Court Line

[Jaqui Maschera]

Courtline/Autair Reunion 2008

Just to keep you up-dated, there are now 13 revellers intent on making merry in Harpenden! Only need another 72 to fill the room

[verticalhold]

Bern Oulli;

That picture shows what was until recently the Harrods FBO ramp with Charlie taxiway behind it. The Silverjet B767s are currently parked there awaiting disposal after the failure of yet another bloody good, but underfunded airline.

VH

[LGS6753]

Sorry, Vertical.

The picture is NOT Luton. There's just too much open space!! My guess is Hurn, where the One-Elevens were built, and where I think some of them went after Court Line ceased operating.

[LTNman]

Definitely not Luton and I don’t think it is Hurn either. Looks like Stansted to me so I would say they are fog diversions. I can also see a Court logoed Land Rover next to one of the 1-11's

[WHBM]

I have seen this picture before of the three One-Elevens (maybe in a book) and recall it captioned as being at Stansted, in which case it's looking north at the old ramp on the west side of the runway. A good photo for publication as it's one of each colour in the fleet. Knowing that Court didn't really operate out of there I thought they must be Luton diversions. It's a misty day in the photograph.

[Golf Charlie Charlie]

Definitely Stansted. As WHBM describes.

[Silvershadow]

My wife (ex Court Line hostie) reckons it was during 1972 when for some time the Luton runway was closed at night for repairs. Pax and crews had to be coached across to Stansted for the morning flights.

[atb1943]

Jaqui,

I have a postal address for Geoff Davey (Navigation) if it's of any interest. Geoff moved to Frankfurt with his family, and on retirement built a house up a mountain near Malaga. Haven't heard from him for a couple of years. Not sure he's on email.

Be happy to pass on details of the event.

brgds
atb

[Jaqui Maschera]

Geoff Davey

ATB

If you think that Geoff would like to make the journey -- please send me his address and I will post (you can still do that;I am told) an invite. My email is [email protected]. Many thanks.

[poprivet]

llanfairpg

I was there.Isigned out preflight prior to accident. defuelled A/c on rwy lots of foam about.Have pictures i took in hangar next day of damage. partook in engine runs on Beverley.A/C was G-AXMG [green]. hello N. Hirst its Timmo.

[kala87]

I remember a night flight in a very cramped seat in one of Court's green 1-11's from LTN to Athens. Due to favourable tailwinds, we overflew the planned fuel stop in Brindisi and continued to Athens. Too long a sector in a 1-11, there's only so long you can put up with a puce-green painted cabin without feeling nauseous! The return flight was in a BEA Airtours 707 to LGW, newly-acquired from BOAC, very comfortable and stately compared to the 1-11.

Court must have got extremely good utilisation out of the 1-11's. I remember in the peak summer season they had 4 waves of flights, each departing LTN at around 0800, 1400, 2000 and 0200. This was possible as most flights in those days were to the closer Spanish and Italian airports (Palma, Ibiza, Barcelona, Gerona, Rimini etc). As a previous respondent noted, there would 4 or so departures to Palma or Gerona ta around the same time, one after the other. Living in north Harpenden at the time, the night departures by the noisy 1-11's certainly rattled the window panes! Not my favourite aircraft to fly in I'm afraid, and they always seemed a bit underpowered to me, often using most of the LTN runway on departure on a warm day.

[Crispin Maunder]

Maurice Rose

Apologies- dropped out of the loop for some months now - but just seen yours. Sadly Maurice also died some years back, he was looking very wobbly at Bill and Doreen's Golden Wedding party some 6-7 years ago, and he died a year or so afterwards. Sorry to be bearer of bad tidings.

[fixwing38]

Maurice Rose

Hi Crispin I have some pics of Maurice at Don Muang Airport Bangkok in 1987..We were stripping Thai Police Air Wing and Thai Navy C47s of all the "useful bits" and he joined us for a few days...that's the last time I saw him ..regrettably....rgds Peter

[Jaqui Maschera]

Alin Walker

Alin, will you please e-mail your Mummy.

[PanzerJohn]

One of, if not my first, flight was with CL. It was a school skiing trip to Austria,circa 1972/3. We flew to Munich, first time I ever saw police with guns. I remember being very impressed with the paintjob, the plane had a name,Halcyon Days or Skies I think.

[WHBM]

I put this in another PPRuNe thread a few years ago, but it possibly will be of interest here as well :


Well here, courtesy of Tony Merton-Jones' book mentioned above, is the Court Line fleet, with names and colours, for those old enough to remember a more colourful era. Court Line started in January 1970 and pretty much replaced the old Autair fleet on day one. They went out of business in August 1974.


Type____________Reg____Name___________In____Out_______Colour

One Eleven 400__G-AWBL Halcyon Dawn___Jan70 Jan71_____Turquoise
One Eleven 500__G-AXMF Halcyon Breeze Jan70 Aug74_____Pink
________________G-AXMG Halcyon Sky____Jan70 Aug74_____Turquoise
________________G-AXMH Halcyon Sun____Feb70 Aug74_____Orange
________________G-AXMI Halcyon Days___Mar70 Aug74_____Pink
________________G-AXMJ Halcyon Night__Mar70 Aug74_____Turquoise
________________G-AXMK Halcyon Star___Apr70 Aug74_____Turquoise later Orange
________________G-AXML Halcyon Cloud__Apr70 Aug74_____Pink
________________G-AYOP Halcyon Beach__Mar71 Feb73_____Orange
________________G-AYOR Halcyon Dawn___Mar71 Aug74_____Orange
________________G-AZEB Halcyon Bay____Sep71 Aug74_____Lilac
________________G-AZEC Halcyon Cove___Sep71 Aug74_____Lilac
________________G-BCCV Halcyon Beach__Apr74 Aug74_____Lilac
________________G-AYXB Halcyon Bay____71 lease from Austral
________________G-AXLN________________72-73 lease from BMA
________________G-AXLM________________73-74 lease from BMA
Tristar_________G-BAAA Halcyon Days___Mar73 Aug74_____Orange
________________G-BAAB Halcyon Breeze May73 Aug74_____Pink

HS125___________G-AVRG Halcyon Day____Nov71 Aug74_____Orange
Navajo__________G-AYEI________________Jun70 Nov72_____Orange
Jet Ranger______G-AXMM________________Jan70 Aug74_____Orange

[Jaqui Maschera]

To 'GottheTshirt'

On March 1st you said that you had missed a couple of the reunions. Are you going to be able to join us this year: well actually next month! How time romps by!

[GotTheTshirt]

WHBM

There were actually only 3 colours
Each aircraft had three shades of the colour from dark at the bottom to light at the top.

The whole point of the colour change was to make the airline have a holiday image instead of the normal airline white with a blue stripe !!

The Red/Pink represented the sunrise getting light towards the sky.
The orange was the sandy beach
And the blue was the sea.

The whole scheme was designed by a Peter Murdoch Associates who used to turn up for meetings in a psycedelic painted mini and they wore full length fur coats.
In those days this caused a few raised eybrows in Hurn !!

[22/04]

Nope 4 colours.

The other came in in 1972, I think and was lilac. G-AZEB, G-AZEC and the returned LIAT G-BCCV, which also served with LIAT in lilac. Don't know what it was meant to represent though

Some strange cheat lines on leased aircraft as well; G-AYXB ('71 orange and red) and G-AXLM/N (green)

[CLdave]

anyone care to report how the reunion went ?