Speedbird London - R.I.P.
 

It appears that Speedbird London is doomed! - Rumour has it that B.A.'s contract with the 3rd party company, (post Speedwing Comm's) soon runs out and it looks likely that the new contract for HF SSB LDOC provision is going abroad to; "Somewhere in Scandinavia".

Anyone got memories or anectotes connected to in-flight (or on-ground) contacts with the guys and gals at Speedbird London? I'd like to compile an archive for future reference so's not to let a British institution dissapear without trace.

Better be after the world cup! ACARS is frowned on for scores. amazing how urgent that Urumqi weather is towards the end of the 2nd half..."and you wouldnt happen to know the england score would you"

In those blissful far off days of BOAC, we frequently gave Speedbird our ETA with a request that a certain hostellry in Hampton was also given details.
The pub was then accordingly ensured 'open' despite the licensing hours.
Normally a 'BOAC' insider would be tending bar to ensure a thirsty crew was accomodated after the Landlord Johnny had departed for his 'London'
ventures.
Happy days indeed.

Remember it well Foul-Sudan. Assuming that it is the 'Jolly Coopers' to which you are refering, we once counted the number of pilots in the bar at 1am and there were 11 BEA and 11 BOAC. Somebody suggested a cricket match and so Hampton Hill Cricket Club was hired and the 'Coopers' BEA vs BOAC match took place.
Eventually a combined Coopers X1 was formed to play annual matches against 511 Squadron at Brize Norton. I can remember going out at regular intervals in the early hours to bribe the coach driver so that we could continue to enjoy the 511 hospitality in the mess.

As you say, happy days.

Airclues

Airclues- Spot on!

No doubt we played together at Brize also in the 'Purple Potty' matches.
I still have the pictures. Some of the 'team' regrettably have departed for
the Big Bar upstairs

A 'Coopers Reunion' has also been held but awaits further organisation for a repeat!

My favourite memory of Speedbird London was raising them on the HF from Bandar Seri Begawan one night. One of our pilots had snagged the HF for having poor range when he couldn't raise Darwin - they seldom knew how to choose the right frequency ranges for the time of day. Very satisfying to sign off the tech log entry with "Contacted Darwin on ----, Karachi on ---- and Speedbird London on ----. HF range and operation found satisfactory."

Not particularly historic, but I had some very good service from Speedbird London somwhere back in the late '80s or early '90s. We had taken our Albert out to Belize to repatriate some poor Army chaps who'd died in a truck crash. On the way back across the pond, it became obvious that Lyneham and the rest of England was going to be out in fog, and (after consultation with Grope/Ascart Ops) we elected to divert to Leuchars. As it was the evening of 23rd December, and we all wanted to get home for Christmas, Grope gave us permission to leave the aircraft at Leuchars (once suitable arrangements had been made for our 'passengers') and find our own way south.

Having used Speedbird to transmit a few messages before, I thought they might be able to help us out. So I called them up and asked if there was any way we could get seats on the first southbound shuttle from Edinburgh on Christmas Eve. They said they'd do what they could.

On arrival at Turnhouse at around 2am, courtesy of the duty driver at Leuchars and a very tired old Sherpa van, we were met by the BA Duty Manager, who apologised profusely for the lack of better accommodation and offered us a quiet few seats in a lounge to get our heads down while we waited. We were woken at ETD minus about 15 minutes, and escorted to the front end of the waiting 757 and whisked back to Heathrow for a CAT 3 landing, with a fine breakfast en route.

What fantastic service and helpfulness from Speedbird London and all of BA that day! Nothing was too much trouble, and everything worked like a charm. I still have no idea who paid for the tickets!

Shame they couldn't have dropped us at Lyneham; the transport (which wasn't allowed to leave LYE until we'd confirmed we were on the ground at LHR) took 4 hours to reach us, and a further 4 to get home!

I remember flying up through Italy in a Caledonian A320. Ahead of us was an old Caledonian Tristar with an open mike. The Italian ATC were going barmy and suddenly it was my fault! According to them I have got to fix the problem, because after all I am a Caledonian as well so I must be able to do that. Well I did, Thanks to good old Speedbird London. I simply asked them to selcal the tripod and tell them to put their house in order. Fantastic! Job done. I often wondered if the Italians ever gave a thought to how I did it.

