Originally Posted by
Level bust
Court Line did indeed use registrations over the radio.
Thanks Level Bust. I might have answered my own question if I'd perused some of my old scribblings. One sultry, summers evening in 1970 (1st June to be precise) I was at home and tuned in Luton Tower (120.2 back then) just in time to hear "Lima Oscar Romeo, cleared for take off runway 08" followed by "Court Line Mike Kilo, after the departing aircraft, a Charlie Four Six, cleared to enter, backtrack and line up runway 08". It took about 15 seconds for the bellow of the 2 P&W radial engines to reach me (home was 3 miles away) as the Fred Olsen Curtiss C-46 (LN-FOR) applied take off power. A scarce aircraft type in Europe at the best of times which I never managed to see.