Holiday Props
https://aviation-safety.net/database...?id=19720128-1
Being a 60's baby, my first holiday flights, as a young teen, were in the mighty 1-11
However, my first ever flight was a "prop charter", albeit a CAFU HS748, chartered by the Essex CC Education Dept to give Essex schoolchildren an air experience flight over God's county. G-ATMJ was the aircraft involved, with this happening in 1973. At the time I was a pupil at St Mary's Junior School, Stansted
Holiday job
Not a holiday flight but as an impecunious student I got the best holiday job ever. A flight in a Constellation to Singapore and back as a monkey handler. General freight out so alternated between watching the world go by, visiting the flight deck, and making copious cups of tea and coffee for the crew. The crew slipped in Delhi but I continued. Arrived in Singapore for a 36 hour stay in the Raffles hotel, by the pool and shopping. The return with 1100 Rhesus monkeys and millions of tropical fish loaded in Delhi. Had to feed the monkeys at regular intervals who would make a terrible noise in daylight but would sleep at night if you turned the lights out. Not so many cups of tea and coffee for the flight deck as not welcome due to the stench you acquired from attending to the monkeys. Back at Heathrow five days after I left. Paid £50, a lot of money then, had to throw my old clothes away and bought my first car.
Probably the best holiday I ever had
Probably the best holiday I ever had
Thread Starter
I sort of saw it happen. From my viewpoint the aircraft disappeared behind a hangar and didn't re-appear. A short time later smoke could be seen above the hangar. No one hurt.
It was LH's last Viscount and was being delivered to Hurn for rework before going to SOAF.
Very windy day, VC-10 G-ARTA broke it's back at Gatwick that day.
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Remember seeing Sobelair DC6's during summer season at Glasgow, Renfrew early to mid-60's. I think they operated to/from Ostend. Also British Eagle Britannias at Renfrew doing seasonal Newquay flights every Saturday.
Flew early 70's in Cambrian Viscount Liverpool - Jersey and returned on Northeast Viscount to Leeds/Bradford.
Flew early 70's in Cambrian Viscount Liverpool - Jersey and returned on Northeast Viscount to Leeds/Bradford.
Remember seeing Sobelair DC6's during summer season at Glasgow, Renfrew early to mid-60's. I think they operated to/from Ostend. Also British Eagle Britannias at Renfrew doing seasonal Newquay flights every Saturday.
Flew early 70's in Cambrian Viscount Liverpool - Jersey and returned on Northeast Viscount to Leeds/Bradford.
Flew early 70's in Cambrian Viscount Liverpool - Jersey and returned on Northeast Viscount to Leeds/Bradford.
Anyway, those must have been some of the last ITs to be flown by DC3 - though of course Intra Airways were operating schedules between Staverton and Jersey using the type much later.
Prop flights still performed from St Just to the Scillies by Skybus using Twotters and Islanders. And if you buy a coffee at the cafff you get 2 hours parking thrown in.
Skybus seems to be VFR only because last week they were all cancelled because of the lousy viz at Lands End.
Skybus seems to be VFR only because last week they were all cancelled because of the lousy viz at Lands End.
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Janus Airways operated 1 Herald and bought 2'Viscount 700's. One Viscount had corrosion problems so never flew. I flew the other Viscount Coventry to Beauvais.
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Can someone help identify a likely aircraft type for me? I flew for the first time from Glasgow to Jersey on a holiday charter some time around 1984 and I've always wondered what type of aircraft it was. I think the airline was Britannia and I am pretty sure it was a prop, but none of the historic fleet pages I checked show Britannia having props. The only other things I remember was that we couldn't land in Jersey because of the weather and were diverted to Bournemouth for an overnight stop and on the way back we landed somewhere in England (might have been East Midlands), got our luggage, cleared customs and then got back on the plane to Glasgow!
Any ideas welcome. Thanks.
Any ideas welcome. Thanks.
Thread Starter
In 1969, before I started my apprenticeship, I worked in the cafe at Bournemouth (Hurn) airport.
