Originally Posted by
pax britanica
SAd sad to see the last BA 74 head west , so many hours spent on them in my pax 'carer' taking me safely to literally the four corners of the world , I flew to every continent on them. A lot of years my first flight on one was Nov 1971 and last BA 747 trip was ORD LHR in 2017 . Looking back I flew on 74s belonging to AF, BA (and BOAC), CX, LH, MH (Malaysian) PA, QF, SQ,TW, UA . First and last on BA ( and more trips than all the others combined) , Jo'burg and back on the same plane , (luckily in F). best trip AF Beijing to CDG also in F in a -100 but AF knew how to do F class back then.
Being west of LHR then if they were on easterlies and heavy and a lot of inbounds I might have had a chance for a photo or westerlies the Cape Town departure barely made 6000 by Camberley if it was heavy . But today- no load no traffic and as DR says they will be at 5000 just a couple of miles from the airport and with no climb restriction above 6000 ft they will be a small spec by the time they are 20 miles west. Shame I would like to have bid it Adieu to the Queen of the skies, we will never see such an iconic airliner again
PB agree with you on easterlies also, since the 70's watched the 747's low south... -, 27R 27R departures, viewed from Egham area and various locations up the A30 > south , even Sunninghill and Sunningdale good, even top of old Heatherwood Hospital and top of Ascot Racecourse excellent for SA departures. It just won't be the same .. been on many 747's mainly heading east as a pax , and some strange Asia sectors on 747's was a BA Gold and Lingus Plat. card holder at same time , back in the day as a travelling techie - been on 400's 100's but never been on an SP :-(