Nostalgia at BHX

[wolfheze]

Bought a new scanner today. Big mistake! Didn't realise you need a degree to use them now. Wish I had kept my old one with a good old fashioned wheel to tune it. If anyone has some SIMPLE instructions on how to use a ubc 92xlt please let me know otherwise it will either end up in the bin or on eBay. :whiteflag:

 

[IanFarquharson]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LHswGbAPmDo

https://www.uniden.com.au/RESOURCES_MAI ... or_web.pdf

 

[wolfheze]

Thanks for that but have watched the video already and it didn't make much sense to me. The download is the manufacturers manual which just doesn't seem to work for me. All I want to do is be able to program in two or three frequencies AARRRGGHH!

 

[wolfheze]

Took the dog for a walk at sheldon country park today. Never been before , wish i had known it was there back in the day. Only saw one other person up at the runway end taking photographs. Does anyone know the exact location of the 1975 Beech Baron crash site? All I can find out is that it was 600 ft to the right of the runway centreline and just outside the airport boundary fence although i think the boundary has probably extended since then because the accident report talks of the rescue vehicles having difficulty negotiating a brook which now looks as though it passes under the very end of the runway.

 

[Ray Finkle]

Sheldon Country Park is a great spot. I love it there on a summers weekend.

The AAIB report says the aircraft hit some medium sized trees with the accident site 670ft to the right of the centre line and 4,800ft upwind of the threshold. A rough estimate from the threshold (I used the one before the recen extension) would be somewhere on the parallel taxiway just before the Bravo intersection?

That's a very rough estimate though?

 

[wolfheze]

I saw the 4800 ft part in the aaib report but don't see how it can be right because it would put the crash site WELL inside the boundary. There are grid coordinates in the report but can't use them on my android version of Google earth. I am assuming they mean the 33 threshold as that was the runway in use that night

 

[wolfheze]

Okay. I get it now! The present taxiway wasn't there in 75 so the boundary fence would have been much closer to the runway than it is now.

 

[stevepayne]

Although it is a long time ago I seem to remember that the aircraft
ended up in what was allotments off the end of the runway if this
helps

 

[Brum X]

Welcome to the forum steve payne :good:

 

[wolfheze]

Although it is a long time ago I seem to remember that the aircraft
ended up in what was allotments off the end of the runway if this
helps

That's what I thought to begin with but having read the accident report it says the search team drove to the end of the runway and saw nothing, they then widened the search area and backtracked down the runway where they spotted the glow of the fire through the fog. Some interesting stories and theories on pprune as to why they tried to get into elmdon instead of diverting.

 

[wolfheze]

Are you not supposed to name other forums on here?

 

[Ray Finkle]

Just that one I believe

 

[wolfheze]

Right then - here is my story and bit of nostalgia -

My first memories of the airport are when i was about 12 i was taken by my late father to Elmdon and we used to stand on the footbridge over the Cov Rd and watch the planes, i was amazed and Hooked for life, my dad did not want to take me by the terminal as he thought we would get in the way.
About 3 years later and i eventually talked my father round to dropping me off at the old terminal and pick me up later, this was on the weekend and normally a Saturday, i soon made friends and we started a small spotter group called - The Junior Jet Club, we made our own little imitation passport type id cards, and soon started to hassle the terminal staff(in a nice way) into trying to get air side and look over the apron and planes, we had a moderate amount of success with BA and we had a few look overs of a Bac 1-11 on stand and got some safeties etc.
We started to try to congregate and spot from the front circular restaurant, but we always being chased out by the staff, so we had to make use - in all weathers of the spiral stairs.
This was about 1976-77 so i guess i probably bumped into a few on here :friends:, one of the saviors was the staff canteen that allowed most people as log as you brought food/a drink, i remember they had a rather convenient pool table and a few of those gaming tables - Pac Man i think :good: the best aviation shop by miles was also on site - anyone remember Swinburns on Hanger Road? run by a couple with Ron at the helm, i think they had a daughter and she went out with/married a chap who later on ran the aviation shop and compiled the movements sheets, in the new terminal visitor center.
A year or later the local flying clubs moved there aircraft from outside hanger 2, down to the bottom(Cov Rd end) of the apron, and a flying club was built for them, this also had a good pick nick area and again as long as you purchased stuff you could sit inside and spot.
Warwickshire Aero Club was one using this facility and i remember spotters using this area a lot - not to mention when we had Concorde etc.

