LUTON History and Nostalgia

[Offchocks]

Originally Posted by rog747

Did Monarch keep the seat back catering on the 3x 1-11's that they acquired from Court Line...?

Thanks

Two of the 1-11s were ex Court Line and I think the third was from Bcal. The two ex Court Line aircraft had the seat back catering when I joined in '78, but how long those seats remained I'm not sure.

[Georgeablelovehowindia]

Originally Posted by Offchocks

Great to see those Mayflys. I operated as a FO on the 28thJuly down to Milan with John "Woodright", then the following day down to Alicante with John McLean-Hall, what a great Captain and wonderfully funny fellow John McLean-Hall was... RIP.
Both flights were operated by G-AWWZ which was the aircraft that had a baggage fire in Faro seven years later.
Photo here: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/F..._AN0368961.jpg

Yep, Norman and Sandy, on a line-check. It was Sandy who was shunted sideways at Luton by the dumper truck driver reversing furiously, blissfully unaware of the One-Eleven taxying past. He'd have been rendered blissfully unaware if Sandy had laid hands on him, but he wisely legged it.

John McLean-Hall, an absolute hooligan off duty - the stories are the stuff of legend. The only time I flew with John was jump-seating to Paphos, to rescue a crew who'd gone out of hours. I was expecting it to be a laugh a minute, and indeed the atmosphere was very relaxed, but impressively professional. Why on earth they never made John a trainer is a complete mystery.

What a shame he's no longer with us. Sadly, with the passage of time, we've said goodbye to a lot of nice people, Geoff 'Flooks' Foulkes being the latest.

[Offchocks]

Georgeablelovehowindia I know Sandy very well as we started on the same course and correspond on FB occasionally, I did not know about the dump truck though.
When on the 737 I blew over a "honey" cart that decided to back up behind number one engine whilst it was still running with the anti collision still rotating, number ones and twos everywhere! The "honey" cart driver also legged it, no drivers licence.
I agree about everything you said about John McLean-Hall and sorry to hear Geoff Foulkes having passed away..

[LTNman]

Aug 23rd -Aug 29th 1985. Wednesdays and Thursdays were particularly light.

[jensdad]

Fascinating stuff, LTNman. Interesting to see some destinations that more or less disappeared, to be reintroduced again only when the low-cost boom came along, notably some Italian ones. Rimini in particular was a regular Britannia route from Newcastle back in the eighties.
Which was the airline with prefix 'PZ' who were operating 'CRRs' to Italian destinations? I'm guessing Altair operating Caravelles?

[DaveReidUK]

Originally Posted by jensdad

Which was the airline with prefix 'PZ' who were operating 'CRRs' to Italian destinations? I'm guessing Altair operating Caravelles?

Looks more like "FZ", which was indeed Altair's designator.

[Mooncrest]

Didn't Altair have a mini-base at Luton with one or two Caravelles ?

[jensdad]

Originally Posted by DaveReidUK

Looks more like "FZ", which was indeed Altair's designator.

Ah yes, so it is (Think I need some new contact lenses). Thanks Dave.

[LTNman]

London European and their Viscount. I used to count the passengers off the evening flight and always thought they were doing well.

[pppdrive]

Altair UK base

Originally Posted by Mooncrest

Didn't Altair have a mini-base at Luton with one or two Caravelles ?

We did indeed have a 'Base' at Luton with one Cvl operating ex Luton and one ex Gatwick. Monarch did our handling at Luton and we had our own Engineers at both airports.

[dc9-32]

Wednesdays in Winter often saw no movements for Monarch handling, or maybe just one Jetstream to BRU and back.

[Mooncrest]

Thankyou pppdrive. Was that something to do with a large Italian expat population in Bedfordshire ?

[Falcon666]

Originally Posted by jensdad

Fascinating stuff, LTNman. Interesting to see some destinations that more or less disappeared, to be reintroduced again only when the low-cost boom came along, notably some Italian ones. Rimini in particular was a regular Britannia route from Newcastle back in the eighties.

If my memory serves me correctly wasn't there a Brit B767 that left Luton to Rimini with just one pax on board, think it made the local papers as it wasn't near the end of the season with he/she being given VIP treatment all the way ( and then the following summer Rimini was ditched).

[Haraka]

Originally Posted by Mooncrest

Thankyou pppdrive. Was that something to do with a large Italian expat population in Bedfordshire ?

This was allegedly based on Italian POW's who stayed on . Even in the 50's it was a joke that folks asking directions in Bedford would prefix their enquiry with "Sir, If you speak English....?"

[LTNman]

Used to be an Italian POW camp just outside the airport boundary, as seen at the bottom of the photo with not a hint of a fence in sight to keep those bad boys inside. In fact they used to do odd jobs in the community I believe.

[Allan Lupton]

Originally Posted by Haraka

This was allegedly based on Italian POW's who stayed on .

Pre-War there was already a large Italian workforce in the Bedfordshire brickfields I believe. They'd have helped POWs to decide if staying on was worthwhile.

[meleagertoo]

Originally Posted by LTNman

not a hint of a fence in sight to keep those bad boys inside. In fact they used to do odd jobs in the community I believe.

According to locals the Italian prisoners were to a man heartily glad to be out of the war and were totally co-operative. There was no need for fences and they readily found work in the brickworks and in the extensive agriculture and market gardening in the area, and many ahd skill or trades that were of great use in those labour-hungry times. They were well liked by the locals, not least by the females and many married and settled down to stay, hence the wonderful Italian community in Bedford to this day.
There are real, authentic Italian grocery shops, butchers, a bakery and it is said they even import a truckload of grapes every year to make real Bedfordshire Italian wine. I don't know aboout that but the groceries, fruit, veg and filled rolls they sell are fabulous.
I know one or two of the originals who are still at work.

[compton3bravo]

Yes I can heartily agree with Meleager too having lived in Bedford for 20 years 1966-86. The local joke was if you were getting married the Italians were the ones to get in touch with starting with the catering, hairdressing and fashion! Some great Italian restaurants still going strong I believe.

[pppdrive]

Altair

Originally Posted by Mooncrest

Thankyou pppdrive. Was that something to do with a large Italian expat population in Bedfordshire ?

That certainly helped Mooncrest. The flights were chartered by another group company and at one stage I did approach Cranfield about either operating all or just some of the Luton flights from Cranfield due to amount of passengers living in the area. Unfortunately, time was fast running out for Altair and before we could go any further with Cranfield we were already in the last few months of operating.
Paul

[Mooncrest]

Interesting stories about Altair and Bedfordshire's own 'Little Italy'. I believe Glasgow also has a sizeable Italian community but not sure if the airlines ever exploited the opportunity. Anyway, enough thread drift from me.