Red One to London?

[monarols]

Hello there. Many many years ago, was there ever a TV program or a Documentry made called "Red One to London"? (Not sure of the titile) but I think it may have had a lot of Trident footage in it, and I think it may have even been a BEA Promo?

Does anyone on the forum know if this can be purchased on a DVD or something by chance?

Cheers Chris
Perth, West Oz

[chevvron]

I can remember it vaguely. A TV production shortly after the 'merger' of radar and procedural control into Mediator 1 at West Drayton. The procedural side had been there for several years (Mediator 1/2), but the radar side had stayed at Heathrow until Jan/Feb '71 when it moved to Drayton with the opening of the new control room.

[chevvron]

Remembering a bit more now. Red 1 was of course the airway which ran between Amsterdam and London; I may be wrong (it was over 35 years ago) but I've a feeling they included a live flight deck view of a flight from Amsterdam to Heathrow in a Trident.
The old radar unit at Heathrow occupied buildings on a site the north side which used to be 'Southern ATCC' and is now a big office building (Compass Centre)

[Union Jack]

And there I was thinking that the Reds' Boss had a new posting .....!:)

Jack

[Mr_Grubby]

I was at West Drayton at the time.

Think it was BA505, Trident, EHAM - EGLL via Red 1.

The BBC presenter was a little short bloke with big black horn rimmed glasses. He did a few programms around that time about ATC and for a journo was actually quite good. James Burke was his name. I just remembered.

C.

[GOLF_BRAVO_ZULU]

Ah, the days when airways had real names.

Red 1 turned SW from BPK (N)/LAM (S) to OCK to MID to ORTAC, then onwards to deep enemy territory.

[Mr_Grubby]

GOLF BRAVO ZULU.

Not wishing to be pedantic, but Red 1 went MID - IBY - ORTAC.

The MID - ORTAC route was introduced later with a base of FL105.

Traffic flying below FL 110 was forced to go the long way round via IBY or leave controlled airspace and request rejoin south west of MID or north east of ORTAC depending on their direction of flight.

Happy days !!!

C.

[monarols]

Oh well, thx for the info chaps...it seems like it may not be viewable on "any" media then, which is a pity. Was hoping it may have been commercially available.

Its just such a damn shame that the internet and image technology wasnt around in 1970 (to the masses, at least) LoL

[sedburgh]

There is an entry for it on the BFI database at BFI | Film & TV Database | RED ONE TO LONDON (VERSION 2) (1973) (http://ftvdb.bfi.org.uk/sift/title/751501.)

Made by Thames and broadcast in 1973

Philip Morten

[CADF]

I recall that most of it was filmed on the Standby Suite of the WD Ops Room and that James Burke suffered from BO so bad that you could almost see it.

[Trident man]

Hi all,i have Red one to London on VHS.There were quite a few presenters on this,Shaw Taylor,Bob Holness,Alan Hargreaves and John Viner.The programme charts a BEA Trident 1C from AMS to LHR under the command of Captain Mike Channing,sadly i cannot copy the tape as i am under oath not to copy it for copyright reasons, hope this has been of help though.:ok:

[monarols]

Thanks for the Hu on the BFI index, guess I'll just have to hope that it turns up or is released or rescreened commercially.

[Dave Clarke Fife]

0PsgHeNTN6c

Resurrecting a decade old thread but “Red One to London” is now out on You Tube. Fascinating to watch as my experience with LHR only started in 2002. I also “cough” enjoyed “cough” the casual sexism of the 70’s as the reporter basically asked (implied) if the female Heathrow approach controller (Beverley) was as good as the male controllers. His gems of questions included “No sex discrimination?”. “And she’s been through the same training”

The other thing I found of interest was the view available on the radar screens; I’ve been into area control and the VCR and seen 21st Century kit with mode S readouts. A world away from the blip on the orange screens of the 70’s.

[blind pew]

Canvased us to improve our lot..was voted into balpa ..negotiated nothing and the day after it was signed went into management...poor operator as well..known as Robin as followed “Batman” ..another manager ..around.

[Dave Clarke Fife]

Canvased us to improve our lot..was voted into balpa ..negotiated nothing and the day after it was signed went into management...poor operator as well..known as Robin as followed “Batman” ..another manager ..around.

Blind Pew.......you are referring to Captain MC I assume?

[Herod]

I've only watched the first few minutes so far, but isn't it amazing how empty the aprons are at both airports? Them was the days.

