Speke 2012

[freddielaker2]

It was my birthday at the beginning of this month, so as a treat my better half treated me to a nights stay in the Crowne Plaza hotel, I thought this is nice... As I looked around to see what was where - like the little bookshop that was on the right where I suppose everyone bought their annual version of the CAM. for about 1/6d and the little badges of, in my case British Eagle badge or Laker (but sadly never remember seeing a Cambrian one there!). I could bore for Britain once I get going, but I mentioned to the receptionist that the last time I was there was 45 years ago dressed in my parka with cam and radio in hand.. she had no idea what I was on about. I tried to find my way on the the balcony where I had spent many hours watching WMT and RGO go round and round only to have the silence broken by either a Cambrian or Aer Lingus 1-11 taxiing in and giving us something to photograph. On this day though in 71, it so happened that a KLM/Philippines DC8 visited if I remember carrying the Halle orchestra, that was worth bunking off school for and travelling on the 89 bus from St.Helens to see. Sadly you cant see over the Mersey from there now, B&M building, roads and other things in the way took away what was a bit of magic, remember seeing the jets taxi in from behind the lump and round the corner from 28. I couldn't climb all over the Starways on the firedump (there is a photo of me in my parka climbing over the wings of it at the 71 airshow somewhere on this site) it wasn't there anymore. The smell from port sunlight of soap has gone and I don't like flying from the new airport, its got no soul, its got no heart, its a place where people have a drink get shoved onto flying tubes and are charged £1 for a pee!. No doubt all us older ones will remember the old guy who used to appear on the balcony, I cant remember his name now, but he knew everything what was coming in, going out, what had been in. I wonder what he would think of it now, I don't think he would be impressed as we used to be able to watch and enjoy it even in the rain. Now you have ACARS, ADSB, flightradar.com live traffic tracking. I had a pair of bins, and a radio that used to pick up the tower around 110-112 just below the police band on an FM radio before I got my airband. How many of us used to pole off the overheads going via wallasey? hoping for a nice American rare out of Frankfurt or Amsterdam. That's what it was like. I was some time ago on holiday for a week at Schiphol just on a photographic week off, there were people with laptops, and the sbs hardware sat there and marking off aircraft on the far side near the Martinair hangar and electronically marking down the registrations! that's not fun, fun is when you get caught taking a sneaky peek in a hangar and getting your collar felt by security but leaving there with a great rare photo in your camera. I mention all this because the place I spent a lot of my teenage years at is a hotel now and although its a nice place and I appreciated the night there, they wouldn't let me go on the balcony one last time because of health and safety reasons - the bars are too low! Jeez if it was unsafe that long ago and thousands have stood on there at one time or other (especially when the reds kept bringing home trophy after trophy.... those were the days!) why has it suddenly become unsafe. I'm getting on a bit but I really didn't expect the ministry of you cant do that would spoil my fun. I would have just loved going up on there one more time, I could have got one of the suites there which cost an arm, a leg and a few fingers, and I would have been able to open the doors onto it, which strikes me as odd, because according to them you can pay to get access to an unsafe area. but if your doing it on the cheap you have no chance. It was great to go back there though although I didn't get on the balcony the walk at the back to the Brit and the Jetstream gave me access to the guys who work there and I had a chat with them. I enjoyed the visit and I love visiting the NWAN site and reading Paul Derbyshire's lists, he does great stuff for flight simulator and I have most of his work on my PC. I gave up collecting regs a long time ago in about 2000, and its a good job I did as the new version of doing it on a computer is cheating! lol.. I prefer the old way as you can see.

[Deleted]

Hi Freddie - some nice recollections there which bring back memories for many of us, no doubt. The guy who collected the money was called Joe (I can't remember his surname), and he later went on to look after what was called 'The Bond Shed', which coincidentally was the same place we used to get paid after we'd loaded the newspapers on a Saturday night. Yes, a Shorrock radio and a telescope/pair of binos and a notebook and pencil were all we had, and of course the latest copy of Ian Allan's Civil Aircraft Register (which didn't feature many of the foreign airliners which came into the UK in those days).
There are a lot of changes, but I'm glad that Marriott/Crowne Plaza took it over as a hotel and kept it as much as possible like it was, and that it wasn't demolished. We had the Cambrian reunion there a few years ago, and it brought back a lot of memories for all of us.

[johnoakes]

Was VERY lucky one cold winter evening just before I finally went to France --I made a nostalgic trip to the old airport and wandered down to where the exciting stuff ie Fred Olsen C-46--the ONLY hermes to visit were usually parked--the hangars etc have gone BUT the metal barrier to the balcony on the opposite side to our usual entrance was open.
I did have a last walk around on the balcony--quietly so as not to attract attention--VERY ghostly--old Edwin still haunts it I am sure-- but a VERY satisfying few minutes looking at thr Brit and the Jetstream.
TOOOOO many happy memories of aircraft and lovely kind people that share our hobby and are our heritage and history such happy happy days.

[thetexpat]

Gentlemen,

My eyes have become very moist after reading your stories ![/color][/b]

Wonderful days even if it was 'forced upon you' for vocational reasons !