One day the Channel Islands fogged in and we had about 8 Viscounts divert in to await an improvement in the weather. At least 4 were Channel Airways and 2 were British Midland, I can't remember the others.
We ran out of sandwiches, cake and biscuits and then tea and coffee as all the passengers were given a voucher for a snack. Our boss frantically rushed to into town to get more supplies.
I think the last aircraft departed about 10pm.
I was paid 4 shillings an hour and that week I did around 60 hours and took home £12. When I started at BAC a few weeks later I used to take home £4 a week.
One day the Channel Islands fogged in and we had about 8 Viscounts divert in to await an improvement in the weather. At least 4 were Channel Airways and 2 were British Midland, I can't remember the others.
We ran out of sandwiches, cake and biscuits and then tea and coffee as all the passengers were given a voucher for a snack. Our boss frantically rushed to into town to get more supplies.
I think the last aircraft departed about 10pm.
I was paid 4 shillings an hour and that week I did around 60 hours and took home £12. When I started at BAC a few weeks later I used to take home £4 a week.
I suppose we have neglected here on Holiday Props that both Jersey and Guernsey was a HUGE massive market for package holidays.
From the 1950s to the 1980s the British public who had the wherewithal and the money to fly had two destinations at the top of their list.
One was the Dutch bulb fields, with a stream of charter flights operating each year out of Southend airport and the other was the Channel Islands.
With that heady mix of English/French culture this was going abroad but gingerly!
No foreign language to grapple with, British currency so no problem with foreign exchange allowances but you still got duty free, exotic food with place names and road signs in French. Perfect for the conservative British traveller of the time, who had a vast choice of Tour Operators to book their holidays with.
They may also have hired a car with Falles Car Hire.
Jersey and Guernsey were served well from the 1950's by many prop types -
Vikings, Herons, DC-3's then Viscounts, Ambassadors, and of course Vanguards, and then Heralds, F27, and HS748's.
In later years SH330, SH360, Twin Otters, and Dash 7's would join in to serve the routes, many on dedicated holiday charter flights
You would see occasional DC-4, 6 and 7's at Jersey, along with Constellations.
The Islands were still very busy until the end of the 1980's when the drop off in popularity to have a 7 or 14 day holiday to the C.I's sadly fell off the cliff.
Too many airlines to mention all that flew to JER and GCI, but obviously early ones included BEA, Jersey Airlines, Derby/BMA, Channel AW, BUA, British Eagle, Autair, BKS, Cambrian, Dan Air, Air Anglia, BIA, Intra>JEA, Brymon.
In 1948 a new charter airline, Jersey Airlines - not to be confused with the earlier Jersey Airways - was formed. They saw a business opportunity as BEA could not cope with the high demand for summer flights to the island.
The airline approached BEA in 1951 about becoming an associate airline which would guarantee them more business, BEA agreed and took a stake in the new airline.
Jersey Airlines, by 1960 they were operating Herons, Dakotas and Heralds.
In 1962, BEA lost its monopoly on flights to Jersey, the airline bought back its 25 per cent share from BEA and entered into an agreement with British United. Sadly, the Jersey Airlines name disappeared and changed its trading name to British United (C.I.).
Air Anglia's seasonal Aberdeen—Jersey service was the longest non-stop scheduled operation using a turboprop aircraft in the British Isles at the time; the F27's scheduled flight time on that route was 2 hours and 45 minutes. Brymon's Herald would do SEN and MAN-JER charters at weekends.
JER & GCI airports will however always be fondly remembered for their role in the 1960s to 1980s when all the UK independent airlines and some from Eire & mainland Europe could be seen flying visitors in for a Channel Islands holiday,
British Midland Airways was a regular and mainly seasonal operator into both Jersey and Guernsey, often with multiple Viscount (5 or 6) aircraft on the apron together on summer SATS & SUNS.
Flights were from SEN, LTN, EMA, BHX, CVT, BFS, LPL, GLO, MME, and more...
A Poster here on this thread mentions taking a prop in 1984 from GLA to JER.
