Aviation Nostalgia Thread

[wawkrk]

Re: Nostalgia Thread

I was thinking about the digusting artificial Yorkshire Pub that used to be on the first floor. Snooker table with local yobs and ceilings sprayed to look like nicotine. I once took some Korean visitors in there and they could not understand why it looked like that and were not impressed.They thought that this part was waiting for renovation. You cannot impose local tastes on International visitors they just do not understand and have no wish to do so. It was just very low class.
My MD at the time used to insist that we took all foreign visitors to Harry Ramsdens. I love fish and chips but my visitors used to complain when my boss left us alone.
It was very funny,they often asked why is there only 2 choices on the menu.

 

[jason1-11]

Re: Nostalgia Thread

I still have a recording of a documentary programme about LBA, filmed at the time that the airport was fighting to get 24 hour operations - a fight I was personally involved in at that time. It included lengthy interviews with the then Director, Gordon Dennison, the boss of Britannnia Airways (who said they were committed to LBA!!), Adrian Thomson, boss of Capital Airways, and Jim French, who at the time was boss of Air UK (now he is at Flybe).

I would imagine it was done around the late 80's, the first time 24 hours were being sought, because Capital had gone bust by the time 24 hour operations were granted at the second time of asking. Pity that - I would have loved to see how Capital developed as an airline had their parent company (Brown Group) not gone under and taken Capital down with them.

Does anyone remember the documentary before that and was shown on the BBC? It was shot in 84 /85 and high lighted the "ops" at the airport now that the Jumbo's had gone. Interviews included Michael Bishop, Gordon D, Wardair and both Intasun and Thomson guys.

 

[yorkshire]

Re: Nostalgia Thread

Ive got the video for that one..i think it was called chocks away and lasted for 15-20 mins

 

[oldendays]

Re: Nostalgia Thread

I miss the days of the old Yugoslavia operation which ran from 1985 to about 1991 when the civil war broke out. Particular fond memories of the JAT 707s from 1985. We always ended up with the same pair, YU-AGI and YU-AGJ, despite there being four 707s in the fleet and they alternated week by week. Apparently Yugotours had originally assigned a JAT 727 for the Pula flights but, as it turned out, we had a 707 on every single one.

It was 1986 before JAT brought in the 727s, probably because YU-AKJ and AKK had returned from their leases to Air Afrique and thus releasing the 707s to other duties. I flew on YU-AKK from Ljubljana to Leeds in July 1986. I considered this quite a privilege as this green and white ship didn't make that many visits to Leeds and by 1987 it was back in JAT colours. Sadly it has now been scrapped, I expect along with its sisterships.

The Adria Rombac 1-11s also made their LBA debut in 1987, although one or two older machines had operated for the airline in 1986. I flew on YU-ANS from Leeds to Ljubljana and back. I think the others were YU-ANR and YU-ANT. I may be wrong but I think the flight crews came with the aircraft from Tarom and Adria put their own cabin crews in. Must have been interesting for these folks if each other didn't speak Romanian or Serbo-Croat. We didn't see them in 1988. Adria used the DC9-30 on the Ljubljana flights for that season, including YU-AJF in its hybrid BMA/Adria colours. All change again for 1989 when JAT resumed the Ljubljana flights, also with the DC9.

Aviogenex appeared in 1987 with the 737-200 which I recall having British flight crew, at least to begin with. As far as I remember we didn't see the Tupolevs at LBA at all but the 727s appeared towards the end of the 1985- 1991 period, probably when flights were being consolidated due to falling demand.

Nowadays, what used to be Yugoslavia isn't nearly as easy to get to. Shame. Please pardon my indulgence for the good old days, and let's not forget BAF, Air Ecosse, Dan Air, Metropolitan, Orion and all the others who made LBA such a colourful place in the mid 80s.

 

[Bigman]

Re: Nostalgia Thread

Can anyone else remember when we had a British Airways 737/400 working charters in 1993? I seem to remember is being G-BNNJ. I flew to Brussels that year on a Sabena EMB120 and it was parked on the stand next to us.

 

[wawkrk]

Re: Nostalgia Thread

Can't remember the date but was it not a BHX based aircraft. I flew on it but not sure of the destination, I think it was Faro. This subject has been mentioned before and I think it might have been Heather who provided the answer.

 

[ls27]

Re: Nostalgia Thread

I think that the 737-400 was chatered by David Hoyle, a Huddersfield based travel agent. It spent part of it's time based at MAN when not used at Leeds.

 

[Daviator]

Re: Nostalgia Thread

Believe that the BA 734 mentioned above operated for David Hoyle as Sunseekers, mainly to Greece if my memory serves me correct.
On another theme I have LBA footage on VHS which I would like to transfer in some way onto my pc for upload onto YouTube. Is anyone out there sufficiently knowlegeable to help with this.
I have alot I did when Leeds United were in the Champions League, particularly when Corsair brought in the two 747's. I got the 300 that landed quite long, and the nosewheel hit the deck just before the A2 turn off (a bit worrying at the time, good job it was empty!), plus a load of Monarch 320's/757/A300's etc. Also have an Air Atlanta 747-200 that used almost all of runway 32 to take off. I am sure many of you on here would like to see these clips!
Cheers

 

[tleeds]

Re: Nostalgia Thread

Hi there Daviator, I don't recall you posting before, so welcome to Forums4Airports.

