Manchester Airport - Then & Now

[MARK9263]

Uploaded on the RINGWAY THROUGH THE DECADES website today are MAN Movements for 1960 and and 2000.....!!!!!!!!!!! (Compare and contrast!)

HOME - Ringway Publications The Manchester Airport Archive web-site

[Swing78]

Uploaded onto the website this morning will be the following:

1969 - Movements
Schedule Services
Diversions

1973 - Movements
Schedule Services
Diversions

Dont forget! SEVENTIES RINGWAY, an ideal Xmas present !!


Visit the Manchester Airport historical website
HOME - Ringway Publications The Manchester Airport Archive web-site

[MARK9263]

Good morning,

Uploaded onto the website this morning will be the following:

1969 - Movements
Schedule Services
Diversions

1973 - Movements
Schedule Services
Diversions

Dont forget! SEVENTIES RINGWAY, an ideal Xmas present !!


Visit the Manchester Airport historical website
HOME - Ringway Publications The Manchester Airport Archive web-site

[pgll]

Post by "Cheadle Boy" 4.7.2010

I have just seen by chance the posting headed "That Alitalia 747" dated 4th July 2010.
The "very strange chap" mentioned in the posting is now retired, no longer actively involved with aviation, and studying butterflies in his spare time. In 1998 he published a book on butterflies around Manchester.
The "strange friend", Henry Wallace Gandy, still lives in Newton-le-Willows, ans specialises in finding the likes of one-minute discrepancies in railway timetables, and grammatical errors on signs in supermarkets.

The excursion to Gatwick and Redhill was on the 31st of March 1973. The Horizon G-AWAC was piloted by Clive Compston Russell Vick, a solicitor and member of the Air Touring Club. He died in 1991 and efforts by an aviation historian David P. McCartney to trace what became of his Klemm monoplane G-AAXK have been fruitless.
The following persons had flights in G-AWAC that day: Andrew Warburton, Ross Williamson, T. Simon Morris, Bernard Heavey, Simon Burgess, Jeremy Norris, Neil R. Young, D.P McCartney, Glenn R. Wheeler, David Wilson, Neil J. Appleton and P.B.H.

The "old car", which appeared at several Barton air shows, was a "Series MO" Morris Oxford, NVM423. For a while in the 1980s Hardy owned three of this model, two saloons and a Traveller, and was for a while the spares secretary of the "6/80 & MO Club", but sold the cars in 1987 and 1988, and now does not drive.

In a message lower down the thread, "Frank", or "JG54", mentions Phillip M. Kinder of "CAS". He also now does butterfly recording, and is the treasurer of the Cheshire and Peak District branch of the Butterfly Conservation society.

[ballyctid]

I have just found this thread, only 4 years late!

I am amazed to see that I get a mention on page 6, I am one of the Ball brothers, Steve.

I see at one point someone had my Brother as deceased in 74 then it was corrected, I think it was Brian "gammy" Lewis who died then, I remember being really upset when I found out as I used to get on really well with him.

Some of the other names mentioned bring back great memories, Lance Shippey, he used to organise the coach trips, Martin Driver, yes he was very odd, was with him when he had an RTA near Ashbourne heading on a spotting trip to EMA!

Phil Lines, I went on many car trips with him, Mike Williams and the driver who's name escapes me, he used to hire a car and we would go off for the weekend, all over the country.

I also remember the deaf Huddersfield lad, again the name escapes me.

It was a great trip down memory lane reading this thread!

[pgll]

Belated reply

I have just seen a message asking whether anyone remembers P.B. Enterprises and the photographs which that organisation produced. I for one remember them very well. Sadly all the negatives were destroyed in 2000 when the photographer moved to the Philippines. He returned two years later and regretted what he had done.

[postapart]

Hi I am trying to find aerial photographs that were taken by Bruce Martin, have you any ideas on who would have them

[ETOPS]

Bruce Martin's company was called Airviews and I'm led to believe the archieve was bought by Aerofilms.

it's all now part of English heritage at this address......

