Ringway and Yeadon

[ronturner]

Looking through some old slides and discovered these worth blowing the cobwebs off.

On this occasion, July 1963, John (Oakes) and I visited Yeadon for an afternoon and saw three movements. Here they are.

The DC-3 shot at Ringway is quite typical of the time.

G-ARRW Avro 748 BKS BKS Yeadon Julym 1963 by Ron Turner, on Flickr

G-APHV Avro Anson BKS Yeadon July 1963 by Ron Turner, on Flickr

G-AMSH DC-3 BKS Yeadon July 1963 by Ron Turner, on Flickr

EI-AFA DC-3 Aer Lingus Ringway June 1963 by Ron Turner, on Flickr

[acklington]

Am I right in assuming that the Anson G-APHV was "BKS Surveys", rather than a passenger flight?

Great nostalgia, thank you.

[ronturner]

I am quite certain the Anson was not a passenger flight. Air Surveys is quite probable.

I looked it up on th'internet and was pleased to see this photo of it at Speke:-

commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:G-APHV_(aircraft)

[viscount]

Or closer to home, already on NWAN Forum, although 4 years later in August 1967 and now flying with Survey Flights of Coleraine, NI in a different scheme.

derbosoft.proboards.com/thread/5619/beverley-hastings-varsity-noratlas-anson?page=2

G-INFO shows that the owners 1960-1964 were B.K.S. Air Surveys Ltd registered with a Leatherhead, Surrey address. In the picture it is in full airline scheme and what appear to be full airline titles, as B.K.S. Air Transport. Before G-APHV which is a post war Avro C.19, in the mid '50 B.K.S. had a small fleet of several ex-RAF Anson 1s, with one converted to a Mk.11 and another to a Mk.12. B.K.S. were certainly in the survey business in the early '60s but I think G-APHV was also employed at times to haul spare crews and management around the country on company business. It never visited Liverpool while with B.K.S. Ltd.

[ronturner]

When I moved to Atlantic Air Park in France, 2004, I met a neighbour who joined BKS as an apprentice engineer about 1960. He told me at the the time he was not that interested in aeroplanes; it was just a job he drifted into after leaving school. He had great mentors and went on to a full career in aviation, mostly overseas. Nevertheless he still remembered all of those Ansons by registration, and the quirks they each had, including ones he maintained for non BKS owners. He also told me about a time he was flown up to Speke to do work on a broken B-170. After working on it for hours he was so tired he fell asleep on it.

[ronturner]

OO-SCV Convair 440 of SABENA at Ringway April 1964. Another nice propeller driven machine.


OO-SCV Convair 440 April 1964 by Ron Turner, on Flickr

[cwor]

I used to spot at Yeadon from the late 1970s, when visiting relatives in Horsforth. I remember an upstairs office still had a nameplate for BKS (Barnby, Keegan, Stevens as was). Did they use a Rockwell Commander (green/white) around that time - still doing surveys?