Edinburgh Runway

[Skipness One Foxtrot]

Anyone have any info on the runway at EDI that is now long gone. I think it was 06/24, was used for light aircraft and the local ATC. When did it finally close?

Thanks

[kcockayne]

It was 06/24. In the days when the main runway was 13/31, it was used mainly for light a/c - Edinburgh Flying Club C150/172 & the UAS Chipmunks. As a trainee I well remember 4 or 5 in the 06/24 circuit whilst we were using 13/31 for larger commercial a/c. Good introduction to a busy Tower for a rookie ! .We also used to use it for a/c up to Viscount size ('PK/'PH/'PD Shuttle) when there were strong W or SW winds.
Don't know when it closed, though.

[chevvron]

I flew from that runway in '72. I remember there was a hill on short final for 24 and it had a small quarry in one side. You got a fantastic view of the Forth Bridges on climbout.
I think it was closed when the 'new' main runway was built, '80s?

[Skipness One Foxtrot]

It was still active into the early 1990s, trying to nail a closure date. Of course the main runway is now 06/24 due to magnetic drift.

[wub]

Runway 08/26 was closed on 11th July 1999

http://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h269/wub_01/thouse_zps2hlyi3ub.jpg

http://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h269/wub_01/thouse1_zpso41xhx8b.jpg

[Skipness One Foxtrot]

Thanks very much!! Amazing photos as well.

[dont overfil]

It was 08/26 but for operational reasons was considered to be parallel to the main runway 07/25 as it was then.


Edinburgh was a great place to fly from. Three clubs, UAS, Air cadets and army helicopters. It was also a NATS training centre. We used to get various requests as exercises for the NATS trainees, great fun.


When I started flying there in 1988 the based aircraft landing fee was £2.20.
There are frequently aircraft parked on runway 12/30 so most of the time there is only one runway. They call that progress!


WUB,
Does your forum name have any connection to an aircraft reg?

[wub]

No connection to a reg I'm afraid

[DaveReidUK]

I flew from that runway in '72. I remember there was a hill on short final for 24 and it had a small quarry in one side.

I seem to recall that in any kind of wind the 24 approach was rather bumpy as you flew over the golf course.

And of course Edinburgh has a further "long gone" runway, aligned roughly 02/20, disused for as long as I can remember and now mostly under a car park.

[finncapt]

Slight thread drift but there was/is a cross runway at Glasgow 10/28?.

Landed the budgie there many times when the wind was strong.

Thinking about it, there was/is a cross runway at BHM and can remember landing a VC10 on 05 at LHR.

While we are on the subject, I think 07/25 at Kirkwall has gone too!!

[dont overfil]

I seem to recall that in any kind of wind the 24 approach was rather bumpy as you flew over the golf course.

And of course Edinburgh has a further "long gone" runway, aligned roughly 02/20, disused for as long as I can remember and now mostly under a car park.


Thanks Dave I was wondering if I had imagined that runway.

[wub]

That runway is visible in my photos.

[grow45]

I believe I was the last person to do a first solo from it - on 26 June 1999 - just three weeks before it closed. - Piper Tomahawk G BNNU,

Actually I was probably the last person to do a first solo from any runway at Edinburgh since I don't think they would be allowed now from 06/24.

g45

[DaveReidUK]

Slight thread drift but there was/is a cross runway at Glasgow 10/28?.

The only time I've landed on 28, we stopped before the intersection with the main. :O

[chevvron]

Slight thread drift but there was/is a cross runway at Glasgow 10/28?.

Landed the budgie there many times when the wind was strong.


Yes. When I was there in '72 as an ATCO Cadet, it was used by the flying club aircraft, the BEA Herons and the Loganair Skyvan. It was also a convenient turnoff for Viscounts arriving on 24, in fact I think they occasionally used it for departure too.
Our allocated flying school for continuation flying was at Edinburgh so one day, I took off from 24 at Edinburgh, flew west and did a straight in on 28 at Glasgow, thus necessitating a total turn of only about 40 deg. Going back of course I had greater turns to make as I departed from 28 at Glasgow.

[billyg]

Yes. When I was there in '72 as an ATCO Cadet, it was used by the flying club aircraft, the BEA Herons and the Loganair Skyvan. It was also a convenient turnoff for Viscounts arriving on 24, in fact I think they occasionally used it for departure too.

Yes , I remember the DC3s of Cambrian , Air Ulster and Emerald A/W using it for landing and departing too. Only jet I can remember using it for landing was Fk28 PH-MOL of Air Anglia , on more than one occasion !

[cossack]

Edinburgh was a great place to fly from. Three clubs, UAS, Air cadets and army helicopters. It was also a NATS training centre. We used to get various requests as exercises for the NATS trainees, great fun.
It was a fun place to control too. It was my first unit (1989-1997) and I had some memorable tower sessions: UAS and AEF tight circuits, flying club cross-country circuits, ;) all the VFR in and outs as well, IFRs on 07/25 and the occasional ones on 13/31 too. Kept your head on a swivel.

I visited at the end of 2014 and couldn't believe how quiet it was, even with the fancy new tower.

[chevvron]

even with the fancy new tower.
Which is a larger copy of the Farnborough Tower!

[DaveReidUK]

Same architects, I believe.

[10 DME ARC]

Got some use out of design as they adapted it for NCL as well!

I remember 06/24 well as I spent four months at EGPH as an ATCO cadet in 1988, I was doing APR but started off doing a cycle of VCR to get to know the place. My main memory is doing CDA approaches on primary only radar!

Oh and watching the RAF gate guards getting very interested in a NI reg car stopping for directions!!! They had them spread eagled on the ground at riffle point as I went home one day!

[dont overfil]

It was a fun place to control too. It was my first unit (1989-1997) and I had some memorable tower sessions: UAS and AEF tight circuits, flying club cross-country circuits, ;) all the VFR in and outs as well, IFRs on 07/25 and the occasional ones on 13/31 too. Kept your head on a swivel.

I visited at the end of 2014 and couldn't believe how quiet it was, even with the fancy new tower.


There is at least one controller from that period still there and he flies too!
SW. Ring a bell?
I remember a few of you guys often dropped in to the Turnhouse Flying club for a pint at the end of your shift.

[cossack]

There are several from that era still there. I think I was in the TFC bar maybe twice in my time there.

[Chris Scott]

Most posters seem to be referring to the short runway as 06/24. Well, in 1966 it was designated 08/26, as wub says (and as shown on his/her excellent colour photo), and the variation was only about 10W. By 1999, when wub says it closed, the variation would have been about 5W. So why would it have been re-designated 06/24 in the interim? IIRC, the long Rwy 07/25 was opened in the 1970s and is aligned at least ten degrees anticlockwise relative to the short runway. So if 07/25 was re-designated 06/24 (due to the variation slippage) before the short runway was closed, it would have made sense to maintain the short runway designation as 08/26 to avoid confusion.

Dave is right, however, that it tended to get bumpy on the 26 approach round about the golf course. On my PPL X/C from Perth, I seem to remember calling Turnhouse near Aberdour (north side of the Firth) and being told to call again L/H downwind for 26. When I eventually did so there was a pregnant pause, followed by an instruction to a British United One-Eleven to "overshoot" (as we said in those days). I think it must have been doing a visual straight-in for Rwy 31 (the only ILS was on Rwy 13).

7 months later, my dual and solo night X/Cs were also from Perth to EDI, with rollers on 26 and 31 respectively. Quite spooky in a single-engine a/c on winter's nights, and on 26 it was a black-hole approach over raised ground, with no approach lighting.