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Post by ronturner on Nov 22, 2017 8:52:17 GMT 1
I started with a Kodak Box camera using 620 size film (Think that's right) This film came on a traditional spool and had to be loaded and unloaded in the dark. then I had a Brownie 127 which I think the film was in a small cassette but sill had to be loaded in the dark. As Viscount says, no such thing as focussing or light/speed/ aperture selections. Even so I did get some great B&W shots with these....sadly all gone.. (I have the card index of them for all the good that is.) www.ebay.com/bhp/kodak-620-filmAfter seeing what my spotter mates were using I took a trip down to Dixons in 1963 and bought a second hand Agfa camera, type cannot remember, but it was 35mm with all manual settings. I was given as a pressie for Christmas; a Weston Light meter to use with it. Still got it. (If anybody has a use for it...you are welcome foc.) My next buy was a Practiks. cannot remember the type but it was SLR as described by Viscount. These were very popular at the time, and remember these were made in what was then East Germany. Lenses were changed by means of screw thread. I bought a wide angle lens for use at air display static lines . Later John Oaks gave me a telephoto lens that he had no use for when he went up market. I switched to colour print photos in the early 80's. Then I opted for an entry level Canon digital, probably about 15 years ago now, gradually going slightly more upmarket, but compared to some of the stuff around thee days, I am still in the basement. Films were sent to Kodax or Agfa for processing. There were no independent suppliers in those days, unless you had the skill yourself.
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Post by Deleted on Nov 22, 2017 11:15:29 GMT 1
My first, like Viscount's was a box Brownie, and then a plastic Kodak 125, with all the hassle he describes. My dad decided to buy another (second-hand) 35mm and gave me his old one.
Ron, you mentioned Kodak and Agfa - you forgot about Gratispool - lol!
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Post by Deleted on Nov 22, 2017 14:26:48 GMT 1
Some more to savour: Self-explanatory really. If you wanted a holiday in the Channel Islands, this was your machine! The hard-working ex Air France Viscount which Starways bought in 1961 and kept until 1963, when it had a spell with Air Inter and returned to the UK in the service of Alidair, Dan-Air, British Midland, Guernsey Airlines, Inter-City Airlines and Janus Airways - phew! It's sometimes difficult to imagine that the same manufacturer could produce something as ugly as the Viking and yet something as lovely as the Viscount, or to take it to another level, the VC-10, but that's life! This aircraft was once owned by Aer Lingus... Another large tail-dragger. No reg for this - I can't see one anywhere - only a '202' at the top of the tail, Squadron No? I imagine this CV 240 was probably bringing in a football team, or possibly a ship's crew. Unusual to see anything other than Soviet-built aircraft in Eastern Bloc colours. It came to Poland via Italy and Iran. No other details. A picture of a Miles Hawk Trainer from the bottom end of the airfield near Banks Lane. This guy is clearly hand-cranking the propeller with no-one in the cockpit! I always understood this was a total no-no, not least because if it jumps the chocks, (not an unknown occurrence), you won't be around to explain what happened! Another photo from the same spot. The hangar behind (known as No 39 hangar), was used to store the light aircraft which were based at Speke at the time. I can no longer look at a Bonanza without remembering an overheard radio conversation while on the 748 flight-deck flying from Fort Lauderdale to Antigua. There was a call from a native Spanish-speaker in poor English claiming he was lost in what is referred to as 'The Bermuda Triangle.' The conversation began with the pilot explaining that he had no reference point and Miami were doing their best to help him, but in the process jamming up a busy frequency. The regular line pilots were clearly getting a bit frustrated about this and the following transmissions were heard: MIAMI CENTER: "Aircraft calling lost - say your destination, registration and type" AIRCRAFT: "Eeees Opa Locka - Yankee Victor xxxxxx an' eeees Bonanza" Quick as a flash one of the line pilots (not identifying himself of course), was heard to say "Ain't that the aircraft Buddy Holly died in?" We were laughing so much that the guys at the back even in an empty 748 could hear us and came up to ask what we were laughing about.
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Post by radiostationx on Nov 22, 2017 19:44:13 GMT 1
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Post by Deleted on Nov 22, 2017 22:21:10 GMT 1
Thanks RSx
Looks a distinct possibility, doesn't it - but where the hell is the reg? Looks like it didn't last long after I took this photo, sadly.
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Post by philglt on Nov 22, 2017 22:39:00 GMT 1
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Post by acklington on Nov 22, 2017 23:01:25 GMT 1
Thanks RSx Looks a distinct possibility, doesn't it - but where the hell is the reg? Looks like it didn't last long after I took this photo, sadly. I think that the serial TG624 is there in the normal position and normal size. However, like the Coastal Command Shackletons it would be painted in red on the grey fuselage colour. There was absolutely no contrast (in black & white) between the two colours, but if you play with some extreme contrast in photoshop, you might find it.
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Post by viscount on Nov 22, 2017 23:14:44 GMT 1
The Handley Page Hastings is a Hastings MET.1 of 202 Sqdn, Coastal Command and based at Belfast Aldergrove (at a time when the civil airfield was Nutts Corner). There are a number of recorded visits to Speke in the late 50s/early 60s period. derbosoft.proboards.com/thread/5619 Several posts down. Article not updated, I may have found 1 or 2 more further visits by Hastings since. Most of 202 Sqdn Hasting MET.1s were coded with a single letter code - the one in the picture clearly isn't. For two visits by MET.1s no code has been recorded in the visiting aircraft logs, they are two possible candidates as a result. It would appear that both 1963 and 1964 fit the context of the likely dates of other scans in the post. Not too sure why TG624 has been selected from a whole squadron of possible aircraft. The link gives the type as a Hastings C.1 - IF CORRECT then it would likely be in Transport Command white rather than Coastal Command operational grey.
