Originally Posted by
chevvron
The 2 photos of the Stratocruiser are defiitely Heathrow not Northolt; Northolt never had a hangar that size!
One of the instructors at the College of ATC, Hurn was an Air Traffic assistant called Doug Shoulder. He was an old stager who had actually worked at Northolt in his early days and told us tales about a BEA captain (Welford?).
One day he was manning the runway caravan and a BEA Dakota taxiied out and stopped to do pre takeoff checks. Cockpit window opened and an arm came out with the fingers in a V sign. Doug stuck his arm out of the caravan window and returned the salute; the Capt then called tower and said , 'Tower, your runway controller is making rude signs at my passengers'!
Slight thread drift here...
Capt. Welford was also renowned for his flight to (Paris?), when he boarded a flight, dressed in a large overcoat whilst wearing dark glasses and carrying a white stick. Having been shown to his seat by the stewardess, he sat, somewhat impatiently, for the flight to take off. A few minutes later there was an announcement that the flight would be delayed as there was no pilot aboard.
Welford became even more impatient, stood up and tapped his way to the cockpit, loudly proclaiming that in the absence of a pilot he would have to fly the aircraft himself!
The aircraft duly took off, and shortly afterwards, Welford re-appeared in full uniform, and announced to the passengers "Only joking"...
I remember Capt. Welford in the
summer of 1970, striding into AIS at Heathrow and requesting the
Snowtam for Malaga.
He knew that we had a very new ATSA working there, and ranted for a good 10 minutes whilst the young lad searched without success to find the required paperwork!
Happy days!