Doug Puddifoot
I once had a day trip to New York, on Concorde. Courtesy of BA to mark the tenth anniversary of it coming into passenger service. We had to be at HR at six in the morning since the gear had to go through customs with a carnet. The plane was only two thirds full, but the captain, who was also chief executive of Concorde division, wanted to make it look packed. So put all the passengers into the front cabin, and we had the entire rear section to our selves. The food looked great, but we spent most of the time filming, so didn’t get much of it. We had asked if we could film in the cockpit, but were told that was totally impossible. We landed at JFK, reached the end of the runway, the captain put on the brakes on, and had a hydraulics failure. We were two miles from the terminal, and unable to move. A tug had to come all the way from the terminal to tow us back. It took almost as long to get to the terminal as it had to get from London.Concorde normally had quite a short turn around before the return flight, and we were due to film a piece to camera from the runway as it took off behind the reporter, the wonderful Glyn Worsnip. However, we had to wait four hours for the repairs before it could leave. Filming finished for the day we arrived at our hotel early evening, and BA insisted on taking us out for meal.
We arrived back at our hotel at eleven pm US time having got up at four am UK time, and knowing we had to be back at JFK at six am to meet the only customs shift that could deal with our carnet. When we arrived for the flight, the captain said that if we forgot to mention the “technical problems” in the report, we could in fact film in the cockpit. They had flown a flight engineer out from London overnight just to look after me. So I was actually in the cockpit from fifteen minutes before take-off to thirty minutes into the flight. One of the vary rare experiences we in this industry are lucky to have. When I finally reached home I had only had four hours sleep in forty eight, but would not have missed it.
At the time BA had an offer of a free top of the range Filofax (remember them) if you did an enormous number if miles. A return flight on Concorde, around £6000 at the time, also qualified. All you had to do was send the boarding cards. Result. Also every passenger on a flight was given a crystal glass ornament to mark the tenth anniversary. So I have two of those.
Nick Ware
Two interesting things in this story…I never got to fly on Concorde, but did work over several months on a documentary about its design and development up to the time of 002’s maiden flight. On that flight, the whole fuselage was so full of computer equipment that there was no room for us and our 35mm camera gear, so we flew alongside in a DC10.
Moving all the passengers forward was probably because weight distribution was crucial in Concorde in order to stop it going into an uncontrollable climb as it burnt off fuel. An elderly local Churchwarden friend of mine led the team who developed an automated system whereby fuel was constantly moved around the aircraft during flight to trim balance, etc. This was the secret that the Russians never got hold of and why Concordski crashed in rather spectacular fashion.
And… I’m wondering if you might have unwittingly been on the flight back to Heathrow that had to declare a fuel emergency, and ran out of fuel as it touched down. It had been refuelled in New York in US gallons which are smaller than UK gallons. A story that was never to my knowledge made public at the time. No fuel = no hydraulics!
Doug Puddifoot
I know the story, and had it confirmed by a couple of BA staff on various visits when we went there for interviews. But my version is a little different. It was the same pilot as my flight. My impression was he was rather autocratic, so I can believe this. While waiting for take-off, I was asked to leave the cockpit while he castigated the loadmaster about a problem with freight distribution. I could hear the shouting from the other side of the door. I heard that Concorde had problems after take off from New York, so had to fly sub sonic most of the way. This uses more fuel, so he was ordered to stop at Shannon to refuel. I suppose that being Concorde Division chief exec, he thought he knew better and carried on to Heathrow. When they arrived, authorities were so concerned about how much fuel was left they dipped the tanks. He would not have had enough to do a fly around if there had been an emergency landing abort. As you say, never made public, but he did leave BA shortly after.Nick Ware
Two different versions of the fuel incident seems a bit puzzling, given that the version I related came from a reliable source. I shall check it out.For those interested, I can’t recommend strongly enough: “The Concorde Story” by Christopher Orlebar (book). Full of information, diagrams, and fabulous pictures. I bought my copy in Foyles Ocean Bookshop onboard the QE 2 (as you do – just saying!).
