Originally Posted by
DH106
Sorry for the thread drift (maybe I should start my own on this), but Mooncrest - I too grew up under the approach of 15/14 at LBA and have often wondered if the airport ever saw certain types in the old days e.g. Vanguard, Britannia ?
I think LBA/Yeadon back then in the very late 60's/early 70's the Med IT charters was about Viscounts only - BKS mainly etc (Treffield had a contract but did not pay their bills)
BKS did not fly their Britannia's in there, nor did Britannia AW...and def No Tridents. They went out of NCL and MME.
I gather earlier in the 1960's Autair flew the Ambassador to Palma from Leeds, as did British Eagle with Viscounts.
BKS may have used the 748's on charters - Rotterdam, Basel and Ostend>?
In 1965 Dan Air Ambassadors flew to Palma and Valencia for Gaytours and Arrowsmith.
Runway 15/33 built for summer 1965 was 5400' long. That same year the Passenger Terminal burned down.
In 1968 the runway was planned to be extended to 7300' but in 1970 this was turned down; it would be years before that was seen (1984) so most of the IT flights were to shorter Med destinations and those like Ostend, Basel, and Rotterdam for the Bulb fields.
So it would still be Viscounts plodding to Gerona and Palma etc.
BKS could not use the Trident at Yeadon.
The 1969 BKS staff mag shows IT flights direct from LBA to Palma Ibiza Girona Barcelona and Rimini - all on BKS viscounts for Airways Holidays, Wallace Arnold and Thomas Cook Holidays on behalf of BEA who chose BKS to op the IT's from the Northeast.
The mag also quotes ''LBA is impossible for Tridents''.
Never knew after the name change if Northeast ever carried on the Viscount charters...The Tridents did from NCL and MME.
In summer 1976 Britannia Airways started their first 737 jets on a charter series to Palma, Alicante followed.
All charter destinations were very seasonal; most holidays back then were sold as 2 weekers, and the charter flights season was quite short, flown mainly at weekends and often as 'W's.
There was not much winter flying then from the smaller regionals like LBA and CDD.
Noted in another thread on LBA posted by Helen49
ADV737 operation from LBA to the Med by Britannia Airways.
The destinations also included Monastir and the vast majority of flights were full. The longevity of the Britannia LBA service speaks for itself.
The locals weren't bothered about the location of the destination....provided they could fly from LBA to the sun!
The flights were operated on the 'W' pattern using Manchester based aircraft and crews.
The flight deck gave LBA their best shot bearing in mind the airport's weather reputation, the lack of an ILS on Runway 15 and the restricted runway length.
The crews were very good at flying the half-mile SRAs on to runway 15. The ATCOs were also pretty good...
The 'W' pattern resulted in an early afternoon arrival and departure at LBA.
These timings enabled the operation to get in and out all the time which was almost unbelievable.
Particularly in the winter half of the year LBA would be shrouded in low cloud, the cloud base being down at Apperley Bridge and the former Murgatroyds chimney would have been nowhere in sight!
Nevertheless by 1300, the visibility both horizontal and vertical would start to improve and by ETA an approach would be legal and a landing accomplished.
Departures, whenever at all possible, took advantage of the greater take-off distance on runway 15, sometimes accepting up to around 15kt tail winds.
No sooner had they departed than the cloud base would return to the deck and visibility to 'not a lot'.
Not unusual for the Britannia 737 movements to be among the very few in the day!