rog747

I remember them well in the early '70s. Clarksons were the tour operators in the main, offering short breaks or 3/4 days to Rotterdam from numerous airports around the UK, using mainly BMA and Channel Airways Viscounts. Trips included the obligatory excursion to the Keukenhof tulip fields, and I expect for the naïve traveller back in the day a windmill to be greeted by someone in full "traditional costume" including clogs!! (Isn't "national dress for The Netherlands a pair of pressed jeans these days!!!). At the same time as the bulb field trips Clarksons were also offering trips to Northern France flying into Beauvais using the same equipment. Not sure what the pull was for these but I image "Paris in the Spring" and possible Monet's garden. So far as I recall that market withered away with the demise of Clarksons Holidays.

I recall the overwhelming majority of the RTM and BVA flights from BHX were on BMA Viscounts which at the time were comparatively rare visitors to BHX, since at that stage they didn't have the licences to operate BHX/JER in the Summer, and routes such as BRU/FRA and LHR weren't on their roster. Occasionally the schedule threw in the odd Channel Viscount which were generally very much unusual in BHX.

Highly likely that it was a British Midland Viscount (Midland 233/234/244/245)


Most days of the week in the summer the Viscount would operate


East Midlands - Glasgow - East Midlands - Birmingham - Jersey - Guernsey - Birmingham - East Midlands - Glasgow - East Midlands


As a youngster, I had a weeks holiday in Jersey in 1985 departing Glasgow at about 0845 in the morning - on the return journey, a week later, we flew the first sector to Guernsey and went tech.

Several hours sitting at Guernsey Airport (not a problem!) before being put on a replacement Viscount as far as East Midlands - overnight at EMA and catch the same Viscount on the first flight up to Glasgow first thing in the morning.

PS Part of the popularity of Jersey in the 1980s was most definitely down to the Bergerac television detective series

For scheduled operators from UK provincial airports, Jersey was a popular point because it fitted in well opposite their normal peaks of morning/evening weekday business travellers to Glasgow/Belfast etc. Early morning round trip from say East Midlands to Glasgow and back, then a midday Jersey, then evening to Glasgow again. Saturdays, when business travel was zilch, two or (in August) three Jerseys. Such utilisation can be seen from the 1960s to today.

First flight ever was BFS-IOM on a Viscount.
Later I worked as a despatcher at BFS with lots of antique prop-jobs on freight (Merchantman, Argosy, Herald, Viscount, CL-44, Belfast, Dakota, Heron(!), Bandeirante, Partenavia P68, various Cessnas) but we also had regular passenger Viscounts to Jersey. When Balkan's TU-134 failed it was replaced by an IL-18 on several occasions, obviously behind schedule and an unexpected treat for the prop enthusiast holidaymaker but a bit of a bind for everyone else.

Can remember going to Jersey in the early 80s from Eastleigh on a Hp Herald. Had to write notes to my dad as there was no way i could shout louder than the Darts.

I had the pleasure of flying BKS DC-3 Leeds/Bradford- Ostend 1959 Robinson Tours (still going): 1961 Southend -Ostend DC-3 outbound, DC-4 inbound Co-op Travel Service; 1963 Manchester-Palma Aviaco (Iberia) Super Constellation Wallace Arnold; 1964 Gatwick-Lisbon Caledonian Airways DC-7C Wallace Arnold; 1965 Leed/Bradford-Ostend BKS Avro 748 Robinson Tours and finally 1971 Luton-Valencia Bristol Britannia Cosmos all jets after that.
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Beat that !

Bit of a thread drift but I had to go to Antwerp sometime in the late 70s with a colleague who was very scared of flying and very noise sensitive.
The trip was scheduled on a BIA Herald direct from LHR, looking out of the window the a/c appeared to be sitting in a large puddle of water but the presence of several fire engines suggested it was more likely to be Jet A 1 , anxiety factor goes up several notches.
BIA then tell us that yes there is a fuel leak and we will be going to Brussels on SABENA . My colleague relived somewhat announced well at least it wont be on a horrible noisy prop aircraft.
And indeed it was not but we were seated just behind the wing on a SABENA 707 with good old fashioned straight through P&W JTs , noise!!!!!

Sorry I forget to say the Southend -Ostend flight was by a Channel Airways DC-3 with the Ostend-Southend return by a nondiscript DC-4 with no markings plus I had met somebody of the opposite sex on holiday in Montreaux so probably not concentrating, that is my excuse and it was sixty years ago!

I grew up in Blackpool and we had regular flights into a(and I suppose out of) Squire's Gate

This would be late 60s and most of the 70s and AFAIK, they were F27s, but then again, I could be wrong

No idea where they were going - Isle of Man perhaps?

I would say those were Heralds, as there weren't any UK operators of the F27 until Air Anglia acquired a few in the early 1970s. British United and later BIA operated a sizeable Herald fleet, which over time included quite a few aircraft built for overseas operators and which returned to the UK in later life.

Blackpool principally served the Isle of Man, Belfast and Dublin. By the late 60s the main operator was British United, with Handley Page Herald aircraft, though their DC3s had not long gone.

Ah. See I knew it'd be worth asking here

Both look pretty much the same from the ground to a small boy

Thanks

And sound the same too. Around 20 years ago I often walked home three or four miles from a pub quiz night (the things we do when young) at about 11 30pm and usually heard a pair of Darts climbing out of Gatwick on a northerly heading. Asked on here as it could have been Herald, HS748 or F-27 - twas the latter apparently on some mail/post service. Probably last time I heard Darts I think.

I think my last Dart flight was also around that time, maybe 2002. It was Euroceltic, a small Irish carrier, on Waterford to Luton, on a Fokker F-27. Two, probably retirement-age four-ringers together on the flight deck. It was the only flight of the day from Waterford airport.

Autair flew Luton-Blackpool-Glasgow with Ambassadors in the mid/late 60s.

I joined BIA as a Herald captain towards the end of 1978. I remember flying from Gatwick to Blackpool for four or five day detachments. We used to fly to the IOM, Belfast and Glasgow. Very enjoyable, but poorly paid so I joined AirEurope in 1979!

The Autair Ambassadors were replaced with Heralds, and the occasional 748.

Flew on a British Island Airways Herald "newspaper flight" from Blackpool to Prestwick in early 70's departing Blackpool about 0600 which was a regular weekday fllght for a while. Don't know where the aircraft operated after Prestwick.

Was it not used by BOAC for shuttles to/from Belfast and Edinburgh, connecting to Transatlantic flights ? They used to use leased Viscounts as well but had BIA do the work for a while.

Footnote about BA547 being operated by a Herald appears in the footnotes in the 1971 BOAC timetable page here :

ba71-09.jpg (1583×1322) (timetableimages.com)