happen. The reasons for the accident have never been fully determined. The second incident was when Oscar Echo lost the use of its brakes while on taxi trials at Speke and tried to enter one of the gates in order to stop:
Yes indeed. I knew the crew of course. In fact I was waiting to join them for a few beers, before they went back their base in Cardiff the following day. Worse still, I had done the paperwork for the outbound flight - an additional cargo flight to clear a backlog. Of course, they took away the paperwork immediately and it gave me, at the tender age of 20, a few sleepless nights...
Re: In memory of the Vickers Viscount
Posted: Sun Aug 16, 2020 2:38 pm
by TheGreenGoblin
I learned to fly at Cardiff and my first "run" was to drop my boss off at Speke to pick up his new Tampico which was being fettled there. I enjoyed the ambiance of the place and even took time out to go and try and find the "haunted" old control tower.
I learned to fly at Cardiff and my first "run" was to drop my boss off at Speke to pick up his new Tampico which was being fettled there. I enjoyed the ambiance of the place and even took time out to go and try and find the "haunted" old control tower.
Ah yes, the late Campbell Black, about whom there are endless stories locally...
Re: In memory of the Vickers Viscount
Posted: Sun Aug 16, 2020 3:31 pm
by Undried Plum
I was a boarder at a prep school in Surrey, but lived in Edinburgh. I was sent off from Turnhouse to Heathrow as an Unaccompanied Minor on a BEA Viscount. 12 flights a year, including half-term hols. Treated like Royalty by the hosties and invited to visit the flight deck (almost*) every time.
One year the runway (31/13) was being resurfaced and 25/07 hadn't yet been thought of, so we pax were bussed to East Fortune. It was all a great big adventure for a wee laddie like me.
Eventually they 'traded in' the Viscount and moved on to the even more impressive Vanguard. I loved that type too.
Many decades later I lived in the Craghaar at Dyce for a couple of years while I was the Project Surveyor for the Piper Redevelopment Project. Every morning and evening I went for a jog up to Kirkhill Forest, passing close by the peri track of rwy 36 threshold. There was a routine scheduled Alidair flight from Sumburgh or Scatsta, a Viscount, which approached low overhead on short finals. The flaps produced wingtip vortices which made a very characteristic whistling/whizzing sound and spun right down to ground level, sucking the air out of your chest if you happened to run right through one of them.
At the time, I thought that I was seeing and hearing a wee bit of History. I guess they are all now museum pieces or beer cans. There was one at AST Perth, used as a training aid for the Engineering students, but it, like the Trident, was chopped up for scrap when AST was shut down by Bristows/AirLog in the late 1990s.
(.*.) One time I wasn't allowed to as PM Harold Wilson was aboard and his Security crew nixed it. The bastard had even taken 'my' seat 1A. I never forgave him for that.
Re: In memory of the Vickers Viscount
Posted: Sun Aug 16, 2020 4:06 pm
by ian16th
Used to use them like a bus service twixt LBA and LHR, but my last trip was BHX to LHR 30 June 1982.
Re: In memory of the Vickers Viscount
Posted: Sun Aug 16, 2020 4:13 pm
by G-CPTN
My memory of Turnhouse:-
My parents bought a caravan (to replace the large military tent that we had used on family holidays in Devon), and we stayed on a Caravan Club site overlooking the airport, circa 1957.
I distinctly remember looking down onto the aircraft landing and taking off, though I have never identified whereabouts the site was located.
I was a boarder at a prep school in Surrey, but lived in Edinburgh. I was sent off from Turnhouse to Heathrow as an Unaccompanied Minor on a BEA Viscount. 12 flights a year, including half-term hols. Treated like Royalty by the hosties and invited to visit the flight deck (almost*) every time.
One year the runway (31/13) was being resurfaced and 25/07 hadn't yet been thought of, so we pax were bussed to East Fortune. It was all a great big adventure for a wee laddie like me.
