G-bika/g-monb
Hello
I have fond memories of both KA and NB from my days plane spotting around the Midlands in the early 80s.
My first visit to Heathrow was early in April 1983. By public transport it was a long (and expensive journey) and I remember rushing up and onto the Queen's Building roof to be amazed at the large numbers of exotic aircraft in front of me, There were two that immediately caught my eye as they queued for take off - an Aeroflot IL-62 and then a rather strangely shaped BA machine, G-BIKA, which took off after the Ilyushin. I had only just developed my interest in aircraft then, and this machine intruiged me - I didn't see it again, although I was at the airport all day (I thought when the 757 was first introduced it was used on the domestic routes), and there were no other similar aircraft present.
About a month later, one Sunday morning I visited East Midlands, my usual haunt. Bad weather in the South East meant that as well as Monarch 1-11 G-AWWZ the apron was also graced by G-MONB. Although it wasn't as much graced by NB as dominated by it, as it was much bigger than anything else that was around, and it gave me my first opportunity to appreciate the what I thought were very futuristic looks of the 757.
Both the 1-11 and the 757 later positioned back to Luton. I will never forget how the NB seemed to use hardly any runway at all and it was virtually silent compared to WZ.
It was a good visit that day because, as well as the two Monarchs, a BA 1-11 rolled in on a charter flight (back then a Birmingham based 1-11 was used on charters out of East Midlands during the weekend), while Orion also sent 737-300 G-BLKB which was the first -300 I saw and which, later that summer, was to become the first aircraft I ever flew on.
Whenever I see a Monarch 757 I now hope it is NB, and it always reminds me of those heady days back at East Midlands.