Archive Services, English Heritage, The Engine House, Fire Fly Avenue, Swindon SN2 2EH. [email protected]

[postapart]

Thanks for that

[tiger449]

Austers around mid-1950s

Likewise, my first flight was at the age of 11 in 1956. I had saved up 5s.0d., for a pleasure flight in G-AOBV flown by Bruce Martin. He didn't have anyone to sell tickets from the kiosk so as I was looking nicely turned out in my Sale Grammar School uniform he asked if I would do him the honours and the flight would be free. I was the only passenger on the last flight of the day and he let me take control over Styal Forest then fly as P1(U/S) on our rejoin. I was so impressed that I did the ticket sales every weekend for several years and completed the full 40 hours dual in 80 weeks. I joined the Air Training Corps (318 Sale & Altrincham) at the age of 13 quickly becoming a cadet instructor and representing the ATC at the Teens and Twenties Exhibition at the Free Trade Hall in Manchester. Went on to join the RAF at the age of 19 and took my GFT (General Flying Test) in a Chipmunk with the Kinloss Air Experience Flight and half an hour of free flying every day. Went on from RAF to Royal Saudi Air Force at Dhahran after 12 months in civvy street. Lightnings at 1000 kts, quite different from Shackletons at 150 kts. Now 68 and still involved in aviation, currently building an Ultralight SSDM, weighing in at under 115 kg.,empty. and 2.5 litres/hour with a Honda 50 engine and a 2:1 reduction gearbox. I'm in touch with another contributor to this thread (Ringway Publications) who have excellent web pages on Ringway Airport.

Also helped out Harry Paterson and Bruce Martin gave me a full time job in the Airviews Photo Lab along with jollies in the Rapide and a hose-down and polish of the Rapide for Aerial Photography assignments. I'm glad to see G-AOJH (Harry Paterson's Fox Moth) is still in flying condition. It has obviously been well cared for. I flew regularly in G-AOBV, G-AGXN, G-AGYP, all owned by Basil de Ferranti and loaned on a freewill basis to members of Ringway Aero Club. It is nice to hear from others who were involved with Ringway in the 60s. I'll try to keep in touch with other contributors to this forum.

[pgll]

Reply to tiger449

I am doing some research on Ringway in the 1950s and so the contribution dated 23rd April 2013 was of interest.

I wonder, is there any more information anywhere about the Ringway Aero Club and who were in it? I believe the club was founded by one Leslie Jones on 30th June 1953 - did he actually own an aeroplane? G-AOBV and G-AGYP wrere not acquireed by Basil Ferranti until 1955 and G-AGXN was never owned by him, as far as I can tell from "G-INFO".

[pgll]

Message by WZ662, 26.3.2007

I realise that I am submitting a reply more than six years since the contribution was sent but I would ilke to contact the author if he is still available. You quoted in that post a few lines of verse beginning "My brother he flies an Electra".
You quoted initials for the author of those lines but they do not fit. The poem was actually written by Paul Ambrose Croghan, a Manchester poet whom I used to know from 1962 until 1980, and who died in January 2003. Sometimes he used the speudonym of "Paul Connor". I have been trying to compile a collection of as much of his poetry as has survived - please see my website www.pb-enterprises.yolasite.com - but a vast amount has been lost.
If you have the full text of the poem from which you quote, or know the whereabouts of any more of Croghan's poems, I would be very interested to hear from you.

[Fly.Buy]

This thread brought back many memories, out of all the airports in the world the old Ringway seems to be part of so many peoples lives with a huge following, a sort of institution.

I don't know what it was with Manchester but everyone seemed to have an interest in aviation, my first memory was as a 5 year old standing in the middle of our avenue in Wythenshawe with all the other residents watching the first 747 arrive on finals some 2 miles from the airport. Other normalities at the time were family day trips to the airport the science of flying still being a novelty especially if you were from a council estate. Imagine suggesting this to the wife now for a family day out!

My plane sporting days were the mid to late 1970's. What I remember paraphrasing the good memories are as follows:

Walking to the airport on a Saturday morning with my wagon wheels to get the KLM Dc8F departure. If I got there earlier enough I would also see the Kar AIr DC6F depart

The winding sound of the dart engines from the HS748 and Viscounts, very distinctive and still haunts me today. You could hear them miles before arriving at the airport.

I was fortunate or posh enough to have an annual pass for the airport pier viewing terraces, limited to about 200 people a year and signed off my the airport director.