Eventually they 'traded in' the Viscount and moved on to the even more impressive Vanguard. I loved that type too.
Many decades later I lived in the Craghaar at Dyce for a couple of years while I was the Project Surveyor for the Piper Redevelopment Project. Every morning and evening I went for a jog up to Kirkhill Forest, passing close by the peri track of rwy 36 threshold. There was a routine scheduled Alidair flight from Sumburgh or Scatsta, a Viscount, which approached low overhead on short finals. The flaps produced wingtip vortices which made a very characteristic whistling/whizzing sound and spun right down to ground level, sucking the air out of your chest if you happened to run right through one of them.
At the time, I thought that I was seeing and hearing a wee bit of History. I guess they are all now museum pieces or beer cans. There was one at AST Perth, used as a training aid for the Engineering students, but it, like the Trident, was chopped up for scrap when AST was shut down by Bristows/AirLog in the late 1990s.
(.*.) One time I wasn't allowed to as PM Harold Wilson was aboard and his Security crew nixed it. The bastard had even taken 'my' seat 1A. I never forgave him for that.
I spent a very happy day at the museum at East Fortune some years back. I was looking through my photos to see whether I had any of an "East Lothian" Viscount but found this one of an old Dan Air Comet. I am glad that hasn't been scrapped along with some of the other exhibits there. Last really enjoyable day out I had with my now deceased brother. Good memories...
Not my photo (which is better) but one of the East Fortune Viscount...
East Fortune Viscount.JPG (14.16 KiB) Viewed 6759 times
Re: In memory of the Vickers Viscount
Posted: Sun Aug 16, 2020 4:27 pm
by Undried Plum
Your campsite was almost certainly here before the screening trees were planted. That would have given you a view looking downwards to the threshold of Rwy31.
Re: In memory of the Vickers Viscount
Posted: Sun Aug 16, 2020 4:29 pm
by CharlieOneSix
I flew in Viscounts many times as a pax between Aberdeen and Sumburgh - that was with British Air Ferries and with BA from Inverness low level to Sumburgh via The Old Man of Hoy and Kirkwall. Unfortunately I can't find the photo I took of the Old Man of Hoy looking along the Viscount wing.
EDIT: found the photo.....
Earlier, in January 1970, I was returning after lunch to work at Bristol Lulsgate when a Cambrian Viscount, G-AMOA, thumped into the runway in front of me and it had obviously broken its back. Our long demolished offices and hangar were where the terminal is now and we used to come in the back way off Brockley Combe road. There was no security in those days and I did contemplate driving across the airfield to the aircraft but it was still on its wheels with no signs of fire so I thought it best to let the professionals handle it! https://aviation-safety.net/database/re ... 19700119-0. In retrospect some of the BAF landings on 33 at Sumburgh were thumped in quite hard!
........Many decades later I lived in the Craghaar at Dyce for a couple of years while I was the Project Surveyor for the Piper Redevelopment Project. ....
Ah, the Craighaar - many a pint sunk in that den of evil!
........Many decades later I lived in the Craghaar at Dyce for a couple of years while I was the Project Surveyor for the Piper Redevelopment Project. ....
Ah, the Craighaar - many a pint sunk in that den of evil!
Would agree with you there! The Scooby Doo was just over the road from our hangar so handy for the after work snifter. I was on very good terms with the then manager, name of Corner, and I had an arrangement that I could get a room for £10 (mid/late 1980's) if I'd celebrated too much to drive home. Only used it a couple of times. The hotel name has changed names a few times over the years - it became a Hallmark Hotel and I think now it's a Best Western.
Re: In memory of the Vickers Viscount
Posted: Sun Aug 16, 2020 5:41 pm
by CharlieOneSix
Alidair used to operate oil support flights out of Sumburgh with Viscounts....., sorry, was photographing my helicopter rather than the Viscount.....taken before the Wilsness terminal was built and with a BEA Helicopters S61 in the background.
