Aviation in Alderney

[Aero Mad]

Hi All,

Am writing a book on the history of aviation in Alderney, Channel Islands for publication later this year and was wondering if anyone out there had any photographs from the period of 1930 - 1985 (not just of the Tris :rolleyes:) or any info about it. Have got quite a lot already, but could do with a little more.

Thanks :ok:

[chevvron]

I hope you're aware the only concentration camp built on 'British' soil was on Alderney Airport during WW2.
'The War in the Channel Islands Then and Now' has info which might be helpful (sorry about the advert)

[Aero Mad]

Hi, thanks very much. I am also aware that there were four concentration camps on the Island, one of which (Lager Sylt) was located just to the south of the airfield, while there were mines, and furrows had been ploughed into the field as well as metal stakes put up the runway to deter paratroopers. Thanks for your help anyway :)!

[Aero Mad]

Anymore help appreciated. Thanks :)

[fltplanner]

You will find some material covering the BEA years (1946-56) at the BA heritage collection based at Hatton Cross, LHR. See the website: British Airways - Heritage collection (http://www.britishairways.com/travel/museum-collection/public/en_us) for contact details.

[Malthouse]

If you let me have an email address I am happy to forward it to a chap who worked at the airport and who is a bit of an amateur historian, if it exists he will probably have a copy of it.

[Aero Mad]

Search up 'aviation in alderney' and the book is now on Am:mad:zon

[l.garey]

Aero Mad: I checked my photos of Alderney, but the only one I can find is of Cherokee G-AVSF which I flew to Alderney in August 1970. Probably not of use to you, but the offer is there if you want it.

Laurence

[Aero Mad]

Now on the shelves :ok:

[Chris Scott]

Any photos of the Morton era in Alderney (or elsewhere) would also be greatly appreciated by me. Never took my camera flying in those days, sad to say. Morton's scheduled Alderney services, to and from the mainland and GCI, were taken over by the newly-formed Aurigny in 1969, by which time Morton's had become BUIA.

My first ever line sector as a copilot was Gatwick/Alderney in a Heron with Jo Rechka in 1967. Sorry I can't help, Aero Mad.

Chris

[Chris Scott]

Quote from Aero Mad, on the "Trislander Retirement" thread:
"As the author of a book on the history of aviation in Alderney, I always got the impression that BUIA finally pulled out with one week's notice in 1969 and Aurigny took over the Alderney - Southampton route at last - maybe I'm wrong."

I'm not sure, because it was a time of great upheaval in the BUA Group – in the wake of Alan Bristow's hatchet job, with the closing-down of BUA[CI] Ltd at Jersey (for those not au-fait, that's what had been Jersey Airlines).

In 1968, after Bristow was appointed to sort out the BUA Group's unprofitability, the Jersey pilots went on strike virtually to a man – including some of my fellow BUA cadets, who were there merely on secondment. Bristow's response was to close the airline down – that may have been his original intention – and they were all sacked.

Sammy Morton's Morton Air Services, to which I had been seconded – based at Gatwick, had also become part of the BUA Group. We were operating schedules to Alderney from Gatwick; also linking the island to Southampton, Guernsey (with a link to Exeter) and Jersey. We used the Heron 1B, which was more practical than our Mark 2s at Alderney because of its robust (and lighter) fixed landing gear. We carried 15 pax by omitting a steward/ess. (We also operated Daks to JER and GCI, mainly for freight.)

Without putting exact dates on it, the closure of BUA [CI] at JER (and also BUA [Manx] at Blackpool) led to the formation of BUIA, based at Gatwick, in the winter of 1968/9. The new company also absorbed Morton's, and we pilots had little choice other than to sign one of Bristow's contentious "personal contracts", to avoid redundancy.

I'm afraid the business side of the airline was pretty much beyond my ken, but we were aware for some time that a new airline was being formed in the Channel Islands, and intending to take over our Alderney operation. I remember one of our traffic officers at ACI was to become a leading light in Aurigny, but, by the time the new company started ops, I would have been on the Heralds. My own last trip there had been in April '69, and we certainly knew by then that we were pulling out.

When did Aurigny operate its first schedule?

Chris

[Aero Mad]

Chris, I can help you out - I've several pictures of Morton in Alderney in the '60s - but they're not mine so not for reproduction unless you contact their original owners. GlosAir operated its first Alderney schedule on 1st March 1968 with a Britten-Norman Islander registered G-AVCN - thanks for your info on BUA[CI]. Email me at edwardpinnegarATliveDOTcoDOTuk . Best wishes, Aero Mad.

[merlinxx]

I remeber "Tommy" Gunn once refering to the "Vaques" of Arigny as "2,000 dipsos clinging to a rock". Still did enjoy a few days on the island back in the late 60s/early 70s:E

[aviate1138]

Slight thread drift but when visiting Alderney as a kid in the early fifties I was told by a local that the Germs used to throw the bodies of dead prisoners off a certain cliff and that after the war a fisherman hauled out a massive octopus at that point. Truth or just bar talk?

One thing for sure was that by the harbour there were still German letters/numbers visible on certain storage doors and on the harbour bottom were the remains of an E Boat with huge holes as a result of an attack by rocket firing Mosquitoes/Typhoons/Beaufighters?

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