Courtline/Autair Reunion 2008
 

The reunion will be on Saturday 11th October in Harpenden for details please e-mail [email protected]:D

Hi all,
I remember well Court Lines in the UK as a young spotter. However I emigrated to South Africa in the mid 80's and being away from home anything you see that gives you memories of home becomes nostalgic, hence this post. I was on a business trip to CapeTown around 1993/4 at a company that is is located in the Harbour and I saw on 3 occasions a Court heli doing what looked liked pleasure trips. It was in the distinctive pastel colours with the word " Court" clearly visible.
Any connection??

JSP,
This was part of Court Line.

The helicopters were Sikorsky's and they were servicing the Oil Tankers going round the Cape.
The were contracted to the Oil Companies and met the ships out at sea and supplied fresh goods, personnel and mail.

GotTheTshirt, thanks for clarifying that for me.
I might have missed something in the previous postings here but how come the Helos where still operating in the mid 90's? Were Court & Court Line seperate entities?

JSP

Sorry to break off the line of the thread but with all the talk about Autair and Court, does any body know where and if Bill Armstrong may have played a role.

I met him in the 70s when he had an office up at Wigmore Street and a small helicopter operation out at Luton. Talked to him several times over the next few years but eventually lost track.

Regards

carholme

JSP,
Originally all the same Court Line group. After the demise of the parent company the SA helios continued with the sale from the bankrupcy to local buy out.;)

Carholme
Bill had a company called Autair which as the name suggests operated helicopters ( Bells and S55)
The first DC was actually bought to transport the Bells to and from operating sites.
Then when there was big demand for UK pax operations in the charter world they carried out these flights.
During the off season the DC 3 operated for Hunting Surveys doing mapping photography in West Africa ( Days before satellites :) )
The first year was for Skyways who had put a DC3 through the fence in Southend.
Bill formed a separate division to operate the Charter work which then became Autair International Airways
They also operated the scheduled services to the north of England.
It then became Court Line when the company was bought by the shipping group.
Bill still retained an interest up to the end.

Tshirt;

Thank you very much for the update. Frightening how much time goes by.

Regards

carholme

GotTheTshirt,

Thanks again for clearing that up :ok:

All the best
JSP

What memories
 

Just a quick thank you to everyone connected to Court line for the fantastic memories as a 'youngster' in the early 70's...doesn't time fly:sad:

I was lucky enough to travel with my parents at the time to such exotic destinations as Rimini and Ibiza on those colourful machines. Despite the arrival and departure times being somewhat 'interesting' i.e. early hours of the morning :\

At that time flight deck visits were actively encouraged and can vividly remember the 1-11's tiny space up front.

Despite not entering the aviation fraternity, I'm now lucky enough to travel extensively, but still look back at those days with fondness.

Thanks again to all :D :D

Courtline/Autair Reunion 2008
 

So far I have had 1 booking form and 1 cheque for the reunion from Jon Charley of 'hamster' fame. Sooooo, please get your diary out & start to plan - it will be a very lonely & expensive evening just Ding, Jon & I!!! the e-mail for info is [email protected].:=:=

Bill sold Autair International Airways to the Court Line Group, but retained the helicopter operations at Luton, running it out of 75 Wigmore Street. Sadly Bill died a some years back, followed by Doreen two years later.

Hello Crispin,

Any News on the Court website that Jaqui mentioned you are/were setting up?

Irene, (very ex wife )of Cpt Colin Garner and ex hostie Court Line.

Jaqui,

you have my cheque for reunion. Hope you are getting a better response now. See you there and thank you for organising it once again.

I wonder if the Court people also knew the Dan-Air staff at Luton airport ? Has any one also memories of the(pink) Beverley ? Any flight dates much appreciated.

Yes we did. Court line handled Dan Air flights in the earlier days before Dan set up the base properly.(Comets and 1-11s at that time)
The flying club at Luton was a regular meeting place for all the airline staff and you would tend to have corner for Court Line another corner for Monarch etc but you would inevitably mingle and get to know each other.
The Beverley was never painted pink either. It remained in RAF colours until it was eventually flown out after Court Line collapsed.

My Pop started as a First Officer at Luton on the Dan 1-11,s in 1969. I can remember all the Court line machines , Britannia and Monarch Britannias. Happy days then,the airport has changed dramatically since. i vaguely remember the Beverley parked near McAlpines . I think the plan was to paint it pink ?

The Beverly was in RAE colours when it arrived at LTN, was never repainted at LTN and departed LTN in the same colours.

Temps.

autair
 

Hi Crispin "Autair Malta" calling....good to see you are keeping the flag flying... any info on Maurice Rose?? sad about Bill and Doreen... the Christmas cards stopped coming two or three years ago......

April 4th 1971 my wife and I flew Luton to Rome Ciampino on G-AXMG on our honeymoon. Painted in the green scheme the aircraft really stood out when we arrived in Rome.

Sometime in 1995 I was visiting Lasham and an unregistered 1-11 was at FLS in the colours of Nationwide, the South African carrier.

I went on board and looked at the manufacturer's plate which showed it to be XMG!

We returned from Rome on a pink machine G-AXMF, a flight that was memorable due to being buzzed by two USAF F-4 Phantoms over Germany.

I'm sure I've posted this before but "Search" revealed nothing so here goes:
http://meddemmen.co.uk/oddphotos/A124.jpg

One of my many L-1011 stories:

I was working on the production line as a leadman on the leading edge slat crew. We were prepairing to hang the slats on the second Air Canada (AC) Tristar, when one of the AC inspectors found a repair on the number 3 left hand outboard slat. It was a small 4" square, flush patch on the upper skin, the repair had been accomplished at the vendor and approved by Lockheed. But AC did not want it.

One of the design engineers out of Burbank that worked with on the leading edge of the wing happen to be British, when we explained our problem to him, he had us take the slat off the Court Line aircraft that was just ahead of the Air Canada plane on the production line and put it on the Air Canada plane. We then installed the patched slat on the Court Line plane. I asked what if Court Line complain and he said "I speak their language and can I talk them into anything". We did the swap and never heard another word.