What would have been a usual cruise altitude for a Viscount on one of these long sectors, e.g. MAH or PMI ? I seem to remember 25,000 feet was the published service ceiling. The BMA aircraft going from Leeds to Heathrow always filed for 17,000. I think BA went for 15,000 when they were on the route before BMA.

Don't forget that BEA/BA's Viscounts on the LBA/LHR route (in later times) were 800's which were less capable than BMA's 810 series. The 810 had substantially more power, performance & range than the straight 800.

From the mists of time two questions
1 Did I use a BMA Viscount to Liverpool and return late 1970's
2 Did BA use a Viscount LHR to Jersey, but on the return journey due to weather unable to take a full load, and I was transferred to BCAL 1- 11 staff tickets used.
Regards

Yes to both questions, T09L.

I often used Midland Viscounts LHR-LPL 79/80 (interupted by the occasional DC9)

​​​​BA Viscounts were a regular on LHR-JER too.

I flew standby with my parents from Jersey to East Midlands in 1973 on a BMA Viscount, unfortunately our bags went to Lisbon!

G-ARZG
Thanks, so the memory is still working.
re the Jersey return it was more that Viscount was not on a full load, but the short runway, some wag commented that the 1-11 could power off the cliff and be airborne, rather than the Viscount :eek:

Not correct 1-11s particularly the BA 500s which did'nt have water injection were heavily redtricted out of Jersey
On the 1-11 the amount of noise generated was out of all proportion to the results achieved

In the mid-eighties GibAir were using the Viscount for the flights across the med to Africa - except when they needed to get one to the UK for maintenance and then they subbed it for the 737. Confused passengers arriving LGW after a long flight.

On the subject of ceiling, I hitched a ride on an empty BAF freighter BFS/SEN one day and we were over 30,000 ft on the way.

You're right about the lack of performance. My first jet job was BA Super 1-11 and a full load out of Jersey to MAN in summer often had to tech stop in CWL for fuel. Got it down to about 30mins fuel and go...

Lovely. Any excuse to push it through to the blue note.

I supposed one has to be old to remember folk achieving that strangled howl in jazz, and the Spey giving a similar spine tingling howl.

Viscounts. Innsbruck with Munich as an alternate.

I have always referred to Spey's as Fuel to Noise conversion units! :}:}

One year on, it has occurred to me that British Air Ferries also had an ex-PIA Viscount 815 in their fleet, G-AVJB. IIRC, this particular aircraft regularly used to operate Southend to Palma. I don't know if JB had any other Spanish destinations but it's possible, given she would have had greater range than her 802/806 chums.

I recall 'VJB as being a BMA aircraft but I must have seen it very early in my "spotting career" as it left BMA's fleet by the end of '76!

'JB was acquired along with G-AVJA, both ex PIA machines. 'JA was lost at Ringway in a training accident. Summary here: https://aviation-safety.net/database...?id=19690320-1

'JB was a regular through BHX and EMA, so I don't believe it was exclusively operated from SEN, though of course it may well have been the aircraft of choice to operate from SEN on longer sectors.

Yes the BMA Viscount charter BHX-MAH was one of the last BMA VC8 IT charter services to the Med we ever did - Summer 1980? give or take a year...
Also we did LPL - PMI around the same time which I used a few times -
I could board at LHR after my late shift on the last LPL service up, and then the same VC8 usually would take the holiday flight to Palma.
A leisurely sojourn through the night with a hot meal. Took around 4 hours or so...Skipper would come down the back and sit with us and eat his dinner.
For me I did not have the bother of going home to get my bags and traipse to LGW or LTN, LOL....
On arrival at Palma, I would then take the 06.00 Iberia 727 flight to Ibeeefa...
One would repeat the process going home, sometimes to an earlyish start shift at LHR via the first LPL-LHR!

Came totally unstuck once on the way home, landed back at Palma about 23.30 on the last flight in from IBZ, and looked up at the Dep's Board and the BMA LPL flight said ''Cancelled'' !
Ooops, so had a quick work with our Agent, a fantastic chap with a big moustache and always smoking, he was well known at Palma, and he said look at the Board and tell me where you want to go!
I saw a GK flight to LGW so I said 'that one'...Oh he said that's on Final Boarding, Don't worry follow me. We ran outside in to the warm night air and he said jump in.
We then raced across the ramp in his little beat-up Seat ramp mobile to a big shiny Laker DC-10 about to the pull the back steps off, I dashed up the stairs, and took the empty back row!
Hostie looked puzzled lol.
It was Sept 1979 and the DC-10's had just been un-grounded so everyone was very quiet!
Landed back at LGW at stupid O'clock though.

EDIT- just seen this thread is 2 years old LOL...... I already replied to that one.......

Reading this thread has brought back a few memories. In the late 60's when BMA still operated the 700 series Viscounts, we had a summer departure from East Midlands, (or Castle Donnington CDD in those days) every Friday at I think 22.30 to Palma (PMI ?), normally scheduled for an 800 series possibly G-ASED or G-APND. For some reason one of the 700's was substituted and 30 minutes before departure preparing the load sheet it became apparent that full tanks and the passengers would present no problem or full tanks and the baggage but what wasn't possible was full tanks + passengers + baggage. If I remember correctly we decided to weigh the individual pax which made the situation even worse as we were then committed to using the actual figure of course. In the end I think the pax went first followed by their baggage later. I wasn't worried though as the shift had ended so it was down to the Plough is Diseworth then on to the Tanya in Castle Donnington. I think that's what happened but it was more than 50 years ago and these days I have difficulty remembering what happened last year !! They were great days though.

Just to be technically correct, BMA operated 700's and the 810 series Viscounts, but not the 'straight' 800, as BEA/BA, KLM etc operated.
I often thought that Vickers would have been better naming the 810 the '900' to distinguish it over and above the 800, as the 810 is a significant improvement over the 800.
Indeed structurally & mechanically there's a bigger jump between the 800 & 810 than there is from the 700 to 800. The 800 is little more than a slightly stretched 700D with rectangular doors - it has the same engines (except the 806), same max T/O & landing weights. The 800 had quite a poor payload/range performance because the max T/O weight wasn't increased from the 700D, thus the extra weight from the fuselage stretch had to come off the payload/fuel, compared to the 700D.
The 810 was vastly improved, with many structural upgrades, control changes & more powerful engines - the quintessential Viscount!

DH106 -
Wasn't the "900" called the Vanguard?

The Vanguard was 951/953, but that might well be the reason for the 810 not having a more significant number attached.