Viscount memories
Joined: Aug 2007
Posts: 1,279
Likes: 66
From: Chedburgh, Bury St.Edmunds
Just the one trip for me. An open day at Hatfield, the day the Comet racer ground looped. British World Airways brought their aircraft in for 2 pleasure flights. I took the 2nd one. 45 mins over London for £15. Captain got permission for 1500 feet for some minutes. Stood on the flight deck for that. Fabulous!!. Good old days.!
Joined: Dec 2011
Posts: 1
Likes: 0
From: UK
Back in the mid-70s, I was based in our company’s Inverness Office where two of us covered the Office’s Highlands and Islands area. At that time, British Airways had a number of routes out of Inverness operated by Viscount 800s. These included SYY, KOI, LSI, GLA and LHR / BHX. For a period of time, there was a services that operated BHX / LHR / INV / SYY and return. I spent a considerable amount of time on these routes in the 15 months that I spent up there. LSI was particularly interesting (it had one runway in those days where at one end of the runway, there was a hill causing the need for the Viscount to power up on its brakes before take off and then make a sharp right immediately after take-off. A fabulous aircraft - huge windows, loads of legroom and the lovely sound of those Darts…
Joined: Jul 2007
Posts: 113
Likes: 1
From: Cropston Leicestershire
BEA Liverpool - IOM was my first trip in a Viscount probably lates 60's, I remember it being much quiter and smoother than my previous flight in a C-54. Last Viscount flight was Virgin, Gatwick- Beauvais 20 odd years later. My brother worked in customs at Teesside and I visited many Viscount cockpits - not at lot of room! I live near to EMA and BMA Viscounts were easily the most common aircraft for many years, a 737 was a treat. Wish that could be reversed now!
