Swansea
Join Date: Nov 2007
Location: berkshire
Age: 76
Posts: 16
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Go back in time, the biggest airliners to operate into Fairwood Common were Viscounts, probably to Jersey. I seem to remember Cambrian operated the 700 series circa 1970, but not the 806 because the props were too long for the undulating main runway.
I would love to see Swansea thriving as an airport as it has many memories for me over many years. As a kid in the late 40's we used to spend our family holidays on the Gower coast and the main access road used to cross the end of one of the runways of Fairwood Common as it was known then. I am pretty sure that there were very few, if any, aircraft there. During one of our holidays they actually had a motor race there and many of the current driver aces were there. In fact, Stirling Moss had what could have been a very serious accident in a Formula 500 car when someone drove over the top of him and took his helmet off. (in fact I saw Stirling race 3 times over the years and he crashed each time, including his last one at Goodwood)
My next memory was probably mid 50's when, as an ATC cadet, I I flew from there in an Anson. I was fortunate to sit in the righthand front seat and had a good view of the potholes on the runway as we landed. In the late 60's i was an ATC gliding instructor at Old Sarum and, on yet another holiday in the Gower, I managed to get a glider flight in a Mk3 at the local ATC school there.
In the late 90's I had renewed my PPL and was intending to fly to Swansea to renew my friendship with my old school chum Marcus Edwards. He was then the Chiel Pilot of DeHaviland Aviation (?) and he tried to persuade me to take lessons in a Vampire T11. Sadly he died before I could make it. I have flown in there several time since and usually enjoyed my nostalgic visits.
My next memory was probably mid 50's when, as an ATC cadet, I I flew from there in an Anson. I was fortunate to sit in the righthand front seat and had a good view of the potholes on the runway as we landed. In the late 60's i was an ATC gliding instructor at Old Sarum and, on yet another holiday in the Gower, I managed to get a glider flight in a Mk3 at the local ATC school there.
In the late 90's I had renewed my PPL and was intending to fly to Swansea to renew my friendship with my old school chum Marcus Edwards. He was then the Chiel Pilot of DeHaviland Aviation (?) and he tried to persuade me to take lessons in a Vampire T11. Sadly he died before I could make it. I have flown in there several time since and usually enjoyed my nostalgic visits.
