Aviation Nostalgia Thread

[Aviador]

Re: Nostalgia Thread

I remember a few "big diversion" days. I remember one occasion when virtually all other UK airports were closed with fog and LBA remained open. The airport accepted inbound diverts throughout the night up until around 02:00 in the morning even before the availability of extended flying hours. I think the airport gained special permission to remain open classing it as an emergency situation.

I seem to recall the airport requesting that some aircraft would refuel and depart again to make way for additional inbound diversions. The last aircraft to land on this occasion was a Boeing 727 diverting into Leeds from London Gatwick. I can't remember what airline it was but it only just made it in. The pilots were reporting fog rolling in from the Horsforth end.

 

[LBAYORKIE]

Re: Nostalgia Thread

I certainly remember it, you could not miss the Swissair plane in the loop.

Going back to an earlier post of mine, and bearing in mind the possbility of an image of the 'Big Diversion', exactly how do we post images and PDF's into threads?

LbaYorkie

 

[White Heather]

Re: Nostalgia Thread

I remember it bobleeds, but it must have been after 1988, as I was living in the Moseley Woods at Cookridge then, and watched them all landing, one after another, from my house. We only moved there in December 1988, just before the Lockerbie bombing. We had most of the MAN based British Airways 1-11-500 fleet there overnight, plus a few ATP's and 737's. There were a couple of Aer Lingus 737's, as well as those you mention above. I remember the Swissair and have a photo of it parked up on the loop, as I went up there the following morning, when the entire airport was covered in shallow fog. From plane tree hill, all you could see were tails of aircraft moving around, with no sign of the fuselage. Shortly after, LBA was also fog bound. From memory LBA was the only airport South of Newcastle that wasn't fog bound, and our last diversion, which was a Dan Air 727-200 I think, diverted from Gatwick and was virtually flying on fumes by the time it landed - after normal closing time. I remember that well because LACAN kicked up a real fuss about it at the next consultative committee meeting, stating it should not have been allowed to land - despite the fact it had insufficient fuel to fly any further North. An amazing night though - probably a once in a lifetime event and for once, LBA was at an advantage by being the highest airport in the UK.

LBAYORKIE, I remember the TMA 707, which was apparently carrying a load of oranges, and a Ferrari. I believe that had also been diverted from Gatwick. At the time there was a lot of snow about, and I have a photo of it parked on the apron at a very snowy LBA. It carried an all over green livery with yellow on its tail.

Talking of 707's though, we have also had Middle East Airlines (MEA) doing summer charters, plus of course the regular JAT (Yugoslav Airlines) flights to Pula for Yugotours, before the Yugoslavian Civil War, and several visits by United Arab Emirates 707's (and later a 747SP), some of which were training flights. I am not sure if we ever had an El Al 707 - certainly in the years after the runway extension, LBA was El Al's primary diversion airport if MAN was closed - a source of real pride to the airport at the time, since levels of security were enormous, and El Al wouldn't fly just anywhere! They definitely flew 767's into LBA on a couple of occasions as diverts.

 

[User0001]

Re: Nostalgia Thread

Hi enjoying the trip down memory lane. ELAL most certainly did bring 707s in on more than one occasion, I believe. The star though at that time was the ELAL 732 that came in. I believe it was because of reduced fire cover at manchester during striking. The boeing 720 that came in (HZ-KA4) led to the headline in the YEP; 'SHEIK'S PLANE SHAKES YEADON'. I really enjoyed seeing the Interflug IL-18s at Leeds too in the 80s that were for Opera North I believe. I remember the UAE 707 that did some training with callsign 'DUBAI 02' and the SP on another occasion was great too. Northair also got some good visiting biz jets in the 80s and one that springs to mind was Swaziland Falcon (10 I think) 3D-ART. Was at the airport from about noon on that amazing diversion night. The first was a SAAB 340 from Blackpool in the early afternoon and the last, as stated was a Danair 727 from LGW. In the early evening the fog rolled right upto the airport and then stopped. All the spotters had come out of the woodwork in the terminal, all preying that fog would not come any further. Airbands were blazing away as the constant stream of I seem to remember 68 inbound diversions came in. I remember seeing 5 sets of aircraft lights lining up on finals a la LHR. As one plane landed another would line up. ATPs were wing tip marshalled to within feet of one another. I was on plane trees hill for the Danair 727 in the early hours. The airport was totally jammed.

