Classic British Flight Sim

Aharon wrote:

petermcleland wrote:Nice pics...I enjoyed them. A quick check in my logbooks reveal that I flew Super 1-11 G-AVMO ten times as First Officer... The flights were on German internals based at Templehof, Berlin in 1972/3

Shalom Peter!!!

Are you saying that British Airways Super 1-11 had flights within Germany from some German city to some German city?

Yes Aharon, BEA operated return flights from Templehof, Berlin to various destinations in West Germany using the three Air Corridors (not Airways). The destinations were Hannover, Bremen, Hamburg, Frankfurt, Munich, Stuttgart, Cologne and Dusseldorf. Pilots either flew or positioned as passengers from London, Heathrow to Germany and operated in and out of Berlin, Templehof for four or five days at a time, sleeping at night in the Berlin Hilton hotel. In those years the only other airline operating out of Templehof was PanAm with Boeing 727s. There were three Air Corridors that we had to stick to while flying over East Germany...They radiated out of Berlin, West towards Hannover, Northwest towards Hamburg and Southwest towards Frankfurt...Unlike Airways they only went up to 10,000 feet so we tended to operate in the Weather rather than over the Weather.

EDIT...Here are the old Berlin Corridors:-

Great pictures, Eric. That Airstream caravan caught by eye in the second picture - I'd love to own one of those.

Then a few days later I flew a Dove again as Second Pilot for my Night Flying Test which I passed. My ATPL arrived in the post about a week later.

Really an interesting read Peter, guess nowadays it is all the much harder to obtain an ATPL and even a lot more expensive!!

Regards

Nigel.

Nigel H-J wrote:

Then a few days later I flew a Dove again as Second Pilot for my Night Flying Test which I passed. My ATPL arrived in the post about a week later.

Really an interesting read Peter, guess nowadays it is all the much harder to obtain an ATPL and even a lot more expensive!!

Nigel...I don't thing it could be much harder than it was but it would definitely be much more expensive! I made a stupid error when I left the RAF by thinking that I would not be an airline pilot. If I had been more sensible I would have got all the school work done while I was still in the RAF...As it was, I had to go to school at Ealing full time for about six months in order to pass the exams. Also, all the exemptions that I would have been given because of my service in the RAF only lasted for one year from my last RAF flight...Sadly, by the time I applied it was a year and four days so they were nullified!

Thanks for VERY INTERESTING explanations, Peter

I knew that PanAm 727s operated within Germany and within Europe but never knew that BEA also operated inter-German flights too!! Fantastic educational history lesson for me!!

Peter:they only went up to 10,000 feet so we tended to operate in the Weather rather than over the Weather.

So tiny Bac1-11s could handle weather. Eh??

Regards,

Aharon

Aharon wrote:Thanks for VERY INTERESTING explanations, Peter

I knew that PanAm 727s operated within Germany and within Europe but never knew that BEA also operated inter-German flights too!! Fantastic educational history lesson for me!!

Peter:they only went up to 10,000 feet so we tended to operate in the Weather rather than over the Weather.

So tiny Bac1-11s could handle weather. Eh??

Didn't have any option...We would request permission to deviate to avoid a cu-nim and we would be given it by our radar controllers. However, if we got close to the edge of the corridor then we would hear a transmission to us saying something like "Bealine 345 STEER 240...I repeat STEER 240". If we did not comply with that then we would be looking for MIGs!!

Thanks for interesting explanations, Peter

Aharon wrote:So tiny Bac1-11s could handle weather. Eh??

Regards,

Aharon

They weren't nicknamed 'Pocket Rockets' for nothing. Also, they were built like a tank (to use a more polite expression). One individual Philippine registered aircraft survived two separate in flight bomb explosions. Each time, it was repaired and returned to service. Finally being retired in 1992. Weather? No problem.
Incidentally, the manufacturer always referred to the type as the 'One-Eleven', never the '1-11'.

Regards

Kevin