Originally Posted by
Airbanda
So far as I can see the presenting question was about the presence of a BEA 'Red Square' liveried Viscount at LBA in 1971. I can certainly remember seeing them in the relatively early days of the 15/33 runway.
One possibility is Manchester diversions. Another some swapping of machines between BAS and its parent to cover tech etc issues. I'm fairly sure we saw the odd Cambrian V806 at Leeds as well; similar livery but red instead of yellow and a stylised dragon on place of the NE compass point.
I stick by my original assertion that I've read somewhere that the V806 machines were for a time either leased to BKS or operated on their behalf by BEA including some augmentation of LBA ground crews.
FWIW the G INFO register shows several of the V806 series machines with BKS/Northeast as Charterers.
No.BKS haf been operating 700 series since 1966. All that was required was a differences course to put them on the AOC. Look up posts by user Flightwatch who flew 748s and series 700s and 800 Viscounts for BKS. Yes BEA would have provided the necessary training. Thr same applied when Cambrian converted from 701 Viscounts to 806 Viscounts in 1971. Related in a excellent article by Ken Wakefield a very senior Cambrian Captain