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Old 8th Apr 2009, 08:55
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Red face

i can remember - for some odd reason! - a S650 radar sitting on the maintenance area car park roof at heathrow. was it ever used??

we had a cracking ASMI in those days which went rapidly west one dark night shift when the steering gear broke spilling an exxon valdez amount of oil down the tower windows. a sad demise for a terrific piece of kit.
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Old 8th Apr 2009, 09:15
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Back to Gailes and Loki's query. Yes they had type 7 and type 14, which I vaguely remember came as 14 high and 14 low. They also had height finders which looked like a type 7 turned through 90º vertically and nodding rather than rotating. I'm not 100% certain of my ground here as, although I was briefly at Redbrae and Atlantic house, I never actually got inside Gailes. Incidentally did one of them not have a fairly slow rotation rate.
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Old 8th Apr 2009, 14:42
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Gailes.

When I validated at Gailes on 1st March '78 the equipment in use was a Marconi 264 and a Type 4008.

Clint.
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Old 8th Apr 2009, 17:03
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Mr Grubby

Ah the 264, so good, they gave us 2 of them....coverage was still ropy, especially prone to tangential fade, the AD210 came in very useful to guesstimate where on base leg the blighters were.
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Old 8th Apr 2009, 18:17
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SATCC was in 'Block number 1', toooo close to the Peggy Bedford for Government Work.....

Spent the afternoon in the Croydon VCR today. Not many movements. The lines to Pulham and Lympne were down too.

Ace was asking the Croydon location indicator. Anybody remember? GACA? Heathrow was GALA and Gatwick was GAKA.
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Old 8th Apr 2009, 18:46
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Talkdownman

According to this handy site

Scramble Locations Database

Croydon was GABA

Mind you it gives Heathrow`s original locator as GAAA
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Old 8th Apr 2009, 18:59
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For Loki, et al - your Type 14 can still be found at the Museum of Flight, over at East Fortune. Anyone remember what the big back-to-back thing was on the hill above Gailes/Loans ?? Some sort of jammer ??
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Old 8th Apr 2009, 22:02
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Liobian It was some sort of over the horizon thing IIRC

Slightly off topic, remember the various canteens? The one on North Side should have carried a health warning. Even the cockroaches wiped their feet as they left.
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Old 8th Apr 2009, 22:32
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Remember the social club at Barton Hall (Hic)?
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Old 9th Apr 2009, 06:57
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<<Spent the afternoon in the Croydon VCR today.>

Ahh.. I used to go to school very close to Croydon, which is why I did so bad with my GCEs!! One of my masters used to fly a Dak there part time..

Malc.... did u know that JK used to work at Croydon?
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Old 9th Apr 2009, 10:41
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Is the Croydon VCR open to the public? If so, I would quite like to visit that.
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Old 9th Apr 2009, 12:23
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'Remember the social club at Barton Hall (Hic)?'

That'll be the free nights then...
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Old 9th Apr 2009, 13:04
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hey HD - JK used to work at croydon?? that'll be the only place he worked then!!
mind you - 28L single/ Pan Am 74 on DTY followed by Lufthansa 73 DVR / Trident @4nm
74 cleared for t/o - rolls. then lufti cleared for t/o before 74 airborne / lufti rolls / trident cleared to land. no probs = could only have been JK!
happy days
jc
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Old 9th Apr 2009, 16:41
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arfffa

There`s an echo in here, you told me that story yesterday.

Oooops blown my cover too.
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Old 9th Apr 2009, 17:44
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1. According to the 'Records Broken' displayed on the sixth floor SBU wall JK held the record for the most aircraft cleared for take off at the same time.
(HD, can you remember any of the other dubious 'records' ? I Can't, I havn't had the nurse yet....)

2. Croydon Tower is open first sunday of every month 1100-1600. See:

http://www.croydonairport.org.uk/

Be warned. There isn't a lift nor a Stannah.
Free entry for any ATCO called Mr. Cholmondly-Warner.

3. ISTR that GAAA was the London Airport Comms Centre. For routing W/T messages probably.

Aaaah....Lamson tubes.....
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Old 9th Apr 2009, 17:53
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<<(HD, can you remember any of the other dubious 'records' ? I Can't, I havn't had the nurse yet....)>>

Only other record I recall was PB taking a short break one day... I've certainly been the phones man when Jake had about 10 cleared for take-off - the last just crossing the northern dual for 28L. Nobody before or since has shifted planes like him and the pilots loved it; they probably wouldn't nowadays!!
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Old 9th Apr 2009, 19:17
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<<Only other record I recall was PB taking a short break one day>>

Wot? All in one day? Was he in the country at the time......?

JK, PB, AC, HD......'Living Legends'....the list goes on......tap the info before it is too late....!

[ ' Interesting that they were all on 'A' Watch..... ;-)) ]
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Old 9th Apr 2009, 19:22
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There were other lunatics too - look in the mirror!!
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Old 10th Apr 2009, 07:15
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Regarding Heathrow Director's concern over the innaccuracies of ADS-B information, the current situation is that arond 80% of flights in European airspace are fitted with ADS-B and are broadcasting...BUT...most are not yet certificated. When they are, the information should be better than radar.
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Old 10th Apr 2009, 07:31
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Bergerie1. I'd be very suprised if 80% was the figure; very few business jets or military aircraft transmit ADS-B and many airlines aircraft do not - e.g. some British Airways aircraft. I would suggest that the figure is closer to 60%. Obviously it is not mandatory in any EU airspace so I accept that many aircraft may have the capability.

I would be interested to know how ADS-B will better ground-based radar. ADS-B depends on the crew properly setting up the equipment and in my experience a significant number do not. I was watching a European airline B737 "landing" on Ascot Racecourse a day or two ago; in 30+ years of using ground-based radar I never saw a similar occurrence.
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