I cannot recall if we (at BMA) back then flew direct JER from GLA, but I would have thought it would be a DC-9 by then if we did.
Possibly a Viscount was subbed ? It did happen.
In the early 1980's we still had a load of Viscounts - all very busy, especially to the C.I's at weekends.
G-AZNA to NC (Was to be ZLU to W, but NTU)
G-AZLP to LT ( ZLT was re-reg'd in 1981 as G-BMAT, with the wings taken from G-BAPD)
G-BAPE to PG, G-AYOX and G-BFZL
I have the 1979 book, British Midland Airways, by Bert G Cramp who had been a Captain with the airline almost from the start, and had witnessed the then Derby Aviation progress through Derby Airways to eventually become British Midland Airways.
I think this story is worth relating for several reasons, not least ‘the punch line’ - “Not all flights with the Argonaut were dramatic! -
and one flight ended rather amusingly as Captain Cramp and his crew found out in Jersey on 22nd September 1963.
Flying northbound from Palma to Birmingham, Capt Cramp had just crossed the French coast at Dinard when he heard another company Argonaut, commanded by Captain Eric Lines, flying southbound from BHX to Perpignan.
Knowing that a large part of the U.K. was becoming fog-bound he asked Captain Lines, what the weather was like when he left BHX, to receive the reply that the best thing to do was to divert right now into Jersey.
Thanking Eric Lines for his advice, Bert Cramp immediately called Jersey, to discover to his horror that they had just closed for the day, and in fact it was only by chance that Cramp’s call had just been received.
However, when hearing of the circumstances, Jersey Airport immediately opened up an Air Traffic Control watch and allowed the Argonaut to land.
Having taxied up to the apron and shut down all four engines, the crew were told to stay on board with all passengers as Customs and Immigration officials at Jersey had quite naturally gone home, although requests had gone out for them to return ASAP.
After waiting ten minutes or so and having explained the situation to the passengers, the crew began to get anxious about the aircraft’s battery power as all the lights in the aircraft were still on batteries only, there being no airport ground staff around to connect a GPU to the aircraft.
In the end Captain Cramp and the Engineering Officer, Roy Dethick opened the crew door, threw out an escape rope and slithered down it, then walked across the apron and found some passenger steps which they then proceeded to push to the aircraft to enable the passengers to disembark.
At this point some Customs officers arrived, and the ATC officers, having now officially shut the airfield down, came down to see if they could also help.
The aircraft cabin crew retrieved some dry stores (coffee, tea, milk, and biscuits) from the aircraft, together with an urn of hot water and some blankets, thus enabling all to have a hot drink, and the children to be kept warm as it was midnight now and quite cold.
Having cleared the passengers in, the Customs officials now set to with the ATC officers, the crew and the local Derby Airways staff, who had heard the Argonaut making its low approach whilst on their way home and, realising what had happened, had about-turned and returned to the airport to arrange HOTAC for all the passengers.
After some 2 hours all but four had been accommodated.
At that time of the night transport to hotels was also a problem, but it was overcome by the co-operation of all concerned, not least the passengers themselves, some of whom went in police cars and even a Black Maria to their accommodations.
All in all an exercise in good-humoured co-operation had ended what could have been a most tiresome day all round.
The passengers eventually arrived in Birmingham at 13.25 the following day, all quite content.
I would like to think that today, would we see Customs and Immigration officials plus ATC officers, and off-duty airline staff all muck in to the same extent?
It's what 'we did' back then....
From the 1950s to the 1980s the British public who had the wherewithal and the money to fly had two destinations at the top of their list.
One was the Dutch bulb fields, with a stream of charter flights operating each year out of Southend airport and the other was the Channel Islands.
With that heady mix of English/French culture this was going abroad but gingerly!
No foreign language to grapple with, British currency so no problem with foreign exchange allowances but you still got duty free, exotic food with place names and road signs in French. Perfect for the conservative British traveller of the time, who had a vast choice of Tour Operators to book their holidays with.