Dave Mundy
We had a school visit to RAF Cranwell where they had some Meteors and various training planes. Apparently, the control tower was asked for permission to land and they asked, “How much fuel do you have ?”, “18 gallons” came the answer. All hell broke loose and they deployed the emergency crews etc. Not long after, a Chipmunk landed with another 30 minutes flying time left, not a Meteor running on empty!We, ‘my’ cameraman and I, were sent to LHR to cover a story on the first BA Concorde which had been withdrawn from service to have a full ‘health’ check after 10 years flying. It was stripped of furnishings and paint etc. and the only negative thing they found was that the pilot’s seat runners were worn and there was corrosion in the toilets from men who had missed!
I flew in Concorde while making the Noel Edmonds Christmas Show!
The story was that a group of deserving people were invited to a lecture and a close up look at Concorde at LHR. They were seated in a hanger for the lecture and at the end of which Concorde’s nose poked through the curtain behind the lecturer. The people were then informed that they were actually going to fly in it! We were all installed at the rear of the cabin, I was next to the bulkhead with the Mach meter on it. The captain explained to us that the plane was only a third full and had only a third normal fuel load but the take-off speed had to be the same as usual! He suggested that I timed it! It was less than 30 seconds from starting to roll to lift off! I couldn’t lean forward in my seat and was pinned against the seat back. After take-off he throttled back and it was like zero gravity. We flew to Clacton and turned back. We were still doing interviews as we were on final approach! We then landed and taxied to a pre-arranged spot where lights etc. had been rigged. We were then served a light lunch and given the usual goodies. Next, the people in the back with us were told that their relatives from Australia etc. were in the front of the plane and they were all brought through to meet each other – tears flowed! The captain said he was disappointed that production hadn’t asked to go supersonic! Duh! Another day Concorde took another deserving family to New York and back but not me. Noel told me later that he was really annoyed that the family never even said ‘Thank you’ for the trip!
Alan Taylor
We flew in a much less glamorous aircraft, a small twin engined Cessna which had been chartered as a BBC runabout (flyabout ?) during the 1982 World Cup in Spain.Flying from Bilbao to Madrid, it was our ENG crew, together with John Phillips the director, the P.A. Janet Johnson, and our pundit, Bobby Charlton. Being a small aircraft you sit in the same space as the pilot and can see and hear everything that’s going on. We were flying over a mountain range and it got very choppy. The plane was violently bumping around in the turbulent air and after one particularly loud bump, the aircraft shuddered and at that instant, a loud buzzer and warning lamp came on in the cockpit.
I don’t need to remind you that Bobby Charlton survived the Munich air disaster and probably has a better excuse than most for being a nervous flyer. He was ashen faced when all this mayhem started and obviously it brought back horrific memories for him. Fortunately there was no cause for concern. The pilot didn’t imagine how Bobby might react and it was only a minute or two later that he thought it worth explaining that extreme turbulence is par for the course in those regions and that the buzzer and warning light were nothing more than an unfortunately badly timed reminder to change frequency on his radio so that he could communicate with Madrid control tower.
Incidentally, making our final approach to Madrid, we were nicely lined up with the runway and had a very clear view. We saw an enormous airliner which had been stationary on the taxiway suddenly roll forward, swing onto our runway right in front of us and take off. We were alarmed to see it, Bobby was absolutely horrified, but the pilot assured us that it was nothing to worry about. We were approaching at such a low speed that the airliner would be long gone by the time we reached the runway.
Once we landed, Bobby decided that he needed a stiff drink. I think he deserved it.
Bernie Newnham
I was approaching Bristol once in a Cessna 172 and was told “Please keep your speed up, there’s a 737 behind you”. ” I said “This thing lands at 65 knots, and that’s it”. I don’t know whether the 737 had to go round, but they shouldn’t have let him get so close.Pat Heigham
Coming in to Heathrow late one evening (missed getting into Fairoaks) in the cameraman’s Cessna 414, Tower calls up: “How fast can you go?” “About 180 knots – why?”“ There’s a heavy behind you, catching up! So fly down the runway at 15 feet and we’ll tell you to when to pop it down before a suitable exit taxiway!”
Cameraman is an excellent pilot and had full instrument rating, which was handy when bound for Malmo – pitch black night and in the middle of a blizzard. Very relieved to see the runway lights appearing dead on the nose!
