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Post by danairamb on Jul 30, 2011 0:48:13 GMT 1
Does anyone recall the Channel Airways service from LPL in the late 60s? I believe it was 1968, and was a daily Viscount commuter run through East Midlands to either Southend or Stansted. It didnt last for very long, and if my memory serves me correctly it was downgraded to HS-748 service towards the end due to lack of demand. Mind you with the way Channel crammed seats into its aircraft I believe one of their 748s held as much as most carriers Viscounts would. It was an example of a new carrier offering hope to the then so underused airport, but nothing ever came of it. In retrospect I am not sure what they were thinking, but it could have been at a time when Stansted was first deemed as London's third airport and they were trying to develop its service. Perhaps this service offered connections through Stansted to Europe.
I would appreciate any members recollections of this service or of Channel overall. One of the more colourful carriers of the time. At the end (1971 I believe) they operated Comet 4Bs, Tridents and 1-11s.
David in Ottawa
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Post by speedbird1960 on Jul 30, 2011 0:53:03 GMT 1
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Post by viscount on Jul 30, 2011 17:33:21 GMT 1
From a mix of Phil Butler's book and 1969 Airport timetables, I have put together the following. Channel Airways commenced on 17th July 1968 a Liverpool-EMA-Southend service twice daily every weekday with Viscounts or HS.748, with one flight calling at Stansted. The service was interlined with Cambrian's Irish Sea routes. The service was poorly patronised, despite Ford Motor Company being a potential major user. With the collapse of British Eagle, Channel hoped to be awarded British Eagle's routes from Liverpool. In January 1969 they commenced an ambitious 'bus stop' service from Southend to Aberdeen via 7 other airports, this service connected with the existing Liverpool operation, but did not operate through Liverpool. The Southend-EMA-Liverpool service was withdrawn June 1969 when Channel failed to secure the well established 'Eagle routes from Liverpool that it wanted (it was awarded some, mainly holiday routes but without the regular profitable routes, they were not operated). In February and March 1969 Viscount service CW5501 arrived Liverpool from Southend, Stansted and EMA at 0920, departing as CW5502 at 1000 for EMA and Southend. The second rotation saw CW5505 arriving arr 1830 from Southend and EMA, with CW5506 leaving for EMA, Stansted and Southend at 1915. The timetables for April, May and June show the type as either DH Heron or Viscount, with the inbound times amended to 0930 and 1850, but the same outbound departure times. The route had been dropped in the July 1969 timetable. As is so often the case finish dates are not so easy to trace. Also throughout the summer of 1969 a Sunday I/T was operated from & to Ostend by BAC-111 or Viscount. as CW1 and CW2. Certainly their Trident's came to Liverpool, as I've a picture of one somewhere. When Channel ceased their Stansted - Liverpool link, Ford Motor Comany chartered Skyways to operate a 3 times weekly service with HS.748. Later FMC used their own Gulfstream 1s (G-ASXT, G-AWYF & later also G-BRAL) for this inter-factory link.  Well, I've found my Channel Trident at Speke picture: G-AVYB a Trident 1E-140 at Speke 6th March 1971 on a football supporter's charter f&t Stansted along with a Channel BAC.1-11. |
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Post by danairamb on Jul 31, 2011 3:23:52 GMT 1
Thanks for the great responses. I had never realized that Channel had hoped to takeover the ex-EG routes, nor that their LPL service was interlined with Cambrian's Irish Sea services.
David in Ottawa.
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Post by ronturner on Aug 5, 2011 7:25:42 GMT 1
I cannot remember the date, but I can certainly remember traveling Channel Airways HS-748 from Liverpool to Southend, and back. They operated, for a short time, a route linking Southend, EMA,Liverpool and places further north as previously mentioned.
The time of my flight was just after British Eagle went bust and Channel Airways wanted to take over most of their routes from Liverpool. In those days it was a closed shop, with the CAA (or whatever it was then) making sure that nothing was able to compete with either Manchester, or the so called "state airlines". The Channel Airways bid was supported by a group of us who set ourselves up as an association of some sort and the MD of Channel invited us down for a chat about exactly who we were and what support we could offer. (Not much as it happened) Phil Butler was on the flight with me and there was somebody else too, but I cannot remember who. It turned out to be New Year's day of the year in question, and as we were the only passengers in one direction and only one other on the return flight, to EMA, it must have been an expensive exercise for them.
In the end, Channel won nothing of significance from the awards made by the CAA. Cambrian, who had been operating the London route on some kind of emergency licence were confirmed as permanent. I dont think any of the other ex British Eagle route were ever operated by Cambrian, or anybody else.
As an aside, soon afterwards, Cambrian was taken over by British Airways and thus Liverpool was, for a while, on the BA European route map with services to London, and the Irish Sea routes. Even later, BA traded the Liverpool /London routes with BMI for something else and that was just about the end of the national carrier at Liverpool. (Until Easyjet came along........)
This is recovered from deep in the memory, so apologies if its not exactly correct.
RT
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Post by ronturner on Aug 5, 2011 7:32:13 GMT 1
An aside.
The first Channel Airways aeroplane I ever saw was in 1965. A DC-3 operating the regular service from the grass airfield at Rochester to Jersey.
RT
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Post by danairamb on Aug 5, 2011 20:16:06 GMT 1
As far as other ex British Eagle routes that Cambrian operated, they also operated LPL to Glasgow, but that was it. I am not sure how long the LPL-GLA route continued, I do know that I flew it in August of 1970. Did BMA ever operate this route? The other Eagle routes that were out of MAN and LHR were carved up, but as far as I know many were not served by any carrier for years. I dont think Channel flew any of them.