They may also have hired a car with Falles Car Hire.
Jersey and Guernsey were served well from the 1950's by many prop types -
Vikings, Herons, DC-3's then Viscounts, Ambassadors, and of course Vanguards, and then Heralds, F27, and HS748's.
In later years SH330, SH360, Twin Otters, and Dash 7's would join in to serve the routes, many on dedicated holiday charter flights
You would see occasional DC-4, 6 and 7's at Jersey, along with Constellations.
The Islands were still very busy until the end of the 1980's when the drop off in popularity to have a 7 or 14 day holiday to the C.I's sadly fell off the cliff.
Too many airlines to mention all that flew to JER and GCI, but obviously early ones included BEA, Jersey Airlines, Derby/BMA, Channel AW, BUA, British Eagle, Autair, BKS, Cambrian, Dan Air, Air Anglia, BIA, Intra>JEA, Brymon.
In 1948 a new charter airline, Jersey Airlines - not to be confused with the earlier Jersey Airways - was formed. They saw a business opportunity as BEA could not cope with the high demand for summer flights to the island.
The airline approached BEA in 1951 about becoming an associate airline which would guarantee them more business, BEA agreed and took a stake in the new airline.
Jersey Airlines, by 1960 they were operating Herons, Dakotas and Heralds.
In 1962, BEA lost its monopoly on flights to Jersey, the airline bought back its 25 per cent share from BEA and entered into an agreement with British United. Sadly, the Jersey Airlines name disappeared and changed its trading name to British United (C.I.).
Air Anglia's seasonal Aberdeen—Jersey service was the longest non-stop scheduled operation using a turboprop aircraft in the British Isles at the time; the F27's scheduled flight time on that route was 2 hours and 45 minutes. Brymon's Herald would do SEN and MAN-JER charters at weekends.
JER & GCI airports will however always be fondly remembered for their role in the 1960s to 1980s when all the UK independent airlines and some from Eire & mainland Europe could be seen flying visitors in for a Channel Islands holiday,
British Midland Airways was a regular and mainly seasonal operator into both Jersey and Guernsey, often with multiple Viscount (5 or 6) aircraft on the apron together on summer SATS & SUNS.
Flights were from SEN, LTN, EMA, BHX, CVT, BFS, LPL, GLO, MME, and more...
A Poster here on this thread mentions taking a prop in 1984 from GLA to JER.
I cannot recall if we (at BMA) back then flew direct JER from GLA, but I would have thought it would be a DC-9 by then if we did.
Possibly a Viscount was subbed ? It did happen.
In the early 1980's we still had a load of Viscounts - all very busy, especially to the C.I's at weekends.
G-AZNA to NC (Was to be ZLU to W, but NTU)
G-AZLP to LT ( ZLT was re-reg'd in 1981 as G-BMAT, with the wings taken from G-BAPD)
G-BAPE to PG, G-AYOX and G-BFZL
I have the 1979 book, British Midland Airways, by Bert G Cramp who had been a Captain with the airline almost from the start, and had witnessed the then Derby Aviation progress through Derby Airways to eventually become British Midland Airways.
I think this story is worth relating for several reasons, not least ‘the punch line’ - “Not all flights with the Argonaut were dramatic! -
and one flight ended rather amusingly as Captain Cramp and his crew found out in Jersey on 22nd September 1963.
Flying northbound from Palma to Birmingham, Capt Cramp had just crossed the French coast at Dinard when he heard another company Argonaut, commanded by Captain Eric Lines, flying southbound from BHX to Perpignan.
Knowing that a large part of the U.K. was becoming fog-bound he asked Captain Lines, what the weather was like when he left BHX, to receive the reply that the best thing to do was to divert right now into Jersey.
Thanking Eric Lines for his advice, Bert Cramp immediately called Jersey, to discover to his horror that they had just closed for the day, and in fact it was only by chance that Cramp’s call had just been received.
However, when hearing of the circumstances, Jersey Airport immediately opened up an Air Traffic Control watch and allowed the Argonaut to land.
