Originally Posted by
Offchocks
LTNman thanks for posting that photo of the Monarch 1-11 framed by B720 tails, any idea which winter it was taken in?
It’s certainly a very nice picture of the aircraft but also features the Tels Viva van! I can’t describe how cold a morning like that used to feel as I left the warmth of ATC to carry out the airfield surface inspection at the end of a long night duty! The Viva was shear luxury as it had a decent heater but was unsuitable for inspecting the grass runways. Our usual mount was a very ancient Land Rover which looked and felt as if it had been used in multiple ram raids. It was pepperred with holes that let in the freezing cold/rain/snow/soup or anything else that was guaranteed to make your life a misery. It may have had a crash gearbox, or it might just have been that the synchromesh had given up the ghost years ago. The windscreen wipers were the size of lollipop sticks and were so slow that anything more than the odd spot of precipitation would overwhelm them. After escaping back into the warm one was so numbed that occasionally the poor runway inspector would depart for home and bed with the vehicle keys in his/her pocket thus bringing down the wrath of Tels on their head. Happy days!