[vanguard]

GARSTONBOY, you must have been in the know!!,if i remember i got paid by postal order or chq,not
bad though it started me in aviation work 44yrs ago and nerver looked back, are what memories.

[Speke-EZY]

Does anyone remember the little shop on the balcony,at the base of the tower,which was hardly ever open,but had a very dodgy cold drinks machine outside?

Said machine once sprung a leak of cola or some such fluid,which flowed across the array of glass skylights embedded in the balcony floor to illuminate the terminal below.

Distracted by whatever aeroplanes were parked yards away on the apron,I failed to notice this situation,and slipped over on one of the glass panels,finishing up in the disgusting black puddle.

I then had to walk home covered from head to foot in this dreadful sticky mess.

There was never any "elfan" safety in the good old days! :-)

[Deleted]

Oct 9, 2012 23:48:14 GMT 1 vanguard said:

GARSTONBOY, you must have been in the know!!,if i remember i got paid by postal order or chq,not
bad though it started me in aviation work 44yrs ago and nerver looked back, are what memories.

Well, I think that might have been in the earlier days - maybe we were paid more formally later - I really can't remember, but I wouldn't have been paid by cheque 'cos I didn't have a bank account in those days. Perhaps John Oakes or Ron Turner can shed some light on this.

I totally agree - it helped in getting me into aviation as well - I was planning to join the Merchant Navy when I left school! I don't regret a day of it - well maybe a few! - but I wouldn't change any of it.

[Deleted]

Oct 10, 2012 11:27:23 GMT 1 Speke-EZY said:

Does anyone remember the little shop on the balcony,at the base of the tower,which was hardly ever open,but had a very dodgy cold drinks machine outside?

Said machine once sprung a leak of cola or some such fluid,which flowed across the array of glass skylights embedded in the balcony floor to illuminate the terminal below.

Distracted by whatever aeroplanes were parked yards away on the apron,I failed to notice this situation,and slipped over on one of the glass panels,finishing up in the disgusting black puddle.

I then had to walk home covered from head to foot in this dreadful sticky mess.

There was never any "elfan" safety in the good old days! :-)

Yes I remember it well. It never seemed to be open very often. Bad as your experience may have been Habu, it was not as bad as the day (during the seamen's strike of '65) when a 20-gallon (100 litre) glass flask of Coca-Cola concentrate was dropped off a fork lift while being loaded into the belly hold of a Cambrian Viscount. We had to ring Coca-Cola to find out what to to, because it was labelled as corrosive (!). The fire brigade were called and washed it away, but a stain remained for many years later at the spot where it was dropped.

[john1958]

Garstonboy......coca cola is bad enough not concentrated.....ever put a copper coin in it???

John :-)

[captainkevey]

dad used to regularly take me and my brother to the old terminal to look at the planes circa 1964-1970s we used to see the planes land britanias,viscounts, dan air coughing black smoke ambassadors and some bristol freighters where the nose used to open up to take cars & horses along withe the dc-3s and rapide ,yep cold drinks machine was rubbish ,,,but a treat at the same time,
we used to run down stairs as the pilots got off and the cleaners got on and asked the pilots could we go on board and look around surprisingly they mostly said yes and off we went unaccompanied let loose on the plane great days .

[Deleted]

Oct 10, 2012 18:35:07 GMT 1 john1958 said:

Garstonboy......coca cola is bad enough not concentrated.....ever put a copper coin in it???

John :-)

Yep - and here's an old git writing. I never cease to be amazed by the numbers of young people who drink that stuff first thing in the morning, rather than tea or coffee (or water!) and go on drinking it for the rest of the day!

[john1958]

Know what you mean, its MUCH better when combined with dark rum!!!! :-) :-) :-)

And as another old git, a nice BIG cuppa first thing in the morning, followed by another, then I'm ready!!!!!! :-)

John

[johnoakes]

re payment for newspaper flights--I too did not have a bank account then but took the cheque/postal order to the post office and was then given cash--so it may have been a P.O.--not seen one for decades--do they still do them?
Paper loading --do I have a wealth of stories about that--it would bore a saint.LOL

[Deleted]

Oct 11, 2012 8:46:58 GMT 1 johnoakes said:

re payment for newspaper flights--I too did not have a bank account then but took the cheque/postal order to the post office and was then given cash--so it may have been a P.O.--not seen one for decades--do they still do them?
Paper loading --do I have a wealth of stories about that--it would bore a saint.LOL

OK - maybe it was just at the beginning that they paid cash - I don't remember the details now. PO's - yes they do, but as you can imagine, they are little-used now, and I can see them disappearing in the future.
www.postoffice.co.uk/finance/making-payments/postal-orders/faqs

I did start to put together a piece about the newspaper operation, both from the point of view of one who loaded the papers, then controlled the operation, but it's been on hold for a while. Maybe you and Ron could add some snippets and we could do a proper blog about it!

[Deleted]

Oct 10, 2012 20:46:08 GMT 1 john1958 said:

Know what you mean, its MUCH better when combined with dark rum!!!! :-) :-) :-)

And as another old git, a nice BIG cuppa first thing in the morning, followed by another, then I'm ready!!!!!! :-)

John

Ah, a man after my own heart! I blame it on all the time I spent in the Caribbean selling 748s!