[blind pew]

Was very rarely referred to as “captain” especially by the bomber boys who used an Anglo Saxon term.
Often seen posing holding a pipe trying to emulate those WW2 films but without a dog.
Inventor of the silent cockpit.

[India Four Two]

An interesting piece of history, both in terms of technology and fashions/hairstyles!

I was surprised to hear that they were given a Mode Alpha squawk at Schiphol. Was Mode C not used back then?

When were the airway names done away with?

And finally, was it really live? It seems way too complex for that.

[L1649]

And finally, was it really live? It seems way to complex for that.

I presume the on-board shots were filmed on a previous flight and then "slotted in" during the broadcast live programme. Seemed pretty advanced for 1973, though.

[Discorde]

This diagram shows controlled airspace over southern England in the mid-1950s. I believe the airway colour designations were:

approx north-south orientation: amber and blue
approx east-west: red and green

although Blue 1 ran east from Manchester east towards Ottringham VOR. There were also airways designated white.

http://steemrok.com/CAS%201950%20v2

[blind pew]

Iirc all civil or maybe just Airways were Alpha with one of the others for military.

Channings procedure of plugging the autopilot in at 500ft was unusual on the fleet. The only other one who I remember doing it was Stan Key on papa india.
Analog autopilot which was ok if you were in stable flight, if not it hunted.
Generally only used before clean up if skipper had hangover, knackered or couldn’t fly.
Those were the days.

[chevvron]

Iirc we didn’t have mode Charlie at that time..and all transponder codes were Alpha.
Channings procedure of plugging the autopilot in at 500ft was unusual on the fleet. The only other one who I remember doing it was Stan Key on papa india.
Analog autopilot which was ok if you were in stable flight, if not it hunted.
Generally only used before clean up if skipper had hangover, knackered or couldn’t fly.
Those were the days.

If you're talking Trident autopilot, I did a 2 week course (for ATCO Cadets) on the sims at Viking House in '74 and I'm sure we were taught to engage autopilot once we had positive ROC and gear was travelling ie about Vr

[blind pew]

According to one of the accident branch it flew differently to the aircraft.
It was far more stable and the electrics were not exposed to temperature and humidity changes nor our tent peg landings.
You will probably notice no positive climb call and the poor RT discipline..would have been rollocked for it if I did that in those days.
In reality the autopilot wasn’t as smooth as most of the pilots... different today as I always notice when nigel takes the autopilot out and tries to pole it.
Would have probably been min V2 + 10 or 20

[Talkdownman]

This diagram shows controlled airspace over southern England in the mid-1950s. I believe the airway colour designations were:

approx north-south orientation: amber and blue
approx east-west: red and green

although Blue 1 ran east from Manchester east towards Ottringham VOR. There were also airways designated white
Blue 1 started life as Green 2. Great diagram!

I can remember the names of the LATCC controllers and some of the Heathrow controllers shown in the film.

[chevvron]

Blue 1 started life as Green 2. Great diagram!

I can remember the names of the LATCC controllers and some of the Heathrow controllers shown in the film.

Diagram shows 'Whitchurch' (now called Hengrove Park) as Bristol's airport. That was closed about '57 when Lulsgate was re-opened.
Notable that Gatwick does not appear at all; I suppose it was still being re-built.

[flash8]

With only seconds of coverage up front this must have disappointed a lot of people.

As I am here... I had to have a double take of "young" Bob Holness... as a child of the "Blockbusters" TV show generation I remember him (80's) as much much older... he certainly aged in ten years or so!

[chevvron]

With only seconds of coverage up front this must have disappointed a lot of people.

As I am here... I had to have a double take of "young" Bob Holness... as a child of the "Blockbusters" TV show generation I remember him (80's) as much much older... he certainly aged in ten years or so!
I think Bob Holness was one of the residents on 'Nationwide' which followed the BBC 6pm news.

[Brian 48nav]

Check your PMs please!

[Squawk 6042]

This diagram shows controlled airspace over southern England in the mid-1950s.


Interesting diagram – It shows what appears to be a ‘Blue 1’ in Sector 7.

By the 70’s (if not earlier), Blue 1 began from Eagle Island VOR off the west coast of Ireland, then on to Dublin, Wallasey, Ottringham, reporting points Dogger and Bluebell, then on into Dutch airspace at 'SPY' (not going to spell out this one!) and then onwards and eastwards.