The easiest thing to do possibly, is transfer from VHS to DVD and a person I know does this and is based in Yeadon. His website is: www.digital-vision.uk.tc and I've used him before and is very good from past experience. I think he still does VHS to DVD but I'm not 100% sure. Then, although I have never uploaded videos to Youtube, I think would be a simple upload from the DVD to the Youtube website.

I, and I'm sure a lot of members would love to see your footage and do post the link on the forum when you do it.

Regards,
Tom.

 

[Daviator]

Re: Nostalgia Thread

Cheers Tom, I will investigate.

 

[wawkrk]

Re: Nostalgia Thread

Never heard of David Hoyle and never travelled with Sunseekers.
The BA filght I spoke about was 1 time per week only. The front section had business class seat pitch.

 

[eastcoaster]

Re: Nostalgia Thread

The destination was Faro on a saturday afternoon. The holiday company wa AVRO Holidays and the aircraft was, I think, a Boeing 737-300 or could have been a 500. It was operated by Maersk Air Birmingham who were a franchise partner of British Airways, hence it was in BA colours.

The David Hoyle Boeing 737-300 was GBNNJ in basic BA colours but the titles were removed and replaced with his holiday company name, Sunseeker.

 

[Daviator]

Re: Nostalgia Thread

Eastcoaster, you are spot on with both points, the Faro flight for AVRO was a 735, as I flew on it, and actually blagged my way onto the flight deck for the landing!, shows how long ago that was.

 

[Bigman]

Re: Nostalgia Thread

Wow, I didn't expect so many responses. Thanks guys and gal. Sunseekers does seem to ring a bell.

 

[lbaspotter]

Re: Nostalgia Thread

Yep In 1993 Sunseekers Holidays leased from British Airways, Boeing 737-300 G-BNNJ on its LBA and MAN flights. If i remember correctly the name on the aircraft was Sunjet and they used Foyle's, AOC and there ATC callsign was also "Sunjet"

Sunseekers flew 1993 from Leeds/Bradford to Kalymnos, Malta, Crete, Kos, Rhodes, Corfu and Zante. While they also offered flights to Karpathos, Samos, Santorini and Lesbos from Manchester.

And here below is a picture of the said aircraft.
Source of Photo : Airliners.net and credit gose to James Gardner

 

[wawkrk]

Re: Nostalgia Thread

Ah yes, fogot about Maersk Air. I flew with them many times to and from Billund.

 

[White Heather]

Re: Nostalgia Thread

Some may remember that the Sunseekers 737 was involved in a very strange near accident at LBA. At the time, I lived in the Moseley Wood area of Cookridge and woke one slightly misty Sunday morning due to ever increasing jet engine noise, where jet engines shouldn't be! Imagine my surprise to find a 737 descending out of the morning mist directly over my house, which (for those who know the area) was on Moseley Wood Green. It had flown only slightly to the West of Cookridge Water Tower, and descended over my house some three quarters of a mile or so to the East of the 32 approach. I ran to the back of the house and watched in horror as it descended towards Moseley Wood Farm, before suddenly pulling up again from a frighteningly low altitude. I could see the cows doing a runner in the fields!! It flew around and made a successful landing 5 minutes later, this time on the correct flight path on 32. It made the papers and TV at the time and I believe was the subject of an enquiry, although I never heard the outcome.

It seems strange now, but it was literally 10 seconds from disaster and had it happened, it would have been as I watched. Heaven knows what the crew were doing at the time, but I did hear the ILS was working normally. Visibility at ground level was OK, but the cloud base was quite low. Had it been lower still, a lot of people would have come to a sticky end.

The Sunseeker company went bust though - which was a real shame as I recall there was a lot of demand for the flights which were to some destinations previously never served from LBA.

 

[tleeds]

Re: Nostalgia Thread

Moseley Wood Green!!! that is some-way off the Rwy32 approach-path!!

If anyone knows anything more about the enquiry, I am sure White Heather and a few others, including myself would love to know the outcome!

 

[whoshotjimmi]

Re: Nostalgia Thread

I was on a Britannia A320 a number of years ago now to Dalaman. The day we left in August was very windy (significant crosswind) and, as a result we could not leave with a full tank of petrol and had to refuel in Vienna.

There was even talk at the time of having to use the other Runway!! Which concerned me a little. As it turned out, we used 32 and made it to Vienna.

 

[icarus91]

Re: Nostalgia Thread

[offtopic]I don't want to get off topic but I can confirm TCX uses runaway 14 for performance reasons, rarely will it use runaway 32, i have seen in the past were the wind has been in such a direction, and at such a speed that it was unsafe for TCX to take off 14 therefore it was delay an hour or so . . . :search:[/offtopic]