September 30 1958. KLM Viscount 803 LHR - AMS, from the old north side "terminal". At AMS we changed to a KLM DC6B and flew to Khartoum via Frankfurt, Athens and Cairo. We had an engine failure en route and had to wait ages at FRA to change the failed P&W radial. I can still remember the oil leaking back over the wing. You could read a book from the glare of the exhaust stacks at night. Most of the flight was at around 14000 ft so we had superb views of the Alps. Great flight!

Aviate 1138
Fancy paying to fly on Concorde and expecting that in-flight service, only to end up on.......the jump seat, How tough was that:{ ;) :) :D :ok:

Catching up with this thread after a month ...
Georgeablelovehowindia Ah, thanks for that, it would have been FCO then, as it was rainy but not foggy. We were there around 20:00 I think but do not have the timetable. It was mid-winter so dark until African sunrise.

jeppsboreI heard that the folks running the service forgot to renew the license application in time and then got stuffed by the folks who lived on the ground and were early forerunners of Hacan. But I also heard that the revised plan of refitting the GatLink machines with various electronics to allow them to fly higher was considered too costly. My guess is that anyone wanting to set up such a service today, would find the Hacan lobby insurmountable, leave alone the cost of it. My uncle and aunt lived in Surrey under the GatLink path and each time it went over they grumbled and I looked up thinking, "Wow - I wish I was on board" but I could not say that!

aviate1138 Your stories of being on the jump seat of Concorde will not be tolerated :suspect: and you should now make a public apology. ;)

This has been a great thread and wonderful to read. All the talk of Viscounts ... I cannot claim the early flights but maybe one of the last? When my mother went to live in the IOM in 1981, the BA service was VIS until 1988 when the 146 was introduced. I don't reacll my last VIS but found myself by chance to be on the very first commercial 146 rotation on the route and champagne all round.

[Thread drift] My first VIS was Air Rhodesia in October 1970 from SAY (Salisbury as was) to VFA (Victoria Falls as is) for a sightseeing day trip, complete with wing downs over the falls - first one side then t'other so all could have a good view. Then landing and a ground trip to the lip of the falls, lunch at the Vic Falls Hotel, then a short trip on the Zambezi above the falls and back to SAY - what a fabulous day that was for a 14 year old!

But at LHR, I must have had about ten round trips to IOM on the Viscount before they went out of service. As I recall, that route was the last one operated in the UK by the type? The short runway at Ronaldsway was what kept them in service and the 146 was the best replacement, with it's descendant RJs still operating daily into IOM but from 'another place'.

BRU/EBBR-LHR/EGLL in the Summer of 1956, in a BEA Airspeed Ambassador. I only wish I knew which one it was :sad:

I took a picture of LHR as it was in Summer of 1956 from 10,000ft in a Varsity calibrating the ROTOR radar station at Chenies (near Bovingdon) in Hertfordshire. Click the link below.

http://groups.msn.com/TonyHawesRAFSe...o&PhotoID=1060

In 1956 the North Terminal with the silver shapes of airliners is on the left alongside the Bath Road (A4). This terminal was used by airlines on intercontinental and transatlantic routes. This Terminal was housed in pre-fab buildings and was still in use until 1960 (I have a photo of a friend boarding a Pan Am B-707 bound for Baltimore taken at this terminal in late 1960).

The centre island as shown consisted then of the ‘Europa Building’ (now Terminal 2) which can be seen at about 2 - 3 o'clock in the centre island, whilst the future 'Oceanic Terminal' (now Terminal 3) for long-haul flights (visible at about 5 o'clock in the centre island) was under construction.

The black strip running top to bottom on the left as it wends its way westwards is the A4. It was to be another nine years before the first stretch of the M4 was built connecting Central London with Heathrow.

Tony

Many thanks thawes for that and the link to your Bovingden pics (not least the one of Berko where I lived for many years).

The fine image of EGLL in 1956 - does anyone have a recent pic from the same persepctive??

1st Nov 1970 AC851 DC-8 (-60?) London to Calgary to start my new job in the oil industry. The first time I had flown in a commercial jet at the age of 23. Hard to believe these days.