The row of portable plastic TV's moulded into the seats with crap reception in the domestic lounge.

The bar and the island information office with their issues of the world airlines ABC timetable guides? (Have I got the title right.)

The airline offices at the back of the terminal where the checkin offices were. The sponging of timetables, stickers, baggage tags from these offices.

Collecting airline postcards, writing to head offices for PR cards and swapping with fellow enthusiast on the terraces.

Binoculars 8x40 10x50 or if you were really lucky 12x50. The large square radios, approach 118.7

Aircraft Flying overheads from the airport multi-storey car park, were they called spicks or specks? If you had the more powerful binoculars you could possibly make out the reg.

I was a member of a spotters club called Starliner, anyone remember this? I remember Malcolm Gresty a hairy bloke who had a scope instead of binoculars. I went on some of their trips to. Greenham Common, Luton and Gatwick, Heathrow, all overnighters on a coach and very exciting for a young boy on his own.

The Guppy's you could hear them approach from miles way, not sure what type of engines they were fitted with.

I loved the Tupolev 134's with the glass noses and swept back wings. Aviogenex seemed to be in abundance.

Any one remember the Sabena 737-200 that landed at Woodford instead of Ringway? Or the Lufthansa 737-200 with patched up bullet holes still visible from a high jacking whereby the pilot was killed (not at Manchester) or the singer John Denver arriving on his private Lockheed Electra.

Anyhow the list of memories are endless, great days, being at the airport kept me out of trouble a blessing for a young lad out of Wythenshawe!

I have long since moved away, but like many others when I return my head rotates up to the Manchester skies and sad to say the variety is no longer there any more. I even ventured for a nostalgic visit to the modern airport recently and didn't even recognise it.

Great thread, thanks.

[MARK9263]

Welcome.

Maybe you might want to take a look at this website that covers everything historical about Manchester-Ringway, even Books and CDs.

HOME - Ringway Publications The Manchester Airport Archive web-site

[Shaggy Sheep Driver]

I remember most of what Fly By mentions, though by those years I was working so most of my Ringway memories are earlier. I used to cycle to school from Sale to Hale Barns and the aircraft in those days were so noisy one could hear them on the ground and taking off for about the last 3 miles of the journey!

I can just about remember the pre-1962 terminal, before the 'new' airport was built, the old buildings with Dakotas and Viscounts taxying, the whistle of the Darts being something I'd never heard before.

I remember a Saturday afternoon visit to the Tower with the Scouts when they still had the PAR equipment in there. I think there just one inbound all the time we were there - a Vanguard from Paris! How times have changed!

I was never a 'spotter', more an aircraft enthusiast. I used to cycle to the Wilmslow Road end of the runway, where the road was on an old taxyway before crossing the 06 threshold through gates which were closed for 06 arrivals. I remember seeing an Air France Caravelle embedded in the mud here after going off the end of 24! I saw my first ever VC10 here - an East African one on fog diversion from London landing on 06. The noise of the Speys in the Tridents, the VC10 Conways, and the Caravelle Avons was quite deafening and would rattle the windows in Wilmslow and Hale Barns! How different this part of the world is now, with its dual carriageway and twin tunnels under the much longer runways (two today, of course). Back then the Wilmslow - Altrincham road was quiet and quite narrow (you can still see sections of it near the Holiday Inn at Oversley Ford, and by the Romper pub). It winded past the end of 06, past the old brickworks (the only sign of industry in this then sleepy Cheshire landscape) then dived down the hill to Oversley Ford and the Valley Lodge pub (which later burned down). Who can forget Thursday's 'Grab a Granny' night at the Valley Lodge!

Piston freighters were common in the late '60s, but I have many memories of the early 70s as well. The lunchtime BOAC VC10 departure was always worth watching. The 'Balkan Frighteners' as we knew them were pretty impressive, as were the Spantax Coronados. And then there were those weird Carvairs! On a sad note I remember seeing the crash site of the British Midland Argonaught in the centre of Stockport, and the tarpaulin-covered inverted BM Viscount near the south side (it rolled into the ground during a training take off on 06, killing some crew members).

