BAW 001 Final LHR departure
 

Just got back from an emotional night at the office!

Had the pleasure of clearing the Cardiff concorde to land and thanks to the valliant efforts of our friends in TC nearly joined the concorde go-around club!!:D :D The impression I got from the crew were that they were dissapointed to get a landing cleareance and would've been happy for a sneaky final go-around!!:p :p All the best for the future guys.

A couple of hours later the man in the tower who gave Conc it's first take off clearance, yes Ivor the engine, gave Conc it's final.
Followed by some very emotional words from Capt Mike Bannister to paraphrase
I'd like to thank everyone in ATC, all the enthusiasts at the other end of the runway and the sections of the media who have supported this wonderful plane over the years!
If this aircraft was alive she'd be crying supersonic tears now.
We were then treated to the all important
Ready ... 3....2....1....Go
Followed by the wonderful sight for one last time!

All the best to the crew and nice tribute from the main man Capt Bannister.

I'd like to say that as much stick as we give radar stick in the tower, director did an absolutey awesome job last night vectoring the inbound Kennedy and Manchester Conc's into brilliant parallel approaches. Good work fella.:ok:

Top drawer vectoring
 

I agree, that was some impressive work by the Director and the flight crews. It was a pleasure to listen to. By the way, who did say chicken first? ;)

So long Concorde, there's no-one to follow. You won.

0918 :( and :sad: but :ok:

Hi All,
Recording of this file on avsim.com

go to www.avsim.com then File Library on Top Left, then Extended File Search. Type in concorde01.zip as file name and search under all fields. 2mb zip file.
Very good but signal dips as he makes his speech, but can still make it out.


Also, I have a list of links to BA and AF recordings and videos of their Concorde in last flights.
Go to www.mi3fhm.co.uk then Concorde!! Page, then follow the link to the Concorde Farewell Page and the links are there. Some are very good!

Hope that helps :)

The Captain of the last BA1 was not Bannister! It was Capt Adrian Thompson.

Bannister was already in NY, having positioned there on a jumbo, to bring back alpha golf on the BA2.

Kestrel 909.....good work fella!!
The ATC link for the final arrivals was excellent.Sounds like everyone had their work cut out that afternoon.Top job done by all.Love the bit where the LATCC ATCO tells the 002 that he's all alone as everyone's legged out the building to watch her fly over....to which he replies "well don't you go as well!!"....priceless.

777

Glad you like ti 777! :)

Though the only credit I deserve is for gathering the links and adding them. I know I like them and many others do to, so want everyone to see them, so sorry if I keeping posting my site over and over :)

Baz - Thanks for telling us it was Adrian. I really didn't recognaise it as Mike, and thought maybe it was the FE or FO speaking instead.

Anymore links send them please :) Put in a good words at NATS for me mr.777 ;)

Baz757

I'm sure that I saw Adrian waving from the flight deck of one of the three on the 24th. How did he get back from NY in time to command that flight?

Airclues

Capt Airclues

On the 24th - Bannister was driving Golf (BA2), Paul Douglas driving Fox (B of B flight) and Chris Norris driving Echo (Edinburgh). Capt Thompson drove the BA1 on Thur and positionned back on a subsonic jet sometime after (I think the BA178).

Baz757

Quote from 'invalid entry' at 19:13 0n the 24th on another thread;

"I was a passenger on the 1st flight to land at LHR today. A big thanks to Captain Les Brodie and all the crew who made the flight so enjoyable"

It was definately Adrian waving out of the window on the 24th. (seen on CNN) Did the flights carry two captains perhaps? (One for PR as they used to on the B of B flights)

Airclues

Edit: I was abroard, watching it on CNN. It has occured to me that CNN might have included shots of the BA001 arriving at JFK in their coverage of the 24th arrivals.

Was Andy Baillie not commanding the Edinburgh flight?

God.. how I'd LOVED to have been there and how much I envy Ivor S - good on yer, mate! I was on the other side of the world and had to watch events on telly and read about it in the papers. I consider myself very fortunate to have shared my career with the "pocket rocket", having been on watch when the first flights were made into Heathrow - and a few good stories can be told about those! Also, a Concorde crew remains the only one ever to have rewarded my incredible skills with a bottle of bubbly. (LL Tower - ask Swampy about that!!)

We lose an amazing machine due to cretins.... but that's life all over.

Best regards to all my chums at LL and TC.

Hey HD,

Who's Swampy?? 5 years there and this one still eludes me!! I must be fick or summat!! :p