I spent a week spotting at LGW in I think 1964. I was a guest of a friend of one of my uncles, who was Personnel Director at BUA and had a house at Lowfield Heath, with the runway at the bottom of the garden.
Every day I’d walk to the terminal, passing first the big hangars (Hunting?) which usually had some exotica in front, often Flying Tiger Connies and Saturn DC7s. Then there was an apron that had several Morton Daks and Herons. Then the Hermes fuselage used for BUA cabin crew training – then to the roof terrace for the rest of the day.
I saw only two jets during my time there, an N-reg Jetstar and the arrival of BUA’s second VC10, which I witnessed at close range from the bottom of the garden.
For a spotter the place was like a magic box, apart from the monotony of the BUA Viscountr and Britannias there was an amazing variety of creatures great and small. I recall a Hornet Moth taking off from the taxiway, an N-reg corporate Viscount, an immaculate Iberia Connie … but my abiding recollection was of DC6s, from a huge variety of European airlines – Spantax, TASSA, SAM, UAT, Adria, Balair, Sterling. I’d fallen in love with Sixes when they were the biggest thing to visit my home airport at Newcastle, so I was in heaven.