Anyway that is part one for now, i will continue a trip down memory lane soon, will give you all a chance to stock up with popcorn ready for part two

76/77 would have been the years we were coming down from Meriden on the bus so probably saw you there. Sounds like you talked to more people than us quiet country boys, we would never have dreamt we could blag ourselves air side. Did manage to speak to the girls on the information desk from time to time if there were any diversions in the offing, I can remember them seeming quite old when they were probably only in their late twenties! The shop on hangar road is still a complete mystery to me, can only think it must have opened right at the end of the seventies/early eighties.

 

[Brum X]

It sounds like you used to have lots of fun watching the planes

 

[CL44]

I remember Swinburns but wasn't it under the multi storey car park? I also remember the Silver Wings on Hanger road. This was the British Airways social club and I enjoyed many a party at this club. I remember cycling out to the Airport every so often just to see what was in on the apron. Never expected then that I would be working in Forward House so many years later. Out of 32 years all bar 9 have been spent in the same building (4 different offices on the top floor). I now have a perfect view over the Airport (well it would be if hangar 2 was taken down). Thinking about the WarwickshireAero Club you could aalways tell the members by the key card used to get in. A big lump of plastic as a swipe card. That place used to buzz on a Friday evening after work and Christmas Eve was fantastic. There used to be various sports leagues on the Airport as well. I played darts against a number of different teams at various locations.

 

[wolfheze]

Got a story about the Aero Club but it's got nothing to do with aviation :drinks:
Went out with a girl in 87 whose father had just retired from his job at Birmingham as an air traffic controller. Strange I would have been listening to him 10 years previous. Sadly he had a heart attack and passed away shortly afterwards. Turned out he was an ex Halifax bomber pilot and had been decorated for bringing back his aircraft and crew after being badly shot up on a raid.

 

[Elmdon80slad]

I remember Swinburns but wasn't it under the multi storey car park? I also remember the Silver Wings on Hanger road. This was the British Airways social club and I enjoyed many a party at this club. I remember cycling out to the Airport every so often just to see what was in on the apron. Never expected then that I would be working in Forward House so many years later. Out of 32 years all bar 9 have been spent in the same building (4 different offices on the top floor). I now have a perfect view over the Airport (well it would be if hangar 2 was taken down). Thinking about the WarwickshireAero Club you could aalways tell the members by the key card used to get in. A big lump of plastic as a swipe card. That place used to buzz on a Friday evening after work and Christmas Eve was fantastic. There used to be various sports leagues on the Airport as well. I played darts against a number of different teams at various locations.

Swinburn moved over to the new terminal and went upstairs into the viewing center, there was only the one remaining family mamber left running the shop, he also used to compile small paper movement sheets, and was a stornch Blue fan.

E.

 

[Elmdon80slad]

On reading through the forum swinburns aviation shop on hangar road has been mentioned a few times, can someone tell me when it was opened as I have no memory of it. The only facilities we ever had were the newsagents in the terminal and the coffee machine in the departue lounge. Am thinking it must have opened in the early 80s?

Possibly 81 it was a family run concern Ray was the owner and his wife they had a daughter who married a chap called Adrian who carried on the chain of command upstairs in the New Side visitor center shop, before Ian Allan took it over.

E.

 

[Elmdon80slad]

Can someone tell me where I would have taken this from because I can't remember!

Airport Way the road between the terminals and the A45

E.

 

[wolfheze]

On reading through the forum swinburns aviation shop on hangar road has been mentioned a few times, can someone tell me when it was opened as I have no memory of it. The only facilities we ever had were the newsagents in the terminal and the coffee machine in the departue lounge. Am thinking it must have opened in the early 80s?

Possibly 81 it was a family run concern Ray was the owner and his wife they had a daughter who married a chap called Adrian who carried on the chain of command upstairs in the New Side visitor center shop, before Ian Allan took it over.

E.

That would explain it as I only came to the airport a couple of times after 1980. Looking through bhxovertheyears I was surprised by how much I'd missed such as BAF carvairs which were still turning up in the mid seventies.