Nick Ware
Oh dear, I can’t bear this. You make NHR sound amateurish, which he most definitely is not. It just doesn’t work like that. He would have been fully aware of everything going on around him, and so would the aircraft behind him. And his instrument rating wasn’t just “handy”, he couldn’t and wouldn’t have been flying across the North Sea at night, or in poor weather conditions without it. Don’t forget, Pat, I know the background to all your Redapple stories.Dave Mundy
Leaving LHR on the way to LA for the 1984 Olympics (because no-one else wanted to go!) I was seated next to Huw Jones, a sports director. As we flew over Twickenham he said that champagne was in order and so it went on for 11 hours! Being in business class the cockpit was close by and the captain joined us for a lot of the time as the auto-pilot took over the boring bits! He asked if anyone would like to sit in the 4th seat in the cockpit as we approached LA. I manfully volunteered and sat in the ‘jump’ seat for the last hour of the flight. What amazed me was that I thought that they had been there before but the captain and co-pilot were looking out of the windows and comparing it with their maps to see where we were! On approach to LAX they had a separate map book of all the runways and taxiways to get us to the terminal docking place!Landing in LA we were met by Bob Duncan with a BBC mini-bus to take us to the Sheridan Townhouse Hotel on Wiltshire Boulevard. He told us that we were all invited to a BBC reception that night! When I got to my bedroom there was an A4 sheet of paper from the BBC medical advisor about not drinking fizzy drinks at high altitude! Too late! Anyway, only one ‘star’ turned up for the party but I have never seen such a huge ‘baron of beef’ in my life. Needless to say we were all knackered the next day. The highlight of that trip was Alec Weeks calling Huw Jones a c*nt for giving the pass to the swimming pool to the wrong person. The American’s couldn’t believe it! The final fireworks display went on for 40 minutes and a BBC News reporter trying to send his copy back to BH said it reminded him of Hanoi in the 1970s!
When we went to Japan, I had arranged the same sort of deal to sit in the cockpit, but after 11 hours of BBC help-yourself booze, while the rest of the plane slept, I fell asleep and didn’t actually manage to do it. I woke after we had landed in Tokyo and the upper deck was empty and I couldn’t see to go down the spiral staircase! I realised that my specs were missing and had to go back upstairs to find them under my seat!
Nick Ware
At 14.15 22nd October 2020 we expected a retired British Airways 747 to arrive into Dunsfold Aerodrome from Cardiff. Dunsfold has quite a short runway, so should be interesting. The only snag is, they are only allowing people there who have a genuine reason to be there, no spectators (Dunsfold is pretty much an industrial estate these days, and of course, “Top Gear” location base).For anyone so inclined, the best viewpoint is going to be at the top of Hascombe Hill. Reason for it coming here? It’s to be there permanently for use as a film set, apparently.
Dunsfold is a historic place, but amidst much controversy it looks as though planners will win through and build (from memory) eleven hundred new houses, shops, medical centre, etc., with no local road improvements to accommodate the extra traffic.
I remember as a schoolboy, seeing Hawker Hunters leaving Dunsfold, turning south over our “glider bank”, then heading down to the south coast, and the sonic boom as they broke through the sound barrier. The school was on a south-facing hill, so we got a grandstand view. Test pilot Neville Duke came to give a talk at our (boarding) school, and I got to ‘model’ his flying suit, which unsurprisingly, was rather too big for me!
Pat Heigham
I’m reminded of being on location in Antigua when BA put a 747 on that route for the first time. Think they used their oldest plane in case it couldn’t get off again!The BA office in the town of St. John’s was closed for the day – a handwritten sign on the door said: “Gone to see the aeroplane”! It was an incredible sight with the huge tail fin towering over the single story terminal building. In those days, no building could be higher than a palm tree.
Dave Mundy
When I went to Antigua on holiday we heard that the runway had to be re-surfaced thanks to a 747 taking off under full power and a steep climb which tore the tarmac off!Pat Heigham
Could have been that one!I was amused with the old terminal – departing flights were announced with different gate numbers – but there was only one exit to the tarmac! Think they were pretending!
I’ve been twice to Hawksbill Bay’ first for the Winner film, then again with a cameraman and his wife who kindly offered friendship for a break on losing my Mum. Happy to go at my expense.