Calgary was fogged in due to upslope conditions, so my first night in Canada was in Vancouver. I knew Calgary wouldn't be quite the same as Vancouver, but I wasn't quite prepared for the reality of the Prairies in winter!

I had another memorable flight into Heathrow about 10 years ago. We had arrived at Heathrow on a L1011-500 (AC never referred to them as Tristars) about mid-day after leaving Calgary the night before where it was -35. There was a short delay getting the doors open and then the purser announced in an amused tone "There will be a delay in unloading your baggage, because of the extremely low temperatures here at Heathrow" . After a short pause, he said "It's -5!".

> The fine image of EGLL in 1956 - does anyone have a recent pic from the same persepctive??

Microsoft does. Try Microsft Live at:

http://local.live.com/

In the Live Search Box type in Heathrow, in the options box on the left select aerial, select 3D and zoom-in. Place your position to the west of LHR and use the 3-D tilt option to tilt the image accordingly. Resolution can go down to 10-yards or less which is quite impressive. FWIW go west from the threshhold of 09L and about 150 yards from M25 a B737? can be seen on finals, it has a blue top fuselage, white / silver wings and red horizontal tail.

Because LHR T5 in the image is still very much WIP with lots of earthwork I suspect image is dated 2005/6.

Tony

First week of October 1964. Trooping flight back home after one year in Aden, flown by BUA, should have gone to Gatwick but they were fogged out so we diverted to LHR. Customs gave us a very rough ride after a year overseas for Queen and Country!:confused:

September 1990 was my first visit. Kind of stuck together with God's glue - was back there a while ago and it's nice to see that some things haven't changed!

Well, I've actually only flown in there once, and being that I am not a pilot yet, that was as a pax.

It was last year, april of '06, with SAS.
A 737, and can't remember what one, but it was fun to try and get around, aswel with me going straight through the passport control, and my friend standing there for about ten minutes with the officer :)


Getting out wasn't as fun though, as it was when the SAS strike of '06 had started, and we had to get a shocon through ARN to get back to OSL :P

But as I said - Only one, but I bet there's more to come :)

1955 BOAC Argonaut to Dar es Salaam via Rome.
Mother refused to get off in Rome during refuelling as all 3 of us sprogs were under 5 yrs of age and she felt unable to cope. Father had gone ahead on a cattle ship which took 5 weeks.

I-DIWA Dc8 Alitalia Lap to Rome 14 July 1968 and WI back 2 weeks later.

Mine was the Link S61 from Heathrow to Gatwick.

Last minute decision to go was made on the morning of the flight, remember it as if it was yesterday....aahh, memories.

Since then, too many to remember although a particular Austrian flight to Vienna sticks in my mind. I can't think of any flight since that went up like a saturn rocket than the MD80 that operated that flight did.

Keep it going folks.

September 1989, on a British Midland ATP, from EMA !
Was on my way to Dublin, as a staff pax, and we had no interline agreement with EI , at the time, so no chance of direct from EMA.
Since then, It must be hundreds ! !
Oh, how I love the Queens building !!:\

Amazed that this is still going strong - saw it disappear to the back pages before I went on leave.

Anyone with memories of arr/dep off 23L/05R or who's got a longer memory on 23R/05L.

Okay, so latterly it was just 23/05;) Remember dep 23 on Christmas Eve back in the late nineties on a wet & windy night in a Qatar A.300.

Landed my Tri-moth on 23 in the 80s.

Good fun!

ChrisVJ - not such a sproglet.

First Heathrow flight was also first flight in 1949. Like you, Rapide of Island Air services (it says on my photo). I believe the 'lady pilot' went on, at a much later stage in her career, to run the simulator in the hotel at Victoria station.

Ten bob joy-ride from the viewing area, off the Bath Road. (Deckchairs for the spectators and a chestnut paling fence to keep you off the taxiway.)

I remember the airliners were nearly all polished ali, and flew their ensigns from the flightdeck (probably cockpit back then) roof.

And by and by, a cloud took all away (as Roger Bacon might have put it)

Was this Christmas Day, by chance ?