regards,

LUFCPETE

 

[bobleeds]

Re: Nostalgia Thread

Happy Days!
Thanks for reminding me of the BA Atp's which we saw quite regularly on diverts. I remember on one of the big days/nights the first BA Pilot starting the ball rolling for a string of inbounds with the message to servisair or Dan Air - "Put the Kettle on, we're on our way in!" also the Dan Air Station Manager at the time who I think was called Pat enjoying some double entendres with the Dan 727 pilots as well as trying to look after plane loads of kids on santa pleasure flights which I think had taken off from MAN.

 

[White Heather]

Re: Nostalgia Thread

Happy days indeed. I remember the Inteflug IL18's LUFC Pete, and have photos to remind me. I also recall one of their Tu 134's coming in. Who also remembers the Air Holland 727-200's, one of which landed in torrential rain on 14 and only just stopped before descending into the old reservoir? Also the Finnair DC9-32's that did a series of charters - I believe something to do with farmers and tractors! (Probably to do with David Brown tractors over in Last of the Summer Wine country). There was also an Aeroflot Tu154 which came in first in full Aeroflot colours, but when it returned it had new Baltic Aviation titles, as it was around the time of the USSR break up. Another great memory was a Caravelle (I forget the airline) that was the first of its type at LBA, and when it landed, a parachute was deployed acting as a primitive air brake! That certainly took everyone by surprise. I think we could go on forever as the list of visitors to LBA is endless

There are so many we haven't even mentioned - here is another - Aeromaritime 737-300 that operated a full season of charters when the original airline scheduled to do them went bust - maybe Spantax or Air Europe.

 

[LBAYORKIE]

Re: Nostalgia Thread

Caravelle was operated by Corsair- I was on it!

I was at home one weekend when a market researcher knocked at the door and after asking me questions about my car asked if I wanted to answer some more questions the following weekend at an undisclosed location. I was told to arrive at the airport with passport!

When we got there we realised we were going to Cologne. When we arrived we were bussed to Ford where we were asked to look at some full size wax car models- one if which became the (then) new Fiesta and answer more questions.

Then back to the town for a slap up meal and sightseeing tour before returning to LBA.

Oh- yes, we also got £20 spending money.

Guessing I would say it was the mid eighties.

LbaYorkie

 

[White Heather]

Re: Nostalgia Thread

I feel robbed now LBAYORKIE, as I was invited to do something similar for what eventually turned into a new Escort model, and I got to go all the way to the Harrogate Conference Centre and got a whole £5 to spend!!

 

[Aviador]

Re: Nostalgia Thread

Was there a second Caravelle that came to LBA then? I remember watching a Caravelle with kind of a dark blue stripe landing once. I can't remember the airline but I'm sure it wasn't Corsair.

 

[User0001]

Re: Nostalgia Thread

Hi again,

the caravelle mentioned that deployed the 'chute was Air Provence. Pretty sure of that.

 

[Aviador]

Re: Nostalgia Thread

Hi again,

the caravelle mentioned that deployed the 'chute was Air Provence. Pretty sure of that.

Yes that's the one I remember. I don't remember seeing a chute being deployed though. I remember watching it land on runway 32 end by the golf course rain shelter.

 

[Aviador]

Re: Nostalgia Thread

The YEP must have caught on with this thread...

Click here and then on the link provided by the YEP to view their airport nostalgia photos

Here's some of the pictures courtesy of the YEP...

This one is of the original 1960's terminal building. I often thought that had they carried on the extensions in the same way the building would have looked far better than it does today.