Here’s a story about the Caribbean location on the Winner picture:
St. Lucia:
We were shooting at Ainse Chastenet, a village some way down the coast of St. Lucia, away from Castries where we lived. I was Boom Operator.My girlfriend was coming in that day for a week in the sun, and as there were three ways of getting back to the hotel – fast speedboat for the Director and Artistes, the action cabin cruiser (Twin Volvo in-board/out-board engines), or the ‘chugger’ a plodding vessel that the crew normally had to use, which took a couple of hours.
I asked if I could have a fast ride back. The first assistant was a bit of a bugger – no! go on the chugger! My mixer, a lovely chap called Jim Willis, then pulled his ace from up his sleeve. He explained to the First that we needed to pick up all sorts of FX tracks of the cabin cruiser, since when shooting dialogue, the engines were shut down etc. The run back would be an ideal opportunity!
OK – so Jim and I went back on the fast cruiser, with just the skipper.
Jim said: “I’ll play with the Nagra, you liaise with the skipper.”
As I knew exactly what was required, skipper let me helm the boat, and work the throttles for the right FX – we sailed into the setting sun, and I got back to the hotel at least an hour before the rest of the crew! And with the FX in the can.
Girlfriend was very astute – I was going to re-imburse her for a taxi from the International airport, miles away at the bottom of the island, but she spotted a load of boxes labelled for the production, and hung around to see who picked them up. It was the catering manager who knew me, so she scrounged a lift to the hotel!
Mike Jordan
A good way to get onsite was back for the Raegan/Gorbachov summit meeting in Iceland.We had a Freddie Laker post war Belfast freighter which was big enough to take a full-size BBC links van, our 3m satellite dish, an ITN Range Rover and their smaller (I think segmented) dish.
Flew at about 5000ft to save the fuselage and fortunately I had to go into the van half way to get some coffee as their galley had run out!
Not forgetting taking that big dish to Bahamas by sea. That was the best site with on-site swimming (and “Newsnight” de-rigged onto the beach)
Pat Heigham
I love and can be bewildered by coincidences. Try this tale:A job for LWT, possibly “Surprise, Surprise” involved a lass who had wanted to be an air hostess, but marriage and children put paid to that. The TV programme arranged for her to have a crash training at BA’s training centre at Cranebank, Hounslow, where there was a 747 fuselage mock-up. So we all had to exit down the escape slide!
Some time later, for a holiday trip on a small cruise boat across the Indian Ocean, on a flight to Durban to join ship, my companion and I decided to upgrade to Business class. Settled in to the 747, the hostess (June) came round with the drinks trolley. While she busied herself with the G & Ts, I mentioned that I had been out of the escape slide on one of these. She wanted to know ‘how come’. So I explained the TV shoot. “Yes”, she said, “ I was the instructing Stewardess on that!”. Looking at her again, I recalled that I’d fitted her with a radio mic, even.
Had she seen the programme? No, so I offered her a VHS copy (no DVD in those days) on our return after six weeks. We did meet up for a drink at the pub at the bottom of Pinewood Road, and I was able to present her with a tape.
Now, think how many coincidences had to fall into place:
Us travelling on that flight, us upgrading to Business, June scheduled for that flight and working Business – and on that aisle where we were seated.
There’s a further, nice, chapter to the story. The lass who was crash trained was not guaranteed to actually go on a flight, but LWT had arranged for a couple whose wedding photos had been ballsed up by their photographer, to be flown to Frankfurt and have them redone by LWT’s staff photographer. Our lass would be serving only them, champers on the flight, which we filmed. That flight was crammed, and the cabin crew run off their feet, so our girl was happily trotting up and down, serving everyone!
A lovely feel-good ending!
Doug Puddifoot
Stewart Morris invited an Australian boomerang champion to the UK to appear on the Roof Harris show. He took some of the Young Generation to Heathrow to meet him, and persuaded BA it would be good publicity to get some pics in front of a Jumbo for the papers. Of course the snappers needed him throwing, so he did a circle around the tail fin. Unfortunately not quite AROUND the tail fin. I believe the Jumbo was out of action for a day to repair the dent.Dave Mundy
Flying out to Korea for the 1988 Olympics, from Gatwick on Cathay Pacific, we were delayed for 4 hours due to the catering truck making a hole in the side of the 747 and it having to be repaired and then re-certificated as safe to fly!4 hours with Chris Lewis with nothing to do would test most of your livers!
