Mike Jordan
This was the plot of the plane midpoint used for the Glasgow Commonwealth Games Marathon this year (2014).
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A plane is used nowadays for the relay of the motorbikes as opposed to the helicopter we used to use in London etc (with me in it). The plane can fly over clouds and everything is via directional aerials controlled by GPS both up from the bikes and down to the receive site where the receive aerials are also GPS controlled – no more manual panning on East Tower roof for London Marathon and loads of Boat Races!
For London, the plane was actually based in Calais as the distance needed to get to operating height is that far and would be just as great if it was based in the UK and would require UK clearances (it is a Dutch firm providing the plane).
I did many hours in Helis and in the 747 for one Christmas Noel Edmonds show. I rigged the airship at Cardington and was very frightened when it started to drift up on its nose when the electric fans keeping the pressure inside the envelope correct failed!
Happy BBC OB days!
Ian Dow
I have to admit that one of my best lunch breaks was eating my sandwiches whilst sitting on the balcony of the Heathrow Control Tower, listening to ATC on a speaker, whilst working on the live Heathrow 50th Anniversary OB where the airport closed for a short time as 50 aircraft, covering the history of Heathrow, flew in line over the northern runway.
Another interesting channel to tune to is aircraft talking to their maintenance team.
Example:
BA Pilot: “My port compass is reading 30 degrees different to my starboard compass”.
Engineer: “Which one is correct?”
Pilot: “If I arrive in Glasgow the port one!”
Tony Crake
Working at OBs did have some very interesting venues to go to.
I spent 3 days in the Control Tower at Gatwick. One of those Peter H Cleaver shows. I think it may have been called "Transit". I watched enthralled and possibly horrified as a 747 and a smaller turboprop ‘feederliner’ nearly collided on the taxiway on exiting from different turn off points on the main runway. The tower supervisor rushed over to the control panel and pressed the red "TMC" key (much used by OBs and P& ID) and brought both planes to an immediate jerking STOP on the Emergency Channel. Exciting Stuff! No Computers then: each plane was represented by a wooden block which was moved along between the control positions!
Ian Dow
I once parked a DC10 at Gatwick……..
Shooting a drama, “Father Matthews Daughter”, with a scene boarding a DC10 which British Caledonian had free for a 4 hour slot, using their maintenance parking area. The incoming aircraft was going to be 90 minutes late landing, so the production team all disappeared for a coffee, leaving me in the scanner doing some paperwork.
Knock on the scanner door: “Where do you want it mate?” Taxiing towards me was the DC10, which needed to be parked at the correct angle for the background shot. I didn’t have the orange bats but beckoned the pilot towards me with both arms, then waved with one arm to turn right – then both arms above the head and he stopped in the right place. That’s multi skilling for you!
Tony Crake
Re the DC10
I was there! I was on the second unit that did all the bits that weren’t in Putney.
Lots of car bits… if you recall I took you to a bit on the M3 where we could sneak onto the hard shoulder at Chobham Common.
We had to wait for sunset or something so (I think) it was Dave Hume who twiddled all the CCU knobs and hey "instant sunset". The director was flabbergasted… Film didn’t do that!!
Mike Jordan
Multiskilling – where one rigs the 2GHz BBC disc yagis in the nosecone of a 747 and loads of odd kit strapped to a plate on the floor!
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This was for a Noel Edmonds show where we got almost continuous coverage from Gatwick to Birmingham, received at several sites, and the plane had a pop group playing all the while.
The tests were fun as we flew from GWK to Southampton and back with about 12 people on board and the pilot did a “handbrake turn” over Poole – which, when questioned, he said was fun and they didn’t get to do that very often!
The whole thing was also of course linked on to his show at the top of the GPO tower (another of my “fun to work in” sites).
Happy days! OB Comms of course!
Patrick Heigham
These stories remind me that when I worked freelance after leaving the Corp, one of my regular work contacts was with a cameraman who had a full instrument rated pilot’s licence and his company owned a Cessna 414 twin-engine pressurised light aircraft, normally kept at Fairoaks.
One evening, returning too late to get into Fairoaks, we had to land at Heathrow – magnificent view of a vast runway! The tower opens up: "What’s your max airspeed?" "180 knots" "There’s a ‘heavy’ coming in behind you, going faster than you can taxi, so fly down the runway and pop it down when I tell you to exit to a taxiway!"
The airside service was excellent, a minibus collected us from the General Aviation parking area, and we re-entered the UK with our own passport control and customs officers (it was about 01:00 a.m.) as we had to get the equipment carnet stamped, since we were coming from a non-EU country.
Mike Jordan
When I came back from Iceland in a just-post-war Freddie Laker Belfast Freighter, having taken the big 3m BBC OB dish and a full size truck and an ITN dish and Landrover to Iceland for the Reagan/Gorbachov summit, we flew into Stansted – having left Reykjavik behind an Antonov to blow the ice off our wings free and having gone into the hold and the BBC truck to get the jar of coffee to make the drinks and flying at a very low level to “save the fuselage”, we came into Stansted and the pilot shooed us off the flight deck as the CAA watch to see no-one is there who shouldn’t be. Then had to go through customs etc etc and walk back around a side gate airside to get to the trucks!
Patrick Heigham
I can tell you a story where a holiday charter had not been adjusted to re-book an aircraft.
Ski holiday to Verbier and flights to and from Geneva. Our party was booked on a fortnight ending just before the Easter weekend, and the tour company gave us an extra day in the package, on the end.
Homeward coach to Geneva airport – check-in clerk, puzzled: "I don’t have an aircraft for you". In our party was a BA ground hostess who asked to see the duty schedule of inbound and outbound aircraft. Indeed there was no plane for the charter. Check-in clerk mentioned she was puzzled as an incoming party had arrived the day before, but no-one going out! The tour company had omitted to re-book for the extra day!
We also had a solicitor in our ranks, and he insisted that as there was going to be a severe delay, then we should be fed. He managed to get the whole plane load stuffed with steak and chips in the airport restaurant (at Swiss prices!) but I don’t remember if we stung the airline or the tour company. Think it was the tour company as they were trying to offload their responsibility to the airline, but we weren’t accepted as there was no aircraft or flight booked.
The plane that came to rescue us had just returned to Luton from Majorca and was turned around and sent back to Geneva. The cabin crew were severely pissed off and service was carried out with grimly set lips!