Having taxied up to the apron and shut down all four engines, the crew were told to stay on board with all passengers as Customs and Immigration officials at Jersey had quite naturally gone home, although requests had gone out for them to return ASAP.
After waiting ten minutes or so and having explained the situation to the passengers, the crew began to get anxious about the aircraft’s battery power as all the lights in the aircraft were still on batteries only, there being no airport ground staff around to connect a GPU to the aircraft.
In the end Captain Cramp and the Engineering Officer, Roy Dethick opened the crew door, threw out an escape rope and slithered down it, then walked across the apron and found some passenger steps which they then proceeded to push to the aircraft to enable the passengers to disembark.
At this point some Customs officers arrived, and the ATC officers, having now officially shut the airfield down, came down to see if they could also help.
The aircraft cabin crew retrieved some dry stores (coffee, tea, milk, and biscuits) from the aircraft, together with an urn of hot water and some blankets, thus enabling all to have a hot drink, and the children to be kept warm as it was midnight now and quite cold.
Having cleared the passengers in, the Customs officials now set to with the ATC officers, the crew and the local Derby Airways staff, who had heard the Argonaut making its low approach whilst on their way home and, realising what had happened, had about-turned and returned to the airport to arrange HOTAC for all the passengers.
After some 2 hours all but four had been accommodated.
At that time of the night transport to hotels was also a problem, but it was overcome by the co-operation of all concerned, not least the passengers themselves, some of whom went in police cars and even a Black Maria to their accommodations.
All in all an exercise in good-humoured co-operation had ended what could have been a most tiresome day all round.
The passengers eventually arrived in Birmingham at 13.25 the following day, all quite content.
I would like to think that today, would we see Customs and Immigration officials plus ATC officers, and off-duty airline staff all muck in to the same extent?
It's what 'we did' back then....
Last edited by rog747; 25th Jun 2021 at 11:37.
Crew rest lol
But where?
The Jet Age now at Jersey
Is this Jersey?
First Horizon Holidays package flights to Corsica, 1950
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My first flight was back from Zurich age 1 week in BEA Viscount. Subsequent holiday prop holiday flight were in Vanguards - BEA , Britannia's - Eagle, Viscounts - many Chanel Airways , BEA, Viking , Ambassador. Somebody mentioned Perpignan up the thread, and it was there that I witnessed on a still night in August around 1965 6 attempted landings by a Channel Airways Viscount. After the 3rd attempt the Fire station doors were opened and tenders moved out. The first passenger off got down the steps and threw up her dinner. Neither I, as a 5 year old, or my father who was ex aircrew, could understand what the issue was, as there did not appear to be any mist, and you could clearly see the A/C make their turn and the landing lights. There did not appear to be anything wrong with the A/C, as it took off at the same time as ourselves with passengers. We moved to Santiago in Chile in 68, and my long commutes to school began in 707,s though we did sometimes holiday in Europe after my school year ended and flew on Comets - BEA Air tours, BEA Tridents 1-11.
Cheers
Mr Mac
Cheers
Mr Mac
Air Atlantique operated a short-lived £29.00 fare route between Southampton and the Channel Islands in 1988, operating a leased HS748 (G-BEKG). When it was due a two or three week maintenance check at DanAir, the route was filled in with a Dakota (G-AMSV) and Cessna 404 (G-EXEX?), which was trouble-free except for obviously not being able to keep up with the same timetable. I was the engineer and usually flew in the Dak's jump seat when the last flight was terminating at Jersey. We'd occasionally ask one of the pax to delightedly take my place and I'd equally-delightedly sit at the back with a beer.
Back to the 748 - on one occasion a new employee double-booked a flight and 96 pax arrived for 48 seats. A Shorts 330 was quickly sub-charted to help out and then refused to start once it was loaded. That was an interesting morning...
Back to the 748 - on one occasion a new employee double-booked a flight and 96 pax arrived for 48 seats. A Shorts 330 was quickly sub-charted to help out and then refused to start once it was loaded. That was an interesting morning...
