I remember most of what Fly By mentions, though by those years I was working so most of my Ringway memories are earlier. I used to cycle to school from Sale to Hale Barns and the aircraft in those days were so noisy one could hear them on the ground and taking off for about the last 3 miles of the journey!
I can just about remember the pre-1962 terminal, before the 'new' airport was built, the old buildings with Dakotas and Viscounts taxying, the whistle of the Darts being something I'd never heard before.
I remember a Saturday afternoon visit to the Tower with the Scouts when they still had the PAR equipment in there. I think there just one inbound all the time we were there - a Vanguard from Paris! How times have changed!
I was never a 'spotter', more an aircraft enthusiast. I used to cycle to the Wilmslow Road end of the runway, where the road was on an old taxyway before crossing the 06 threshold through gates which were closed for 06 arrivals. I remember seeing an Air France Caravelle embedded in the mud here after going off the end of 24! I saw my first ever VC10 here - an East African one on fog diversion from London landing on 06. The noise of the Speys in the Tridents, the VC10 Conways, and the Caravelle Avons was quite deafening and would rattle the windows in Wilmslow and Hale Barns! How different this part of the world is now, with its dual carriageway and twin tunnels under the much longer runways (two today, of course). Back then the Wilmslow - Altrincham road was quiet and quite narrow (you can still see sections of it near the Holiday Inn at Oversley Ford, and by the Romper pub). It winded past the end of 06, past the old brickworks (the only sign of industry in this then sleepy Cheshire landscape) then dived down the hill to Oversley Ford and the Valley Lodge pub (which later burned down). Who can forget Thursday's 'Grab a Granny' night at the Valley Lodge!
Piston freighters were common in the late '60s, but I have many memories of the early 70s as well. The lunchtime BOAC VC10 departure was always worth watching. The 'Balkan Frighteners' as we knew them were pretty impressive, as were the Spantax Coronados. And then there were those weird Carvairs! On a sad note I remember seeing the crash site of the British Midland Argonaught in the centre of Stockport, and the tarpaulin-covered inverted BM Viscount near the south side (it rolled into the ground during a training take off on 06, killing some crew members).
By the late 70s I was a PPL flying mostly from Barton but also from the South Side at EGCC. APP was 119.4 for decades, and TWR was 118.7. Not much security those days - you could drive into the South Side off the Styal Road, tell the chap on the gate you were going to the hangars, and if you'd wanted to there was nothing to stop you driving out onto the airfield! I watched several Concorde arrivals and T/Os from the South Side!
Flying in and out of EGCC as GA was hassle-free back then, as was getting a SVFR clearance through the zone direct Barton to Buxton, or routing direct from Crewe via the overhead to Barton. Not much chance of that today!
I last flew into EGCC in the Chipmunk some years ago to attend an event at the Viewing Park. We were parked up by the Park and it was interesting to find myself taxying along the very road I used to cycle along - the old Altrincham - Wilmslow road now within the airfield boundary and used as a GA taxyway, the central white line still just faintly visible!
There was so much variety in traffic back then. Piston airliners, turboprops, many varied jets, as well as GA. Visit the Viewing Park today and it's an endless procession of almost indistinguishable types! Doesn't seem to deter the spotters, though!
Last edited by Shaggy Sheep Driver; 27th Dec 2013 at 10:59.