Originally Posted by
Cunliffe
Great pictures from when spotting was wonderful.
I lived in Stortford from 69 to 72 and my few memories of Stansted from that time include:
Flying to Edinburgh on an Air UK F27 and leaving the car in the car park for a week for 90p.
Taking SWMBO and sprogs to the cafe for Sunday afternoon tea and watching BOAC doing circuits and bumps.
Visiting the tower with a residents group and asking to see the radar. "What radar?"
Being woken early hours of the morning by a very low flying jet. Local rumour mill said it was a Nigerian 707 overloaded with whisky which blew down the perimeter fence and was unable to make the noise abatement turn to avoid Bishops Stortford.
Anyway I hope the above comments are of some interest and feel free to correct my memories if they have become distorted over the years.
Regarding the airport parking. I believe that Stansted offered the cheapest parking at any UK airport at the time. Now day's your more than likely pay twice as much for a weeks parking than it does for a return Ryanair flight.
Just before Christmas I was looking at a day trip from Stansted to Copenhagen, price of return flight £15.00, price of parking £52.00, add in the cost of fuel from Southampton and the driving time I decided to use some BA miles and fly from LHR instead.
When Ryanair offered their £1.00 flights in the late 1990's to mid 2000's I took the opportunity on many occasions. In one week alone on one occasion I took the £1 offer and flew from Stansted to three different destinations in a week all for a pound return.