Tradewinds Airways (LGW)

[Emceezee]

I started a contribution to Wikipedia on the old British cargo airline, Tradewinds Airways and would like your help. If you have any information or personal photos (not from airliners.net etc) on the aircraft or its operations, either add it to the Wiki at
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tradewinds_airways (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tradewinds_airways) or reply to me here
and I will add it.

I have a personal attachment to the airline as I worked for my father's freight forwarding company in the early 80's and we chartered the Tradewinds 707's for flights from Prestwick to Hartford, CT.

Thanks in advance!

[honeysweetcombe]

Hi my father was chief training captain for Tradewinds Cargo. Unfortunatly he passed away on the 2nd of December 2005.

However I know we still have a lot of photos and information so I will ask my Mum and look through it all. She also has a model and a plaque with G-SAIL on so will try and take a photo and send to you.

Could you explain a bit more as to why your so interested in Tradewinds as your a long way away.

[Opssys]

Emceezee.
It may be useful to have a look at the Tradewinds Page on the resurrected:
Airline History (http://www.airlinehistory.007ihost.com/airlines/136.htm)
Whilst Sarah uses small size pictures, this may help to contact Photographers who took the pictures including Sarah herself.

[Emceezee]

Thanks for the input, I will check it out.

[Emceezee]

As I mentioned in my original post, my father owned a freight forwarding company in the 80's and for a time ran charters from Prestwick to Hartford using Tradewinds 707's. I worked for the company as a youngster before growing up, getting married and moving to California!
Among other fond memories are flying in the jump seat of G-BFEO across the pond; clambering over cargo pallets to reseal the aft door on G-TRAD; and putting the tail stand on G-SAIL - after the airport employees forgot and started unloading!

[mikepalmer3]

Hi,I was involved with Tradewinds as their roadlink between the UK and mainland europe,I operated under the name of 'Aero Trucks' and started carrying airfreight back for them on an adhoc basis until the freight volumes increased to such a high level that I was running 3 times a week from Schiphol,Amsterdam plus Brussels (Weekends) operating on flight numbers dedicated to my trucks,it became so popular that freight agents in Schiphol used to book space on the weekend trucks as I gauranteed a timed door to door service to Gatwick.My trucks were a familiar sight at these airports as they were painted in the Tradewinds Logo.It was a sad day when they finally finished as it heralded the end of an era as the industry demanded larger capacity aircraft plus the old Boeing 707 & DC8 couldn't meet the lower noise requirements in europe.

[Emceezee]

Great story, Mike.

I remember them using flight numbers for the trucks. Was that a common practice?

Do you have any photos from that era?

[A30yoyo]

For background to the Tradewinds story you need the books 'Flying made it Happen' by Charles Hughesdon who ran it (about 10 pages relevant)and British Independent Airlines 1945-1976 (Merton-Jones)... has a page on Tradewinds in the CL-44 days and more on Transglobe

[Varipitch]

Get yourself over to London on the 30th June-the CL44 Association has its annual re union at the RAF club and many of the old gang assemble-along with TMAC , BOAC and all of the other 44 users. Or you could look in my book The CL44 Story.

[Bcallgw]

Hi Mike

I was at Tradewinds for several years, first in Commercial and then working for Tony Barnett.

Do you remember Jenny Lebsack who used to work at Schipol? She is now in California.

I helped out in the Amsterdam office when the manager (John?) went on leave.

I remember the trailer with the Tradewinds logo and went on to work for Bcal, Air Europe Cargo (operared by Freight International) and have just finished 19 years at AIR MILES (my post has been moved to Manchester).

I've a few faded pictures I can send you

Nick Higson

[merlinxx]

I still have the picture on my wall that "Corky" took of a -44 on a damp ramp at LGW.
Can't remember reg. I only had a year till just after the 70 arrived. No stories, some good people there, just bad management who lost too much:ugh:

[mikepalmer3]

Hi,yes it was common practice with most airlines carrying freight,there was a publication called ABC Flight Guide which was used by the industry when wanting to send freight by air,it would detail schedules,aircraft used,routings etc.,any route where trucks had to be used on a regular basis (Airport to Airport) were given flight numbers,I think this was to give the customer the idea that their freight was flying direct from the airport that it was delivered into,it was obviously cheaper for the Airlines to truck it on relatively short distances,British Airways used this method to truck freight to most European & Scandinavian Airports from Heathrow,in most instances it was quicker.
Tradewinds would on occasions position a 'Plane in Schipol if there was enough freight to fill it for a single destination.
Unfortunately I don't have any photos from those days as I lost them all when I moved house,I would be interested if anyone out there has any,I know some one from Tradewinds office in Timberham House LGW took some of my truck when it turned up in Gatwick in its nice new logo.

[mikepalmer3]

Hi,I remember Corky,I had some great memories of all the crew who worked in the freight shed,your right about bad management,they seemed to be top heavy when it came to that side as there used to be a manager for every destination they flew to in fact there were more managers than office staff,they all had company cars but never went anywhere on company business but you could see them all filling up on the company account for the weekend at the service station outside the airport,no wonder they went under.