Airspeed/D.H.Ambassador
Absolute, true, nostalgia. I can add, a bit;
Moreton's DO at Gatters around 1967. The "Central finger" was the only finger and DO Office was tucked in one corner with glorious views.Dan would stop all Duty Officer tasks as, honestly, what looked like ordinary farm tractors pulled up a Lizzie and lots of preflight activity held all of us in the office spellbound.
Tommy Gun would leave his adjoining office and tell us ;"ok, ok, tea break while we watch the fun". Fun it was as, eventually, the engines would be started. Lots of noise, lots of smoke. LGW went from 'Calm, CAVOK' to viz, zero, overcast, cat111 only within minutes. Aviation fuel/smoke smell filled our office. No-one complained.
And off she would taxi, trailing thick black smoke and everything returned to boring normal as phones on hold were switched back and Hosties called in looking for Friday night swops.Pure joy..
Having got into the pointy end quite quickly, I did have the absolute pleasure of Serving Art Whitlock as his FO. Not a book reader but obtained and read his offering "Behind the Cockpit Door". Lent it to someone else and didn't get it back, but, hey, what a read.