Leeds Bradford: Aviation Nostalgia Thread

[LBAYORKIE]

Not Who What Where When Why ?

I cant remember everything, given it was 40 odd years ago, but this particular instruction has stayed with me. As has the name of the air taxi operator, thinking about it the correct title may have been Northern Pig Developments Aviation. Can anyone else remember them ?

 

[twevsmiff]

Northern Pig Developments were an air taxi company based at Humberside who used to be regular visitors to LBA, with their Aztec G-BNPD

 

[LBAYORKIE]

Northern Pig Developments were an air taxi company based at Humberside who used to be regular visitors to LBA, with their Aztec G-BNPD

It may have been a reception room for their passengers. The sign was prominent. It was like a pre fab free standing one room structure.

 

[Seasider]

Northern Pig Developments were an air taxi company based at Humberside who used to be regular visitors to LBA, with their Aztec G-BNPD

If I remember correctly it was an "out of sequence" registration when it was registered.

 

[a300boy]

Piggy Sue !
Ran the NPD Office !
Wonder where she I now.

 

[BarnsleyHolidays]

Piggy Sue !
Ran the NPD Office !
Wonder where she I now.

Susie Pig, as she was known by the LBA community, with the sharp voice of a Hull Dock worker!

BH

 

[LBAYORKIE]

Susie Pig, as she was known by the LBA community, with the sharp voice of a Hull Dock worker!

BH

I wonder how many more nicknames we can think of? A couple spring to my mind, these being Catweasel- my old boss and station manager for Servisair, John Garner and Servisairs lead hand on aircraft handling- Phil 'the Fly' Solomon, the only man I knew who had swum across Singapore harbour with a full Military pack on his back (according to him!)

 

[a300boy]

Must be true then !
Never told me that one.

 

[LBAYORKIE]

Must be true then !
Never told me that one.

He had a lot of anecdotes, or as I think they are more accurately termed 'tall stories'. I liked him though. He was a real character.

 

[a300boy]

Saw him a couple of years ago !
Still the same busty guy !

 

[LBAYORKIE]

Saw him a couple of years ago !
Still the same busty guy !

Nice to know. I assume he still lives in Yeadon.

 

[LBAYORKIE]

Just recalling my days at Servisair in the late 70's on another thread I thought I would add a little detail here.

When I worked there as an aircraft handler we were expected to do everything apart from handle baggage and do engineering line checks. We worked 0600-1400 and 1400 to 2200 weekdays and reduced hours on a weekend. Aircraft were mainly F27's and 737's, of Air Anglia and Britannia.

This is what we had to do;
Occasionally Marshall the aircraft onto/off stand. This didn't happen often as at that time all stands were self manoeuvering.
Place chocks under wheels and remove them for departures
Deliver GPU to aircraft and Connect/disconnect
Take steps up to aircraft/remove steps
Clean Air Anglia interiors- I think we did Britannias too but can't be certain*
Empty toilets on all aircraft. This was an Elsan bucket on the F27. The 737 was worst as we had to open a cover in the tail directly above our heads and often the valve leaked- so you made sure you had your hood up!
De Ice in Winter
We did start ups i.e used hand signals instructing crew when to start each engine
Air Starts- when a 737's APU was unserviceable we had a cart of compressed gas bottles that we connected via a large hose to a valve under the fuselage adjacent to the starboard engine. That was scary- it was noisy, very close to the engine and the hose froze solid so it was hard to remove.

Saturdays were very quiet so on more than one occasion I would go down to the Crown in Yeadon in the early evening with the duty load controllers for a drink.

There was no H&S that I can recall. Getting PPE was a nightmare so if the pair of ear defenders you were first issued with broke, you had to work without them. The Rolls Royce Dart was very shrill and I suspect this lack of ear defenders has had a long term impact on my hearing.

Our equipment was either very old- we had David Brown ex wartime airfield tractors and ancient Hougin GPU's or conversely, it was constructed in Servisairs engineering base at Manchester- which resulted in some interesting designs like our de-icing rig.

I believe the airlines directly employed their own line engineers and the airport employed the baggage handlers, with that team being led by Len Towland (think I got surname right) who was also a shop steward and founder member (as was I) of the Leeds Bradford Airport Sports Social and Welfare Club.

*At some point a Southend based company became involved in cleaning. They were called ICSS, later changed to ICS I believe.

 

[oldendays]

ICSS - Inflight Catering and Security Services. Have I got that right ?

 

[LBAYORKIE]

ICSS - Inflight Catering and Security Services. Have I got that right ?

I always assumed the C was for cleaning.

 

[oldendays]

It might have been. It's some years ago now. ICS certainly did catering in the mid-1990s.

 

[LBAYORKIE]

It might have been. It's some years ago now. ICS certainly did catering in the mid-1990s.

In-flight Catering and Cleaning Service. ICCS?

 

[oldendays]

It was definitely ICSS, then ICS.

 

[oldendays]

Definitive answer!

 

[oldendays]

Do you remember which IT jet airlines were regulars at Leeds Bradford before the runway extension ? As far as I can remember, we had Britannia from 1976 up until now (sort of), Air Europe in 1980, '82 and '83, Air Malta also sporadically from 1982, Monarch from 1982, Orion from 1983 and Dan-Air from 1984. All using the Advanced 737-200. I guess Dan-Air were in on Intasun business from 1984 as we didn't see much of Air Europe from then on.
Air Malta only had three 737s in the early 1980s, along with the back-up 720s, so they must have worked them very hard on European schedules and ITs.

After the runway extension was completed, it was something of a free-for-all. We also began to see 737-200s from overseas operators such as Spantax and Hispania, by which time Air Europe and Britannia were even less interested in Leeds Bradford!

 

[The Pole]

Do you mean old I T? As I T has a different meaning now and when it fails we are all lost haha