Berlin Trooping Charters 1962

[captain.speaking]

In researching BUA's prgramme of trooping charters in 1962 from Gatwick to the various destinations served in W Germany, I have noticed that there are no flights to/from Berlin, neither do these seem to be by flights by any other operator, at least from Gatwick. I have seen a photo of a BUA Viscount at Templehof in 1962, but without information about routing.

Does anyone recall if this was because Berlin was always served by BUA via one or more of the other destinations in W Germany, or was the Berlin contract held by another operator ? Alternatively, was all the Berlin trooping via the RAF ??

Thanks for the memories !

[kenparry]

For years in the 70s, 80s & early 90s the the Germany trooping was done by Britannia from Luton, mostly with the B737-200 but also towards the end a few 757 flights.

Destinations were Wildenrath, Hannover, Dusseldorf, Gutersloh, and Berlin Gatow. My recollection is Gatow was weekly. That was always an interesting trip, as the Berlin corridors only went up to FL100, so we went across E Germany at about FL 65 and got excellent views of things we had previously (in a different uniform) seen only in int reports. The centre corridor went across a large airfield that was home to a regiment of Hind, seen clearly on a good day.

[Kerosene Kraut]

That airfield might have been Brandenburg/Havel where East Germany conducted most of it's mil helicopter training.

[Rainboe]

I used to fly an HS748 in mainly the central Berlin corridor. Seeing that massive Russian military airfield at Brandenburg used to fascinate me- all sorts of interesting things going on there! So one utterly gorgeous morning, we get airborne from Tegel Airport and head into the corridor. We ask the American controller 'what is the lowest we can transit the corridor?' He's a bit flummoxed as nobody normally wants to know. Eventually we are allowed at just 3000'. We then 'slide' off course to go have a look at this airfield (still just within the corridor). So we are paddling along at a steady 130kts straight for this airfield, except it's like the biggest airfield we've seen, FULL of Russian helicopters, including that giant one with enormous rotors out on the side, hovering. As we approach this airport, we're wondering if this is such a good idea! It takes an age to cross over the top, with us feeling extremely vulnerable wondering how 10,000 Russian military are going to take this daft little Brit turboprop chugging 3000' overhead! No comeback, but we didn't do it again! Fascinating days on the Berlin corridor. It was stunning how in the countryside, absolutely nothing happened- no cars on roads, but when you crossed 'die Grenze', then life returned to normal. Life could get difficult there in bad weather, with a lot of political games going on on the radio. We could see all the military storage areas surrounding West Berlin- they were ready to move in at a moment's notice.

[alisoncc]

Pan American ran what they referred to as their IGS - Internal German System, into Templehof, as Lufthansa weren't allowed into Berlin by the East Germans. Flew there on numerous occasions up the sharp end of their 707's as an Avionics Field Engineer with RCA throughout the late sixties.

[kenparry]

Lufthansa weren't allowed into Berlin by the East Germans.

Not quite right. The E Germans had no authority in Berlin, as the city was still (in legal terms) under 4-power allied military government until the Wall came down and Germany re-unified. The Russians were the ones who said "Nyet" to everything.

[A30yoyo]

Only American, British and French aircraft were allowed to fly to West Berlin under the 4-power agreement at the end of WWII along prescribed corridors....worth checking the fantastic photos of Ralf Manteufel and Peter Seeman on airliners.net

[Kerosene Kraut]

"The Russians were the ones who said "Nyet" to everything."

Let's better call them the "Soviets". (to be a bit picky)

Cheers, Kraut