Hello

[Alan_Rymer]

Just joined. Originally tried to join to ask what plane flew low over Woodley on Friday. Four engined single tailfin, not high winged, only saw it after it passed over my house, so from the rear. Found out it was probably Sally-B. Confirmed later by a friend who also saw it.

My history and interest in aircraft started in 1972 when I started working as a computer engineer. My company ( Incoterm ) supplied airline reservation terminals to the industry and had maintence contracts for all the ones we supplied. I was originally based at Gatwick airport in one of the Terrapins ( 3 ) working mainly for BCAL. My first day on site and I was on a trip to their Paris office in Ru de la Paix to be introduced to the staff, flying into Le Bourget on a BAC 111. The cabin staff were fairly new, we were upgraded to first, which was empty and had tartan clad ladies practicing serving drinks to us. Its amazing how hot meals could be served to a planeful of people, drinks delivered and collected all with the flight time of an hour ( It was the same with flights to Glasgow and Edinburgh as they were similar flight times ). Anyway we landed and boarded the coach for Paris rather worse for wear. It was good it was an onvernighter!

Most weeks I had up to five or six flights. Into Edinburgh, airport, Town, train to Glasgow town, airport and fly back in the evening. Same with Amsterdam-Rotterdam and vica versa ( once landed at Rotterdam with the emergency vehicles standing by. A Tyre had exploded on takoff and bits were stuck in the flaps. All was well and landing went O.K. Belfast when the IRA was active and bombs were going off (interesting ). Also flew to Genoa about once a month ( that was always overnight ). Brussels, Jersey Channel islands ( getting in was usually OK, getting out ? fog ). Most of my flights were in BAC 111 and 111 200's. Nice aircraft for passengers, but noisy and smoky on takeoff.
Had a few flights on Dan Air Comets to Newcastle when a BCAL fight wasn't available and a De Havilland Dove somewhere or other. Flying into Edinburgh could be interesting, passenger watching, when the weather was windy ( very very bumpy and barf bags were frequently used ). I believe the runways orientation has since been changed. I was there when the first 707 landed. There was speculation the runway wasn't long enough.
A Britannia from Luton to Munich once ( Monarch ).
Lots of flights from LHR, Tridents, 707, 720B, 727, 737s, DC8's Caravelle etc.
My shortest flight ever was an empty 747 from Shannon to Dublin, all of twenty minutes. TWA had a weather office in shannon with a couple of terminal, and I usually went in with Air Lingus then straight back to LHR. This one time all the flights to LHR were full and if they couldn't get me back via Dublin they were sending me back via New York. Anyway they got me on an empty 747.
Airlines whose reservation systems I have worked on:
BCAL
BA BEA / BOAC
TWA
Braniff
Air France
Swissair
Royal Air Maroc
Iberia
Alitallia
Sabena
UTA
El-Al
There are probably others!

Strange things I have done/happened to me.
The tye incident.
Driven my car under Concordes nose when I was airside at LHR T3.
Climbed up a 707 nosewheel with the flight engineer ( who borrowed my tools to check a haydralic coupling at Schipol )
Almost lost a Water Melon on a DC8 out of Leonardo da Vinci. It was under my seat on takeoff. The DC8 seemed to go almost straight up.
If I had spare parts with me, I often got the duty officer to meet me and walk me around avoiding customs and passport control. Less hassle than organising a Carnet. One time I forgot and was held overnight by Dutch customs until the paperwork could be raised. I foolishly told the customs guy the correct value of the parts I was carrying.

All that stopped when I started working on the more commercial contracts Banks engineering etc. Now its a couple of flights a year to Stuttgart to see my daughter and grandkids ( BA )

I miss seeing/experiencing Concorde go over my house every evening about 19:30 on its way to the USA

[Chris G6 UXU]

Hello Alan and welcome to the forum, you have done a lot of interesting thing's in your working life. Enjoy the forum and all the best.

[Ian]

Very interesting working life Alan, so it was a welcome from HIM and a welcome from ME.