Air Europe, BA and Monarch were the first UK airiness to operate the B757 in March/April 1983. Air Europe took over two early BA slots at short notice to reduce BA dept prior to privatisation. I completed the B757 course in Seattle during Feb/Mar 1983 and returned to Gatwick with AE's first 757, G-BKRM in the first week of April. G-BIKF arrive in May, leased from BA for the summer season together with 6 F/D crews. It returned to BA at the end of October. AE's second B757 G-BPGW joined KRM in March 1984 and 6 BA crews returned for six months. At the end of the summer season KRM was leased to BA for the winter of 84/85. More AE 757's arrived in 1985 and the crews were trained in house.
The first B757's were powered by RB211-C engines which had separate Jet and Fan effluxes and were prone to noisy burner vibrations when idling. In fact the noise was powerful enough to shatter windows in the Malaga terminal on at least one occasion. Later aircraft were fitted with RB211-E4 engines, which had scimitar shaped fan blades and a common Fan/Jet efflux.
At that time the B757 had the highest body/ground clearance of any aircraft built by Boeing, which made smooth landings tricky as there was very little air cushion. It was possible to land a B767-300ER smoothly almost every time and it was also more stable on the approach.
G-BKRM with RB211-C engines, Malaga 1983
G-BIKF Malaga, 1983
G-BNSF with RB211-E4 engines Banjuil Feb 1990
