Rhodes Maritsa (old) international airport, anyone fly there?

[rog747]

hi there,

i was not aware until recently that Rhodes airport for holiday flights from the 1960's until 1977 was at Maritsa, just south and inland behind some hills from the new airport now at paradisi/diagoras

https://maps.google.co.uk/maps?q=Rodos+Maritsa+Airport&ie=UTF-8&ei=Fdn3UcLAM7Gv7Aby9YH4BA&ved=0CAoQ_AUoAg

Photo: LGRD Airport Overview Airport by Borut - JetPhotos.Net (http://jetphotos.net/viewphoto.php?id=5824831&nseq=2)

Landeanflug RHO am Tag - Flightforum.ch (http://www.flightforum.ch/forum/showthread.php?t=25253)

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/db/Boeing_707_und_727_der_Condor_Flug_1972_auf_dem_Flughafen_vo n_Rhodos.jpg

Intresserad av Flygplan? (http://www.landgangen.se/forumsmf10/index.php?topic=15727.msg125879#msg125879)

my career with holiday IT's & charter airlines began in 1972 and i recall we went to Rhodes around then or soon after and used BCAL VC-10's and 707's, am i correct?

did any pilots/crew who post here fly there in the 60's or 70's and what was it like to fly into Maritsa....stressful//dangerous? any nav aids?
did they op night flights at all?

would be really nice to have some insight of ops back then...thank you.

i note the largest a/c i can find that op'd there was an LTU Tristar L1011-1

Photos: Lockheed L-1011-385-1 TriStar 1 Aircraft Pictures | Airliners.net (http://www.airliners.net/photo/LTU---Lufttransport-Unternehmen/Lockheed-L-1011-385-1-TriStar/1627291/L/)

i cannot find any photos of an British charter a/c at Maritsa...
however some nice ones on the links above from European countries.
a wonderful mix of big old jets used in the 70's.

i hope my post sparks some holiday charter nostalgia that i grew up with.

thanks for any replies cheers Rog

[scotbill]

First operated into Maritsa as P3/FlightEngineer on a Comet in the 60s - in the dark!
NDB the only let down aid.

Felt distinctly uneasy looking at red lights above us in the inky black Mediterranean sky. Their presence was explained when the dawn came up and we saw the closeness of the hill on which they rested!

Landed there also as passenger in an Olympic DC6 but that was daylight!

[rog747]

thanks for that
BEA started a new route to Rhodes in 1971

i guess you were Dan?

[scotbill]

No - it was a BEA Comet 4b in August 68. Can't remember whether it was a one-off charter but we continued to Nicosia.

The DC6B trip was in October of the same year - and this pic gives some idea of the adjacent terrain. Possibly BEA decided that the revenue generated didn't justify wandering about in the dark close to such depending on a not-too-reliable NDB.

My saddest memory is of seeing an ancient calendar in the traffic office showing an artist's impression of a Comet in Air France livery. Aah -what might have been!

http://i1198.photobucket.com/albums/aa453/scotbill/DC6RhodesOldAP68_zpse838d9e1.jpg

[scotbill]

PS

Great registration on that DC6!

[rog747]

many thanks indeed for that...rog

[rog747]

by the way SCottbill

do you op that LHR-NCO via RHO comet night flight there and back or did you
night stop NCO?

did you go with comets to Beatours?

interested to know, cheers indeed Rog.

[scotbill]

No it was night-stop Dome, Kyrenia followed by a night Nicosia-Athens-LHR. We did a lot of night flying on Comets.

Didn't go to BEAtours as by then had a command on Vanguards. Offered Comet LHS at Gatwick which I would have loved - but that was trumped by an offer of training at LHR