Am not ashamed to say I was hanging out of the window of the BAW484 at block 54 watching Speedbird AE pass right in front of me, having told the punters what they were seeing already, with me digital camera in hand and waving like a shameless fan. Later found out that Les Brodie was the Captain on that flight, and had the pleasure of flying with him on his brief visit to the 777 a few years ago before he went back on Concorde.
My favourite Concorde memory comes from 1989... sitting at the holding point in the middle of Prestwicks runway 13 as Concorde AA was doing training circuits... training being the word, because the one we were watching was, to be polite, a little unstable; it is after all not a straightforward aircraft to land, and does take practice i am told. Anyway, they threw it away in the flare, and did a full-afterburner go-around, only a few feet from the little Cessna 150 I was in with my instructor (GB, and it was G-BCBY for all the ex-SAF people.) The noise was incredible and we were both yelling with excitement! If you'd told me at the time that a few years later I would be putting in a bid for a command on Concorde (albeit with not a hope in hell!) would I have believed you?
And then the day after, me in the circuit practising glide aproaches, with Concorde lurking in the vicinity, and my favourite ever RT exchange of all-time...
"Prestwick Tower, Speedbird Concorde Alpha Alpha, 12 miles, Runway 13, Touch and go...."
"Roger Alpha Alpha, continue approach, you are number two to the Cessna 150 on short finals...."
Oh, I liked that.........!! Hard to top that.....
Those of us who trained at Prestwick, either as PPL's or if we were later lucky enough at the BAe College there saw Concorde often, but not once did she ever lose her shine, or become routine.... later on, as a regular to JFK from a regional 757/767 base I would often spend more time doing a "walk round" on Concorde on the stand next to me than my own aircraft! Looking at the pictures posted earlier here, where else can you see such elegance encapsulated in a piece of engineering?
Sometimes, but so rarely these days, mankind's artifice becomes artform, and I can think of no more perfect example.
Last edited by Sick Squid; 26th Oct 2003 at 08:06.