Air Safaris thru Air Links/Transglobe
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Air Safaris thru Air Links/Transglobe
This is a belated reply for the person who asked me to expand on Air Links/Transglobe after I posted a thread concerning a BEA Viking accident in 1948 ( I guess still accessable via my profile selection ) It's been a while, and the orriginal thread has disappeared, so appologies for lateness.
I joined Air Links only in 1964 after the Argonauts arrived. At this point the owner, Stan Wilson remained mostly ( to the best of my recollection ) in West Hartlepool minding his grocery stores -and - possibly a garage? All operatives, apart from the Manager, Alan Stocks ( until a couple or three weeks ago running his company AIS in Crawley ) and maybe two others, were self employed freelance. Hardly any of us stayed to become salaried employees on the Britannia when we re-formed as Transglobe - a properly set up airline. I was one of the two co-pilots who stayed in order to get a manufacturers course on a shiny big aeroplane. The Brit emerged as a watershed for freelance enthusiasts. This was due to the jump in systems complexity. Self funders might be smart enough to bone up on borrowed manuals and pass the stiff ARB, but I remember Eagle, who were prepared to charge for flying training ( no sims remember ) had a problem with their base training. Transglobe's Brit operation was set up by poached Eagle personnel. One of the early ops was the Zambian oil lift. The MOD was, it is alleged, invoiced for base training between sectors. They were not all together impressed. The last I heard of the Hermes was operating pleasure flights at the 1964 Biggin Hill Air Show. The Argonaut operation was highly lucrative for the crews for a number of reasons to guess at. Stuff was happening during the mid sixties. The Argonauts ventured East of Rangoon as well as South of Palma. I never got a roster, but as a highly junior co-pilot got plenty of handling ( as long as it was dark ); and bought my first house on the proceeds. Many years later, and privileged to spend a nine year paid self drive holiday with British Airways, I reckoned the Corporation would have done well to hire Alan Stocks as an advisor, rather than sending squadrons of desk pilots to the Harvard Business School. Actually, I rather miss all those synaptical measured strategy developments. The ministry of Transport and civil Aviation was not always totally in awe with Air Links, especially in the matter of an occasional absence of paperwork ( 30 quid at Dorking Magistrates Court ). The Argonaut cockpit was broadly similar to the DC6 in dimension with big green leather seats ( ex BOAC! ) for the pilots, and a fold down version for the supernumary/Ground Eng similar to the DC7 Flt Eng. The Merlins had a two speed, two stage supercharger and liquid cooled intercooler. SOP was to close throttles at 10000 feet in the climb to manually engage the second stage. This often alarmed the pax if they didn't catch on to the briefing. Probably even if they did. Sometime after the Argonauts had been put out to grass ( literally ) and together with ex Chief Pilot, the impressively named Casimar Marmaduke DeBounevaille, we ferried G-ALHM from Redhill to Castle Donnington for Derby Airways to use as spares ( 9th. March 1966 ). At the time, I was a member of the Tiger club, and on my next visit received strong mutterings vis the ruts we left resulting from the engine run ups.There was one further invitation to ferry an Argonaut somewhat later, but was warned off by a friendly but anonymous UK Gov official. Ho-hum. The organisation can be traced back to 1950 and Tropic Airways ( South Africa ) African Safaris - Tom Meredith, later forming Luxair/Trek with the Constellation - Meredith Air Transport and Don Everall Aviation. All the above is probably boring, unless someone has a specific interest. Those who operated the aircraft with BOAC, or the Rhodesian Airforce would be able to supply details of more interest, I guess.
