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Aviation History
1963
1963 - 1261.PDF
FLIGHT International, 18 July 1963 89 MANNANAN AND CAMBRIAN Red dragon on Mannanan: first Cambrian passengers disembarking at Ronaldsway |ANNANAN can't be wanting these Welshmen here," they said at Ronaldsway, "otherwise he wouldn't trail his mantle like that." The mantle was a layer of cloud driven by a bitter wet wind from the south at 200ft over the bleak expanse of the Isle of Man's airport, on the shore of the Irish Sea. The ancient King Mannanan of Man is said to trail his mantle to keep out invaders, and he did so effectively on this occasion, delaying the arrival of Cambrian Airways' first revenue flight by several hours. We went to see the met man, who looked at his charts, said we were in a warm sector, that you couldn't tell how fast the cold front (which would clear the air) was moving. We all agreed it was the coldest and windiest warm sector we had ever been in and accepted the only comfort he could offer—a cup of tea. Seagulls wheeled and squawked plaintively. This was not an auspicious start, but things turned out all right later in the day. But before going on to that, let's go back to the beginning. Last autumn BEA announced their proposal to with' draw on March 31, 1963, from the routes between Manchester, Belfast, Liverpool and London and the Isle of Man, and between Liverpool and Belfast.^ Cambrian applied to the ATLB for these routes and in due course got the licence. As the accompanying map shows, they were to take over what amounts to a neat little airline operation, spanning the sea between the two great industrial and shipping centres and Northern Ireland and connecting the holiday centre of the IoM with these places and with London. Your correspondent thought it would be interesting to see what changes had taken place on these routes over the years and to witness BEA's last flights at Liverpool and the Isle of Man, and Cambrian's first operations thereto. What must be one of the shortest scheduled flights in Europe, from Manchester to Liverpool (8min by Viscount), landed me on Sunday, March 31, at that very fine airport building which far-seeing Liverpudlians put up nearly a quarter of a century ago. There was hardly a sign of BEA, for Cambrian had already stuck their symbol —a Welsh dragon on a red square—over the old BEA check-in desks, signs and traffic and engineering equipment. Apart from this, there seemed to the casual observer little change. Aeroplanes came and went, aero-spotters chased around the public terraces and the Liverpool burghers took their Sunday lunch in the sophist icated airport restaurant overlooking the apron. But behind the scenes BEA staff were there in force, checking ticket stocks, going through inventories of equipment with the Cambrian people. One got a fleeting impression in the cargo office of a great sorting of all me complicated documentation that seems to be needed for cargo handling. To the Liverpool cargo agent life will be much the same, 'or many BEA staff were transferred to Cambrian, who are keeping going the excellent BEA road freight service to and from Manchester jurport, which is more closely linked to world air routes than iverpool. BEA engineers finished their intricate three days' Progressive hand-over of hundreds of spares and equipment, rang- 8 h°m tiny bolts in little protective bags labelled with reference umbers, to de-icing equipment and ground power units worth ^veral hundred pounds. o BEA's 17-year residence at Liverpool drew to a close and there was time to talk to the staff. There was an air of sadness, for had16nf them had been with BEA a11 those years- However> they WithTic *her g0t J0bs With Cambrian> been found Posts elsewhere M ^A> nad joined the airport staff or obtained work locally. wer h 12° miIeS away at their Cardiff (Rhoose) HQ, Cambrian e busy deploying their Viscounts for the next day's sche- *ndC\/iendms °ne t0 each of the'r three bases—London, Liverpool •Manchester—where they are also basing two crews apiece. ON page 83 we report Cambrian Airways' profit in 1962, and the fight the airline is having to make its new routes pay. Here is the story of the historic take-over from BEA. For the last time, the public address system called "BEA— British European Airways announce . . ."—in this case "the departure of their flight BE7324 to Belfast and the Isle of Man," and we boarded their smart 800 series Viscount to whine out over the Mersey and the Irish Sea. What a contrast with the sedate Rapides and grinding Ju52s with which BEA took over this route 17 years ago. (To be precise, this was only BEA's last flight to the north-west; their very last movement was BE7135 at 1910 for Manchester.) A descent on the Ronaldsway ILS over a grey-and-white-flecked sea took us in to Ronaldsway. Flags atop the airport building strained in the wind: the Manx three-legged emblem (whichever-way- you-throw-me-I-stand-up), the Union Jack, the red Cambrian dragon and the green of Aer Lingus—BEA's had already gone. Here the weeks of preparing for the change-over were done, the last item inventoried and signed-for by Cambrian, and the only BEA thing about the place was the uniform of the staff. We watched them go through the rituals for the last time; checking-in passengers, load sheet and balance chart made up, the loaders putting the last baggage aboard, the final tarmac hustle of the passengers—a handsome woman with a large checked bag bringing up the rear and all unwittingly making her small contribution to aviation history. Viscount 800 G-AOJB (Capts Charters and Baldwin, both veterans of some 17 years on this route) got airborne at 1825 for Liverpool, the teleprinters in the BEA comms room chattered the departure signal followed by a surely permissible though unorthodox "THAT'S THE LAST ONE GOODBYE," and Cambrian's new routes, "spanning the sea between the two great indus trial and shipping centres and Northern Ireland and connecting the holiday centre of the loM with these places and with London"
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