Anyway, we arrived in HK having missed the connecting flight to Seoul, as you would, we were bumped onto the next available Thai Air flight. Although we had been in Business Class from Gatwick the Thai plane hadn’t got enough spare seats there so some of us were lucky and some weren’t! ‘My’ cameraman never stopped complaining about having to travel tourist whereas I had the real china plates, all the freebies and those lovely slit skirts! Some you win, some you don’t!
The previous day the ITV crew were diverted to Taiwan and sat for several hours in the plane on the runway as a China Air plane had run off the runway in HK! Lucky us!
Mike Giles
That event had delayed our take-off and when we flew into Hong Kong the plane was still half in the water.Barry Bonner
The Cathay Pacific service was brilliant. The landing in Hong Kong with the plane wreck still in the water a bit unnerving! Maybe left as a warning to pilots how short the runway was!In that part of the world people’s names are written with surnames first. So it was quite understandable that the air hostess assumed I was sitting with my brother…one Barry Chaston!
Bernie Newnham
The best ride I’ve had was a return trip on Thai Air A380s several years ago, in a business window seat pod. Lie flat, noise cancelling headphones, excellent food. You didn’t turn left at the door, you went up a whole different gangway. Far better than the BA 787 the next time.For once, I was on my own and only had to pay for me. Cost as much as taking the family in steerage.
Pat Heigham
One flight is indelibly burnt into memory.Job was a corporate video around the world on an United Airlines business class ticket.
Small crew, just camera, sound, director and production manager. In Hong Kong, we had eaten all over, from restaurants in Central, Victoria Island, and Kowloon to Lantau Island, where your meal is still swimming around in tanks, before selection.
The last night, however, we ate in the European style hotel – lovely place, but I was the only one who had a sorbet between courses.
Oh Boy! Was I ill during the night.
Phoned the hotel doctor at 2 am, requesting kaolin/morphine mixture as flying to New York the following day.
“No,” he said, “we don’t prescribe it here, else the buggers would distil the opiate from it!”. He recommended a jollop from the hotel pharmacy which seemed to be a pink Milk of Magnesia. Settled things a bit, but on the leg from HK to Tokyo, the cameraman and production manager were unhappy with the leg room – up against the bulkhead in the first row, so said that “We’ll make Pat the excuse and upgrade from Tokyo to New York”.
Hitting the desk, first class seats were requested. The clerk said that we wouldn’t be able to see the movie. Sod that! So re-boarding, this time to the upstairs 747 section, it transpired that the cabin hostess came from Wembley, as did our production manager, they hit it off, and she kept producing bottles of champagne. I began to feel more human and even nibbled a bit of steak!
With a short crew like we had, no-one could fall by the wayside as there’s nobody to take over.
Barry Wilkinson
I remember my early days at Granada News Lancaster (after leaving BBC Manchester) when there seemed to be no budget limits. We were asked to get on a helicopter early from a hotel near the M6 at Lancaster to fly to Sellafield as Michael Heseltine was opening something new. As I remember, we had to get back quickly to get footage on the lunchtime news. Just four seats, so just enough space for pilot, Bob Smithies the reporter, Dave Brown the sound man and me . We had to leave the spark behind. (Remember three man crews on TV News?)The helicopter was massive and the memory that remains is that of us piling out of this large helicopter when Mr Heseltine arrived by helicopter as well. His was about half the size of ours and I recall jealous looks from him as we started the job.
Border TV arrived in an ancient Volvo ( and it was technically their regional patch). So maybe size does matter?
Doug Puddifoot
I spent two weeks in Russia filming stories for BBC Business Breakfast. We were in Vladivostok and needed to get eighty miles north to a rail terminal. There was not enough time to go by road, so our fixed arranged for the army to fly us there. They turned up in a large troop carrying helicopter with room for forty. It cost us $25.And finally …
Pat Heigham
A lady friend had attended Lancaster University, and tells a tale of one of the tutors who had an MG and RAF-style ‘tache.Got pulled over for speeding, and the officer kindly enquired: “Having trouble taking off, are we?”