References that I have are: Canadair North Star ISBN 0-9690703-1-4; British Independant Airlines 1946-1976 ISBN 0907-178820; Bristol Britannia ISBN 1-861 26515 8
I joined Air Links only in 1964 after the Argonauts arrived. At this point the owner, Stan Wilson remained mostly ( to the best of my recollection ) in West Hartlepool minding his grocery stores -and - possibly a garage? All operatives, apart from the Manager, Alan Stocks ( until a couple or three weeks ago running his company AIS in Crawley ) and maybe two others, were self employed freelance. Hardly any of us stayed to become salaried employees on the Britannia when we re-formed as Transglobe - a properly set up airline. I was one of the two co-pilots who stayed in order to get a manufacturers course on a shiny big aeroplane. The Brit emerged as a watershed for freelance enthusiasts. This was due to the jump in systems complexity. Self funders might be smart enough to bone up on borrowed manuals and pass the stiff ARB, but I remember Eagle, who were prepared to charge for flying training ( no sims remember ) had a problem with their base training. Transglobe's Brit operation was set up by poached Eagle personnel. One of the early ops was the Zambian oil lift. The MOD was, it is alleged, invoiced for base training between sectors. They were not all together impressed. The last I heard of the Hermes was operating pleasure flights at the 1964 Biggin Hill Air Show. The Argonaut operation was highly lucrative for the crews for a number of reasons to guess at. Stuff was happening during the mid sixties. The Argonauts ventured East of Rangoon as well as South of Palma. I never got a roster, but as a highly junior co-pilot got plenty of handling ( as long as it was dark ); and bought my first house on the proceeds. Many years later, and privileged to spend a nine year paid self drive holiday with British Airways, I reckoned the Corporation would have done well to hire Alan Stocks as an advisor, rather than sending squadrons of desk pilots to the Harvard Business School. Actually, I rather miss all those synaptical measured strategy developments. The ministry of Transport and civil Aviation was not always totally in awe with Air Links, especially in the matter of an occasional absence of paperwork ( 30 quid at Dorking Magistrates Court ). The Argonaut cockpit was broadly similar to the DC6 in dimension with big green leather seats ( ex BOAC! ) for the pilots, and a fold down version for the supernumary/Ground Eng similar to the DC7 Flt Eng. The Merlins had a two speed, two stage supercharger and liquid cooled intercooler. SOP was to close throttles at 10000 feet in the climb to manually engage the second stage. This often alarmed the pax if they didn't catch on to the briefing. Probably even if they did. Sometime after the Argonauts had been put out to grass ( literally ) and together with ex Chief Pilot, the impressively named Casimar Marmaduke DeBounevaille, we ferried G-ALHM from Redhill to Castle Donnington for Derby Airways to use as spares ( 9th. March 1966 ). At the time, I was a member of the Tiger club, and on my next visit received strong mutterings vis the ruts we left resulting from the engine run ups.There was one further invitation to ferry an Argonaut somewhat later, but was warned off by a friendly but anonymous UK Gov official. Ho-hum. The organisation can be traced back to 1950 and Tropic Airways ( South Africa ) African Safaris - Tom Meredith, later forming Luxair/Trek with the Constellation - Meredith Air Transport and Don Everall Aviation. All the above is probably boring, unless someone has a specific interest. Those who operated the aircraft with BOAC, or the Rhodesian Airforce would be able to supply details of more interest, I guess.
References that I have are: Canadair North Star ISBN 0-9690703-1-4; British Independant Airlines 1946-1976 ISBN 0907-178820; Bristol Britannia ISBN 1-861 26515 8
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I'm interested too - more of the same please Cally, and anyone else.
Cheers
Treadders
Cheers
Treadders
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Callypilot. Not boring at all. Very interesting infact.
My only regret is that you missed the Hermes, I would love to hear more about that aircraft.
The Air Safaris/Air Links aircraft is, as far as I know, one of only four Hermes modified for high density seating. Skyways altered three of their Hermes for the Bahamas contract. But who did the work on G-ALDA? & when?
Perhaps someone on this board knows, I bet Alan Stocks does.
GAZIN
My only regret is that you missed the Hermes, I would love to hear more about that aircraft.
