1981
I was fortunate as a young lad in the 70s to fly on lots of holidays. My parents were publicans and pretty flexible about letting me roam where I liked. They had a pub just outside Doncaster when I was 13 in '81 I lied and told them I was going spotting at Doncaster airfield. Instead, with a picked bag of sarnies, binoculars, civil aircraft markings book, camera and air band radio, I caught the 0610 bus to Doncaster, then the 0711 train to Manchester (On my own!!) The day return was £3:10. Then at Picadilly I caught the express bus to the airport. I think it was a quid each way. I could be on the terrace before 10am. I did this a few Saturdays before telling my Grandmother, who promptly grassed me up. My Father said I could continue goinng if I stuck to some rules - phone as soon as you are in the terminal blah blah blah.
So by 10am on Saturdays I would be able to see to Avigenex Tu134s, Tidents on pier A - which I was never fond of because I never really liked BA. Plenty of Dan-Air 727s and 1-11 (I still run a Dan-Air website to this day) Plenty of the older spotters chatted to me. If you are one of them and I annoyed you getting under your feet - Sorry. Did you sometimes get a wave from the flight deck? Especially if you were there with only about 6 people on the pier because it was lashing it down - but would rather be up close than in the slightly pissy smelling undercover area with the rancid cafe....I didn't mind one bit getting soaked to my pants. I met a Dan-Air girl who I nagged to sell me her pen! Her fella worked for Dan-Air Engineering. The following week it was arranged for me to have a bit of a tour around their hangar. They perhaps thought I was a desperate case being thirteen and on my own - I did have mates - but they were interested in football and girls - both I still habe no interest in!!
I consider myself lucky that I got to see Spantax Coronados, noisy old Tupolev 154s from Balkan and Tarom, 727s by the shed load owned by Air France and Lufthansa, KLM, SAS, Aviaco and Adria DC9s, CP Air's DC8 and Wardair 747s. People on the terraces practically ran when something rare came in - The odd Tarom Il18 was a joy. I always preferred the old stuff like a grubby Malev 154 to a gleaming Qantas 747. Oh to have one more day in the company of Dan, Air Europe, Orion, Britannia, Monarch, Sabena and LOT and wasn't it a ball ache when the EL Al 707 came in and we couldn't go on the terrace for, I think, an hour before it came, whilst it was there and shortly after it left? It was the happiest of times. When I sit in the terminal now with a G&T in my hand I still recognise all the airlines and types and it is still special, but it will never give me a sense of amazement that it did - and yes I used to sneak in through the turnstyles near pier A. My favourite place to stand was on Pier B. I think being such a young lad on my own did help when I went on the scrounge as well. I often went to the airline office to cadge a pen or a poster or a model if I was lucky. People used to spoil me rotten. I've taken up too much of your time.....
I'm glazing over now.