David in Ottawa.
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Post by jcherry on Aug 13, 2012 0:37:08 GMT 1
I happen across this board when I was searching for more pix of Channel’s 1-11’s. They use to be rare, with 1 or 2 here and there, now there are several. They only had2 of the contraptions, -408 models with Spey engines. Channel Wiki entry here: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Channel_Airways I found a model, which I ordered here: www.adamjets.com/mm5/merchant.mvc? Long story short, I joined Channel probably early June 1971, right at the start of the infamous tourist season of that year. A friend from Norway and I interviewed with the chief pilot Peter Lockwood. My first training flight was on AWKJ from HRN (reading my log book) to Jersey. I was sure the departing airport was Bournemouth. Was Bournemouth designated HRN back then? I see it is BOH now. I remember a road came so close to the end of the runway there were gates and/or stop lights to hold up traffic during take off and landing. I don’t see such a road at BOH on Google earth now. Because the aircraft were tied up flying tours pretty much 24/7, training flights (empty of course) were far between. I only have 3 flights logged, but there were many more. The idea was 10hrs and you were cut lose. Bernie Worman (sp?) the training capt we were told, and it was clear, he didn’t like the idea of training guys that had no jet experience. Consequently, by today’s standards, no way in hell would be qualify. Almost no emergency procedures, forget company procedures. If you could land the contraption without driving the gear through the wing, you were qualified. I never got as far as the final check ride before it folded. The final flight for the 1-11’s anyway was a landing at Bournemouth - I was an observer. I’m guessing October, 1971. We emptied the pax out the back stairwell. Someone came on board and said the company folded. Bernie anticipated that, and told me to go to the back to close the door, “we’re going up country”. The idea was to put a lean on the plane to make sure we get our final pay. On the way to the back a sheriff, in a sport jacket, as where the Capt was. He told the Capt we were grounded. Someone beat us to the lean. We all got our final pay though. The final days of Channel saw 5day/6night tour passengers waiting 1-2 days on the ground at places like Stansted due to scheduling problems, a/c maintenance issues, you name it. Of course terrible publicity on the nightly news. It got so bad, the scheduling became the next plane in, took the longest waiting passengers out. Jack Jones threatened to sue Lockwood, according to news articles, for sabotaging the company. Lockwood did try to startup another ops. (see Wiki) and asked a couple of use (with US ATPL) if we wanted to go to the US and pick up a couple 1-11’s. That never came about. I doubt Lockwood ultimately went to court. James Cherry - retired. US ATPL, UK CPL, Nigerian ATPL Magdalena, New Mexico |
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Post by johnoakes on Aug 13, 2012 8:58:24 GMT 1
Just checked the Channel web site to check on their Carvair and was sidetracked to the Carvair page--as usual the picture of the carvair is labelled as at bristol--even a half wit couldsee that it is at Liv erpool--can someone change it?Its beyond my computer ability but every mention we get can only be good and every misinformed photo starts the conspiracy theorist in me.LOL
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Post by Deleted on Aug 13, 2012 9:05:28 GMT 1
Just checked the Channel web site to check on their Carvair and was sidetracked to the Carvair page--as usual the picture of the carvair is labelled as at bristol--even a half wit couldsee that it is at Liv erpool--can someone change it?Its beyond my computer ability but every mention we get can only be good and every misinformed photo starts the conspiracy theorist in me.LOL John, remove your tinfoil hat, double-click on the picture and enlarge it ;D, Now, can you see 'Bristol Airport' on the GPU behind the Land Rover and on the steps at the rear of the Carvair? A closer look shows the hill behind the Carvair, for which Lulsgate is (in)famous! |
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Post by johnoakes on Aug 13, 2012 21:59:13 GMT 1
Humm-never been to Bristol in the West Country so I have never seen the hill. BUT the airstairs have it--another clanger--must drink a little less Merlot tomorrow and realign the tin foil hat--good one that-LOL. Thanks for the heads up-- ---bet my bloomer made your day--LOL I am sure there will be more to come. BUT I did see the Channel viscount so all is not lost  . |
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Post by Deleted on Aug 15, 2012 14:34:39 GMT 1
I agree John - seeing a Channel Viscount is way above all that! I always rather liked their colour scheme - probably because it was that bit different.
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Post by johnoakes on Aug 15, 2012 17:19:39 GMT 1
Great pity they didn't get what they needed to become a resident airline-another sad near miss.
BUT the future could still hold pleasant surprises--fingers crossed
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Post by danairamb on Aug 17, 2012 16:44:14 GMT 1
Fascinating post from JCherry. It seems that Channel really did manage to operate under much lower safety margins, even for that time. The link to the Wikepedia article is really interesting, one of the most comprehensive Wikepedia articles about a former British airline that I have seen. Channel's seating configurations were particularly scary. If I recall their tridents had some seats at four abreast, and their 1-11 400s had to have an extra emergency over wing exit added (as if they were 500 series). Garstonboy, I agree their colour scheme was good, but it wasn't different, it was taken directly from Continental. When they acquired Continental's Viscount 812s there was very little work to be done! When they used this livery for their earlier acquired 700s they must have anticipated acquiring the Continental aircraft.
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Post by ronturner on Aug 17, 2012 17:26:11 GMT 1
I loved the Channel colours, especially on the Viscount.
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