On the day that this happened I'd been with my parents looking at wallpaper at a DIY store. I remember watching a stream of ambulances and fire engines heading towards the airport. We knew straightaway that something big had happened. We headed up to the airport to find the Tristar nose down off runway 14. Eyewitnesses said it had landed far too late down the runway, probably over halfway down.

Visit the YEP to view more of the images from the past!

 

[Seasider]

Re: Nostalgia Thread

Starjet55.
Aviaco DC9.34CF EC-CTS operated f/t Tenerife (reduced load on t/o) on Sat 13 November 1976.

 

[LBAYORKIE]

Re: Nostalgia Thread

The caravelle I went on was definitely Corsair and it was an early version without thrust reversers (hence the brake chute)

There were two flights to Cologne that weekend and from memory two different aircraft were used (for some reason) and I think they were both caravelles. No idea if the Air Provence provided the other aircraft.

LbaYorkie

 

[bobleeds]

Re: Nostalgia Thread

Thanks for the pictures Aviador, love the one of the terminal with the West Yorkshire Bristol Bus, and no security blocks etc.

White Heather, I stood up by the cemetery getting wet through waiting for the Air Holland's. It was the weekend after the Chernobyl disaster, and all the sheep in the Lake District were banned from slaughter - Not sure yet what the rain might have done to those of us out in the rain (my hair has since receded big style ...hmmm!)

BobLeeds

 

[wawkrk]

Re: Nostalgia Thread

Does anyone know if a Comet ever visited LBA, maybe as an overshoot?
Other memorable events, 2 Concordes staying overnight!
A brilliant photo of these in the LBA financial report at the time.
I miss the great photos that the late Colin Addison used to take, I think he worked at the airport.

 

[eastcoaster]

Re: Nostalgia Thread

My father said a Comet did a touch and go on runway 28 in the late 1950s/1960 when the SSAFA air display was held at Yeadon, before it moved to Church Fenton. Also a RAF Britannia and a Vulcan all performed this manouevre before there were restrictions in not allowing and aircraft to do this on a runway it could not actually stop on! A RAF Comet did an approach and overshoot in 1968 or 69 to runway 33, there was a picture in the Evening Post at the time. Subsequently we have had Nimrods in the past decade on RW32 do go arounds.

 

[wawkrk]

Re: Nostalgia Thread

As a kid I went to an airshow at Yeadon. We stood with hundreds of others close to the big black hanger. Many more people were on the hillside across the field. There was a air race with several light aircraft and 1 jet. They flew around a pylon at the field and then I assume other landmarks.
There was also a flypast with 3 Lancaster bombers.Then one flew over on 3 engines and again on 2 engines.
I can't imgine this being allowed these days. Also in the display was what must have been Gloster Meteor jet fighters.
It was fantastic.

 

[LBAYORKIE]

Re: Nostalgia Thread

I have several programmes for the Yeadon Air Shows. Even better I have a full size poster which is framed and in our study. I have a dozen or so smaller posters (about A3 size) and some flyers. These are for various years.

I am getting sick of asking this (3rd time)- but how do I insert an image into a thread?

 

[White Heather]

Re: Nostalgia Thread

I can't remember which airline the Caravelle was that I saw land, but it definitely deployed a chute to assist with braking.

The Tristar accident was British Airtours Tristar G-BBAI and it happened on 27th May 1985, which was Bank Holiday Monday. It was carrying Lincoln City Football Club among the passengers, who had been taken to Majorca for a holiday to try to get over the affects of the Bradford City Fire. I doubt their landing did much to help! The aircraft completely overflew the entire runway extension before touching down in front of the terminal, and by the time its nose wheel was down and reverse thrust engaged, it was 75% of the way down runway 14, which was wet following a heavy shower. It could have been so much worse with over 400 passengers on board.

LBAYORKIE - sorry I have no idea how to include an image in a thread, so I hope someone tells you soon! Aviador is the man to tell you for sure.