The Air Safaris/Air Links aircraft is, as far as I know, one of only four Hermes modified for high density seating. Skyways altered three of their Hermes for the Bahamas contract. But who did the work on G-ALDA? & when?
Perhaps someone on this board knows, I bet Alan Stocks does.
GAZIN
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Just back from trip - so, again appologies for slow response -
I've had a quick trawl through a couple of sources, but still not sure when the Air Links Hermes finally made it to the boneyard. It's noticeable when attempting to track the progress of these 1950/1960's operators, that the same names, planes, and connections pop up repeatedly. G-ALDA, the Hermes mentioned was one of five that Air Safaris took over from Falcon Airways around 1960 - thence to Air Links. Air Safaris, African Safaris, and African Air Safaris although seperate enterprises, still have links that can be followed through from 1950 to 2005. Alan Stocks's name is linked to IAS, who supplied the management service for African Safaris, and still, to the best of my knowledge runs African International Air Cargo ( still DC8's? ) Crawley.
[email protected] The closest I can get to the Hermes questions, is probably through an aquaintance who latterly aquired the three 049 Constellations from Marian Kozubski's Falcon Airways in 1961, but I don't think he would have taken much notice of the Hermes. Maybe I'll ask. I remember the famous picture of the Hermes ( I think ) that slithered and blocked the railway line at Southend. I'm not sure who's. When Caledonian took over BUA in 1969, we were told that the BUA Safety Officer, Capt. Evans
( Evans the Accident ) was on board that one, although I never heard it confirmed. There's a picture on Airliners.net of the Hermes Cabin Crew training fuselage outside the office at Gatwick. We remember seeing certain personel tottering down the steps after the practise Champagne serving exercises.
I'd like to hear about events concerning the iconic Marian Kozubski, if anyone cruising these pages has knowledge. A man who seemed to feature in many anecdotes, if somewhat chased by the authorities. I met him only once. Unfortunately, since he had just climbed out of a trashed taxi, he wasn't in a talkative mood.
I've had a quick trawl through a couple of sources, but still not sure when the Air Links Hermes finally made it to the boneyard. It's noticeable when attempting to track the progress of these 1950/1960's operators, that the same names, planes, and connections pop up repeatedly. G-ALDA, the Hermes mentioned was one of five that Air Safaris took over from Falcon Airways around 1960 - thence to Air Links. Air Safaris, African Safaris, and African Air Safaris although seperate enterprises, still have links that can be followed through from 1950 to 2005. Alan Stocks's name is linked to IAS, who supplied the management service for African Safaris, and still, to the best of my knowledge runs African International Air Cargo ( still DC8's? ) Crawley.
[email protected] The closest I can get to the Hermes questions, is probably through an aquaintance who latterly aquired the three 049 Constellations from Marian Kozubski's Falcon Airways in 1961, but I don't think he would have taken much notice of the Hermes. Maybe I'll ask. I remember the famous picture of the Hermes ( I think ) that slithered and blocked the railway line at Southend. I'm not sure who's. When Caledonian took over BUA in 1969, we were told that the BUA Safety Officer, Capt. Evans
( Evans the Accident ) was on board that one, although I never heard it confirmed. There's a picture on Airliners.net of the Hermes Cabin Crew training fuselage outside the office at Gatwick. We remember seeing certain personel tottering down the steps after the practise Champagne serving exercises.
I'd like to hear about events concerning the iconic Marian Kozubski, if anyone cruising these pages has knowledge. A man who seemed to feature in many anecdotes, if somewhat chased by the authorities. I met him only once. Unfortunately, since he had just climbed out of a trashed taxi, he wasn't in a talkative mood.
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The Hermes that aquaplaned off the end of Southend's runway was a Falcon aircraft, I believe G-ALDC.
It remained alongside the Taxiway/railway line for some years and I don't think it ever flew again.
Cheers
Southender
It remained alongside the Taxiway/railway line for some years and I don't think it ever flew again.
Cheers
Southender