Bob.

Speedbird London - End of an era..
 

Hello flyers. As a recently laid-off Operator from Speedbird London I just wanted to extend my greetings, gratitude and warmest wishes to all and any that used our station in the past years. The many exchanges that I had were always professional and curteous, I would like to think that I reciprocated in kind as I always considered I was privileged to be doing it .

No doubt Mr Walsh and his boys thought we were too expensive and so the axe had to fall, such are market forces! - First Concorde and now Speedbird London - tut, tut.

All the best and say HI to Stockholm.

Speedbird London helped me out of a few scrapes back in the '70s whilst working the old "Foxtrot Foxtrot" flight numbers, especially on the knackered old Britannias. It was always a pleasant surprise to find that an HF set worked and an even greater pleasure to talk to a fellow Brit from the depths of darkest Africa.
Many thanks for a job well done and very best wishes to you all for the future.

I've used Speedbird London many times over the past 13 years and have always been delighted with the service I received.

Thanks very much for the service and it will be sorely missed by many, especially those without satcom!

G'day 'Aerial Bender',...

From all at the now ex 'Perth' being, by various names over the years...
Perth Airadio, simply 'Perth', Perth Flight Service, Perth International etc etc

I do remember well, intercepting and relaying many HF calls intercepted and forwarded via the AFTN to the company....

Many of those intercepts were from aircraft 'somewhere' in Africa, and simply wished their ATD / ETA etc to be passed on!

Enjoy your retirement. I am!!!

Cheers:ok:

Sorry to hear that your services are no longer required. On the other point - and at the risk of reigniting an explosive issue (Boom-Boom :} ) Conc was killed by the French. IF BA was pleased about it - they managed to hide that.

It sounds as if your job has been overtaken by new technology and new technology has a way of providing new jobs too.

Well, well.
I had no idea (why were we not told?) and I am very sorry to hear this news.
Sympathy aside, I have a technical Q.
These days of CPDLC and ADS, we don't use HF much except to check in and get our selcal. When we do, our ears are subject to the special 'white noise' which we have come to expect and enjoy.
What do the radio controllers hear? It cannot, surely be that same noise we hear.
Cummon, I want to know.

Thanks for an excellent service over many, many years. It was wonderful to hear those British voices from all corners of the globe and your professionalism was invaluable.

I had no idea that the end of another era had come and gone until I went to download the latest Propogation Charts last week-end.

Speedbird London was always a familiar, friendly, professional and helpful voice when a long way from home.

To you and your colleagues, 'Aerial-Bender', my sincere thanks for a job well-done.

:D

Only last week we were in Portishead Marina, just along from the radio station. Following the demise of Portishead Radio they now have a website at http://www.gka.btinternet.co.uk/.

They were always helpful when there was no contact with Speedbird London.

Hopefully the support given by Speedbird London will also not be forgotten and perhaps they will put their own website together.

At Gander the Radio Operators DO hear the "white noise" constantly. There is an ability to squelch it out, but the guys there prefer not use the squelch as they claim it limits their ability to hear weak signals.

As an aside, at least as far as Shanwick and Gander are concerned, HF comms is still the responsibility of Radio Operators. The then input the reports/requests into a computer sytem, the controllers will then read the messages and issue clearances into the computer which goes back to the RO for transmission.

In Gander the controllers and RO's are in the same building, for Shanwick the RO's are in Eire, the controllers in Prestwick!!

ex-egll

ex-EGLL

You are absolutely correct for pure ATC information being passed. What folks like Portished and Speedbird-London (and a few notable others) allowed the long-haul community to do is communicate with their companies and among other things, get re-dispatched in mid-ocean.

It would take more typing than I'm up to to describe why that was such an essential service. I've sweated through my shirt more than once wondering if I needed to continue to my flight planned, as compared to my real, destination without their support. Think "required" fuel reserves for a 13 hour flight vice "required" fuel reserves to begin a 2 hour flight to a "new" destination.

Thanks for the support Speedbird-London

Aerial-Bender,

Thanks for all your hard work over the years - the service you and your colleagues provded was much appreciated.

Beerdrinker