Southend Viking 1964

Just up past the bus on the right was the crash gate, we used to watch through it in the 1960s at the aircraft movements, I remember the lights as it let us know something was approaching, time to get excited !

In the 60’s that was a pretty normal approach to that end of the Southend runway. There were traffic lights to stop the traffic when something was landing but they didn’t seem to get used much until Channel Airways started operating jets.

There was  tree on the left hand side of the road in the picture which had got fairly tall by the late 60’s and it wasn’t unusual to see Carvairs lifting the starboard wing over it on finals. It was one of the haunts for the local spotters and if you stood at the fencing just to the left of the runway edge near the churchyard you could hear the noise from the turbulence behind landing aircraft.

I also remember standing there to watch Constellation N11SR depart just as it was getting dark. It thundered down the runway with flames coming from the turbochargers, seemed to barely scrape over the boundary fence and climbed gently away with the undercarriage appearing very reluctant to retract. I believe the Connie had been offered to Duxford for preservation but never made it there as the Connie was caught gun running shortly after visiting Southend.  

 Best story I ever heard about the road at that end of the runway was when Nigel Brendish had the Leisure Sport WW1 replicas at Harvestair for a while. The Fokker DR1 replica was fitted with gas guns which made all the right noises without actually firing anything.

Nigel was on finals in the DR1 when a milk float crossed his path. Nigel promptly lowered the nose a little and let loose at the unsuspecting milkman with the gas guns. I believe a complaint was made to tower but it all got sorted out amicably.   

Fine with me although it’s not my photo Adrian!

A friend runs an Eastern National buses FB group – I think that’s an EN bus, any objections to me sharing it there as long as I credit Ken?

Good grief ,a lovely photo , so atmospheric.

Wow! Great shot. That’s what you call a low approach!