British airways DC-10s

Good info there, thanks.

Just to clarify two points:

a) The DC10-10s were operated by a separate division BCal Charter during the time of their service with BCal. All of these were ex Laker machines, and later went on to be operated by Cal-Air International, which then became Novair International. They took two BCal Charter DC10-10s – G-BJZD, G-BJZE – and added another ex-Laker aircraft G-GCAL – and these were all dispersed when Rank Group closed Novair down – think this was in 1991. [G-GCAL went on to become the Orbis flying eye hospital to replace the DC8 previously used.]

b) None of the DC10-30s operated by BA were ex-Laker machines. BEBL, BEBM, BFGI, BGAT, BHDH/I/J, DCIO were all new build aircraft acquired by British Caledonian. MULL and NIUK were acquired second-hand. NIUK was the ex Ariana Afghan aircraft and actually had the distinction of having survived a surface-to-air missile strike on approach to Kabul in the mid 1980s. The aircraft was luckily too low for the missile to have “armed” when it hit the DC10’s wing – it blew a hole in the wing on its way through, and NIUK had a metal plate along the underside and top-side of the wing as a repair thereafter, which it flew with for the rest of its days with BA. It was around one tonne heavier on the basic weights than the other DC10-30s.

Most (if not all) of the five ex-Laker DC10-30s (G-BGXF-J?) went to United and stayed there for the rest of their days until retired.

And onwards from there:

from memory, two of the BA / ex BCal DC10-30s did go on to be operated by Caledonian Airways [Caledonian was a very separate entity to Cal-Air]. The two were BHDH and NIUK, which were later used by Caledonian on the “Stamford” routes which were BA scheduled services to Nassau, Grand Cayman and Tampa. This batch of “beach routes” was later expanded and BA replaced the deal with Caledonian with a new joint venture, AML, with Flying Colours (later JMC) to operate three 777s.

The DC10s operated a wide range of routes during their time at Gatwick. Many of the BCal African routes like Accra, Abidjan, Lagos were either stopped or moved to LHR. The DC10s were used to launch Gatwick-Phoenix-San Diego and Gatwick-Denver. Stalwart routes on the -10 included Houston, Dallas, Atlanta and Bermuda. The first three were all ex-BCal routes which are still flown by 777s today.

The DC10-30s also flew Gatwick-Tel Aviv during their latter years, a route started using the ex-Dan Air heavyweight 737-400s and later moved up to the -10 as demand grew. The DC10 was even used on daily Gatwick-Faro services one winter season, replacing two 737s each day, before the route was handed over to GB Airways. Faro was a popular one – BA’s crew union agreements at the time meant that long-haul crews had to have two days off before and after every duty, and you therefore only operated one LGW-FAO-LGW roundtrip (BA2520 / 2521) in five days under long-haul scheduling agreement rules!

Eventual retirement for the -10s came due to a combination of increasing maintenance costs and fuel burns. They were usually very popular for the passenger – and one great feature was in Club World. Every BA long-haul flight has a “Raid the Larder” product for food + snacks, but the DC10s were unique in that they had a “Raid the Bar” facility with a drinks cabinet to one side of the forward galley, which was great.

All of the above is from what I can recall – I could go into much more detail if I got the books out, but hope this helps.

PS – before anyone asks, NIUK was registered as such because it stood for Nissan Investments UK, the leasing company which owned it. The “NIUK” title was nothing to do with its previous encounter with a missile!

You mean you found out by reading another thread on this forum (lol)… 😀

http://forum.keypublishing.co.uk/showthread.php?t=60553

aye true lol but i wanted to learn more about them.

British Caledonian had 10 DC-10-30s – G-BEBL, G-BEBM, G-BFGI, G-BGAT, G-BHDH, G-BHDI, G-BHDJ, G-DCIO, G-MULL, G-NIUK – plus two DC-10-10s G-BJZD and G-BJZE. At least one of the -30s was second hand – one came from Ariana Afghan Airlines for sure – and the two -10s came from Laker when Laker collapsed. The rest were new build.

Two were sold – G-BFGI and G-BGAT, and the two -10s were transferred to Cal-Air/Novair. The other eight were aquired by BA when B.Cal was bought by BA. They remained based at LGW until they were disposed of. They mainly operated on the former B.Cal routes ex LGW to the USA (e.g. IAH, SFW, ATL, SAN/LAX), to South America and to a limited extent to Africa.

I flew on several of them in BA service – to ATL and from SAN to LGW via LAX. They were great airplanes to fly on – always seemed slightly more comfortable than the 747s – and the crew were mainly ex-B.Cal people who seemed to be just that little bit more friendly.

All eight BA DC-10s were converted to freighters, and most are still flying including with DAS Air Cargo, Gemini Air Cargo and Centurian Air Cargo.

Andy

I agree with everything you say Andy except

and the crew…seemed to be just that little bit more friendly

Not sure when you took your DC10 flights, but I flew at Worldwide LGW for a couple of years in 94/95 and I’m afraid the one thing the crew were not was friendly!

1L.

Here’s a picture of my 1:400 scale model of G-BEBM, and a shot of her in another life as 5X-BON working hard in freighter land.

By Sheer fluke i found out this week that BA used to operate DC-10s.

luke.

You mean you found out by reading another thread on this forum (lol)… 😀

http://forum.keypublishing.co.uk/showthread.php?t=60553

long time ago though so I may be wrong :confused: :confused:

Not that long, surely sir 😀

British Caledonian had 10 DC-10-30s – G-BEBL, G-BEBM, G-BFGI, G-BGAT, G-BHDH, G-BHDI, G-BHDJ, G-DCIO, G-MULL, G-NIUK – plus two DC-10-10s G-BJZD and G-BJZE. At least one of the -30s was second hand – one came from Ariana Afghan Airlines for sure – and the two -10s came from Laker when Laker collapsed. The rest were new build.

Two were sold – G-BFGI and G-BGAT, and the two -10s were transferred to Cal-Air/Novair. The other eight were aquired by BA when B.Cal was bought by BA. They remained based at LGW until they were disposed of. They mainly operated on the former B.Cal routes ex LGW to the USA (e.g. IAH, SFW, ATL, SAN/LAX), to South America and to a limited extent to Africa.

I flew on several of them in BA service – to ATL and from SAN to LGW via LAX. They were great airplanes to fly on – always seemed slightly more comfortable than the 747s – and the crew were mainly ex-B.Cal people who seemed to be just that little bit more friendly.

All eight BA DC-10s were converted to freighters, and most are still flying including with DAS Air Cargo, Gemini Air Cargo and Centurian Air Cargo.

Andy

I seem to recall that when I worked at the Scottish Air Traffic Control centre in the 1980’s that the DC10 was used by BA on a route from Gatwick to Denver…….long time ago though so I may be wrong :confused: :confused:

BA inherited DC10s from British Caledonian when the scheduled service arm of the latter airline was – ahem – acquired by BA in 1987.