By the late 70s I was a PPL flying mostly from Barton but also from the South Side at EGCC. APP was 119.4 for decades, and TWR was 118.7. Not much security those days - you could drive into the South Side off the Styal Road, tell the chap on the gate you were going to the hangars, and if you'd wanted to there was nothing to stop you driving out onto the airfield! I watched several Concorde arrivals and T/Os from the South Side!

Flying in and out of EGCC as GA was hassle-free back then, as was getting a SVFR clearance through the zone direct Barton to Buxton, or routing direct from Crewe via the overhead to Barton. Not much chance of that today!

I last flew into EGCC in the Chipmunk some years ago to attend an event at the Viewing Park. We were parked up by the Park and it was interesting to find myself taxying along the very road I used to cycle along - the old Altrincham - Wilmslow road now within the airfield boundary and used as a GA taxyway, the central white line still just faintly visible!

There was so much variety in traffic back then. Piston airliners, turboprops, many varied jets, as well as GA. Visit the Viewing Park today and it's an endless procession of almost indistinguishable types! Doesn't seem to deter the spotters, though!

[magpienja]

I lived in Liverpool and as a kid I remember getting the train from Lime St stn to Piccadilly I think it was....then a very long around the houses bus ride to Ringway...must have been around 1966,

So exciting for 2 boys of 11...would any parents allow it today???

So very interesting a.c to be seen that we just didn't see at our local Speke as it was then...now John Lennon airport,

I had just got a hugeVHF Skymaster airband from Volstatic for my birthday...not many about then...had to take it to the tels room to be passed fit for use on the airport c/w a sticker for it...had to carry it on my back in a rucksack it was so big...every so often the fed ATC through the PA,

I to remember the screaming Darts as well in the BEA Viscounts andArgosys, also in the Heralds the Frendships the 748s ect...the Pan Am BOAC TWA and World Airways 707s...and the VC-10s Mmmmm

Does anybody remember Huey Greens 337,

Yes the Spantax Coranardos and DC-7s,

They where the days......

[gazza007]

Great posts. I was one of those boys in my fawn Parker with the 10x50 bins and big radio in the 70's. I grew up In Heald Green and I guess that is where my interest grew and was very lucky to gain PPL in a PA38 from the Old South side.
I remember the old check in area near what is ground level. Up the escalators to departure hall. Past the chandeliers to the spectators entrance to the piers by the Lancaster restaurant. Those cooling towers used to fascinate me.
Those were the glory days of aviation where you would wave people off to their hols on the Dan air comets and Early jets. The smell noise and exhaust heat was something else. Diversion days were great especially at weekends. I can remember some interesting craft. SAA 747 SP various L1011 etc. people forget MAN used to operate many heavies. CPAIR Wardair Laker to name few.
I remember my first flight in Britannia 737-200 adv think it was AVRM? To PMI & visiting cockpit. Here Iam over 40 years later in Mexico having just had my first flight on Thomson 788. That thrill still remains. I was very fortunate to have attended the Concorde Gala dinner in November. Great evening but was nice to see the old photo display. Well done TAS.
I get sick to death of the press coverage on the London Runway situation.
I honestly Believe that MAN can go from strength to strength the road & rail/tram infrastructure is really starting to take shape and with Airport city to come this is a great time for all who live and work at this great City and Airport.

[Shaggy Sheep Driver]

Ah yes! the '10 years of Concorde at Manchester' do back in November under G-BOAC in her purpose-built hangar. That was a superb evening!

[gazza007]

It was a great night. Proper posh do. Mike Bannister was great.
Just having a spot of rain here in Maroma beach, think it's stopped. Not sure how I can upload photos from my IPad from the night. I find it interesting that all the guys went to Broadway and everybody rode bikes then. In fact we used to bunk off and always went to the airport usually Monday afternoons in 5th year.
I was fortunate to work at Woodford for 12 months which was fab with some old School pals. One of them Neil Richards? Was into aviation too remember going onto 13th floor to watch Space Shuttle fly by in July 83?
Anyway time to head back to beach and order another G & T

[Shaggy Sheep Driver]

I was working in Heaton Mersey in '83. We all went out of the office and up onto the hill at the edge of Heaton Mersey park, overlooking Vale Road, to watch the 747 with the Space Shuttle on top fly down the 24 approach.

Here's the Concorde 10th anniversary do. I'm on there somewhere!