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Post by Beemer on Nov 23, 2017 20:59:18 GMT 1
Mike/radiostationx, Frank/Vanguard has asked me to post this old photo of Speke runways and taxi ways for you. The glare was on the photo. Speke runways and taxi ways by Beemer328i, on Flickr Beemer.
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Post by ronturner on Nov 23, 2017 21:43:21 GMT 1
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Post by radiostationx on Nov 23, 2017 22:09:28 GMT 1
Mike/radiostationx, Frank/Vanguard has asked me to post this old photo of Speke runways and taxi ways for you. The glare was on the photo. Beemer. Great stuff @vanguard Frank , at last an aerial shot showing both airfields,Thanks so much for contributing to the historical collection gathering on here for Liverpool Airport. Cheers Beemer for carrying out web hosting on your flickr acct for this one. So seasoned NWAN members "heres your starter for ten" Does anyone have a date/year or best guess on this photo ? Also whats this giant apron near speke hall, testing area ? There are aircraft at this location in the photo. The section is roughly the same size as the main apron in front of the terminal. I havent seen this mentioned earlier in this thread, Edit : wouldnt be farming/grass cutting machinery would it ?
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Post by viscount on Nov 23, 2017 23:44:27 GMT 1
Thanks for the giggle at your photo (miss)interpretation! The area circled in red is just part of the airfield through which the perimeter track runs with WWII dispersals, radio mast, navigation aids and some old buildings. As a result of all the obstructions the grass here did not get cut short. The aircraft are a C-54 Skymaster and a Hawker Hunter - both in the 'fire practice pit', in front of the former gun butts building. The even pale coloured patches beyond are Speke Hall farm fields with crops growing. The grass cutting trailers tended to get left where last used and well back away from the runways. A Hale farmer had the contract to keep the grass short - this was in the days before research showed that medium length grass discouraged birds the most. The large factory buildings beyond the red circle are interesting. At the time of the photo used by Dunlops to produce amongst other things, tennis (or was it golf?) balls. Erected just prior to WWII they were used by Rootes Securities to build hundreds of Blenheim and later Halifax bombers. Presumably the reason for the dispersals on that side of the airfield. Lockheed's activity in assembling aircraft arriving through the Docks were concentrated on the other side of the airfield on No.1 hangar and those alongside. In the early 1960s you could still make out the pattern of camouflage paint on the walls of Dunlops.
The photo is very soon after the new runway development in May 1966 and before the 3 'fingers' on the main apron (also constructed 1966) became 2 (more concrete laid between two) to make a space large enough for a Boeing 707 to turn on, under its own power. Not got a specific date for the photo, but certainly between 1966, and the very first years of the 70s. Been scanning over 150 images of the Airport during the 60s and 70s in the past two days, but cannot pin the date down closer at present.
The photo is taken of a large wall mounted photo mounted somewhere in Airport Ops or Management Offices - which is why there is 'flare' towards the top. One of the photos in the 'still to scan' pile is of an Airport Director stood with that photo as a back-drop! Also in the pile are similar aerial shots before 1966 and in colour from a very similar angle in the '70s. I'll get around to scanning those and others shortly - and posting the huge backlog of images I've built up since the Photobucket debacle.
Now in turn here is a teaser for those around in the 60's - one of the photos in the collection I am copying, is of two elephants between the Terminal and No.1 hangar. No date or details on the back, just a (presumably later) comment in pencil 'Chipperfield's(?) Circus arrives'. The question is, is it a publicity stunt by a Circus arriving to perform in Liverpool with two 'Jumbos', or have the elephants arrived by air - if so in what and when? I fancy the former, but will anyone admit to having memory of the event for certain?
Added on 'edit':
Eddie Quinn has sent me by e-mail an aerial photo, from a very similar angle and height, dated circa 1970. All the 'dateable' markers are the same - although the crop and grass shades differ, so not taken at the same time of year. Looks like I'm right with the date then.
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Post by radiostationx on Nov 24, 2017 0:23:04 GMT 1
Thanks for the info. Glad to provide the mirth also ! So these are indeed aircraft, just dead ones. Dark object Looks like a lattice comms tower in that area too just under the pond in the farmers field.
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Post by ronturner on Nov 24, 2017 7:53:02 GMT 1
There used to be a Canberra on the fire dump. I had a ft. square piece of it in my garage until we decamped to France. Oaksey and I went rummaging around one day. We are chased away by some bloke in a van, but I got my piece of Canberra.
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Post by viscount on Nov 24, 2017 9:10:00 GMT 1
Ron, that was back around August 1959. It would seem that it was just a rear fuselage section of Canberra and was not at the airport for long. Where was it? Don't know that the full registration was ever discovered, well more than just WJ64-. There was an Anson frame with the fire brigade around 1956/1957, I think somewhere the river end of the buildings beyond No.39 Hangar? Amazed you admit to being a trespasser and an airport vandal in your youth. Attitudes were different then though. What's the Statute of Limitations of the 'removal' of a piece of Canberra aircraft. Eddie Quinn has partly answered the 'Jumbo' question by locating an extremely similar photo of the elephants on a long Daily Post & Echo photo thread. Caption states that they left as air 'cargo', so that really does leave a when and what on question to answer? www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/nostalgia/gallery/remembering-liverpool-airport-through-years-10798569Worth a look through if you have a while.
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