BOAC / BA Prestwick

[Skipness One Echo]

Did BA ever have a pilot base at Prestwick? I was going through a lot of old photos of my dads recently and it set me wondering. If so was it VC10 / 707 / 747 crew or was everything crewed from Heathrow?

[straightfeed]

Not that I recall Skipness.

We did a lot of line and command training on the 707 at Prestwick.

In fact there was so much command training in the early seventies with so many command candidates and training crews lodging around Troon and Prestwick it often looked like half the fleet was stationed there. It was only for a week or so at a time. Lovely time, except for the candidates. Dutch rolling over the western isles, crosswinds at Keflavic etc.

Often a 707 was positioned up to Prestwick and based there for converting crews onto the aircraft. The simulator at LHR was primitive so zero flight time was unheard of.The crews would pax up , do their training and often be on the evening shuttle back to LHR.

We also had a period during one oil crisis or another when a 707 was positioned up to PWK with a dozen pilots to do one recency touch and go often changing seats going downwind. The joys of a 3 man flight deck!

Regular sched flights on the 707 were MAN,PWK,Montreal then finish at Toronto.Crews night stopped at Man and Toronto, sometimes at PWK.

Did see some VC10 crews around but largely ignored them!:)


It must have looked like the 707 fleet was based at Prestwick.

[Skipness One Echo]

Crikey! I sometimes think I was born fifteen years too late. Wish there were more photos on line of those days. Thanks for that!

[CSman]

I did all my base training on the 747-100/200 at prestwick,if I remember correctly there were about eight of us ,four captains and four F/o's all doing circuit bashing that day. As regards to pilots being base there Cambrian had a few, to operate the Viscounts in BOAC colours

[Jhieminga]

The VC10 training was organised along the same lines. Standard VC10 G-ARVM became the training aircraft at some point (all the other Standards had left the fleet by then, 'VM was held on as a backup aircraft) and spent quite some time at Prestwick. This provided the name for the 'VM Tie Club' which was set up to support a children's home near the airfield.

[PIK3141]

A couple of snapshots for you from the logs of the Prestwick Airport Aviation Group, all crew training:-
17/2/71 G-APFI, G-ARRA & G-ARRC all B707's BOAC
G-ARPM Trident 1, G-AVMH BAC1-11 both BEA
G-AXMH & G-AXML BAC1-11's COURT and XN392 Britannia RAF

On 9/4/71 Tridents G-ARPI, G-ARPW & G-AWZC, 707's G-APFP & G-AXXY with B747 G-AWNF

Often BEA Comets and BOAC VC10'S joined the noise, and VC10 G-ARVM became almost permanently based in the later 70's.

And right up to date, a KLM B744 pounded the circuit last Friday morning.

[Liffy 1M]

Standard VC10 G-ARVM became the training aircraft at some point (all the other Standards had left the fleet by then, 'VM was held on as a backup aircraft) and spent quite some time at Prestwick.

"Speedbird Victor Mike" was also seen regularly at Irish airports on its crew-training duties in the mid/late 1970s- mostly at Shannon but also at Dublin; I think it may have done a few approaches at Cork as well. I also remember the Gulf Air VC10s as occasional training visitors at Dublin and on one memorable occasion a GF VC-10 was joined in the circuit here by a BA Super VC10.

[Golf Charlie Charlie]

VC-10 RVM also used to circuit bash at Stansted in the 1970s.

[Krakatoa]

A check of my log book tells me that I was doing my base training as a FO on Trident GARPM on the 17th. Feb 1971 at Prestwick.
First detail 13.45 to 1600. Then 17.35 to 19.50.
The training captain was Dennis Clifton who is mentioned in the piece about the Viking crash at Largs

[Captain Airclues]

I did my base training onto the B747 at Prestwick from 18/10/75 to 21/10/75. We stayed at The Marine Hotel, Troon. My last visit there as a trainer was on 23/01/06 when we carried out 16 circuits. ATC were extremely helpful and made my job much easier in the difficult weather.
My last ever landing was at Prestwick on 30/05/07. Thanks to ATC I was able to land on the same runway that I had first landed a 747 on over 31 years earlier.

EDIT; Just realised that I didn't answer the original question......No there was never a pilot base at Prestwick although it probably seemed as though there was. At the height of the 747 base training and VC10 command courses there could be up to 40 crewmembers staying at The Marine and other local hotels. BOAC/BA operated flights to New York and Toronto so there would also be some slip crews for these flights, although most flights only transitted Prestwick on their way to Manchester.

Dave

[saman]

GCC, wrt VC10 curcuits at Stansted.

In the early 70s I was lucky enough to have a deal of fun flying in the Turbi "OTK" (mostly as ballast) from Hatfield aka God's own aircraft factory (for newer readers, Hatfield used to be an airfield with a factory - not a shopping centre - sorry Retail Park). One balmy evening we went to Andrewsfield - because it was there - and after take-off to return to Hatfield noticed a large VC10 pointing our way. Mike Curran, the 'PIC' of the Turbi waggled our wee wood n' fabric wing and the nice people in the VC10 acknowledged with some flashes of landing lights. It was "quite comforting" to know they knew we were there - if you see what I mean!

What happy days...

[PIK3141]

As a schoolboy I remember PIK could peak out at up to 10 training aircraft in a day, with I think up to 6 allowed in the circuit at one time, in a slot system ? That may have been when there were 3 based Tridents and 3 based 1-11's as BEA introduced them, plus the 707 / VC10 / Comet. I remember the evening an RAF Belfast joined them, and slowly made its way round the circuit. Over the radio one of the jet pilots told him to go away, and was promptly rebuked by the controller making clear the Belfast was welcome too. Also some idiot bought one of the hotels beside the Marine, and spent the next few years complaining about the noise !

[LFT]

Here's a couple of scanned pics I took of G-ARVM circa 1977 -

http://img262.imageshack.us/img262/5476/vc2kp0.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

http://img408.imageshack.us/img408/2443/vc1jd2.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

[Skipness One Echo]

Thanks for the photo! That's amazing. I recall seeing G-ARVM being well looked after at RAF Cosford, well that was my first visit in 1993. My visit in 2006 was the Easter weekend as they started taking the B707 apart and I came across what's left of G-ARVM at Weyridge recently.

Oh to have a summers day at PIK in the early 1970s, complete with my digital camera and scanner. I'll stop rambling now.

[Georgeablelovehowindia]

I recollect that Victor Mike was allocated to training due to a high fuel level leak, which was deemed to be uneconomic to rectify. It must've racked up an impressive number of landings by the time it was retired.

It's interesting to note that such a big aircraft, for its day, was configured 12F 99Y ... and it always looked best in its original colour scheme!