Opinion, Fact or mis-informed?

Don’t know if this belongs here, but I’ll have a go anyway….

Finally managed to send the other half back to work on a plane to Amsterdam, and just to make sure she went, I decided to go around to the east side of Dyce airport, not far away from the old east terminal, and beside BMI’s maintenance hangar. As a young teenager, I had spent many hours there watching the aircraft coming and going on a Saturday afternoon.

As I parked my car close to the spot, I saw there was a young teenager there watching the comings and goings armed with a Digital SLR camera and a handheld radio scanner. I thought “some things never change!”

I started to speak to the lad, and he seemed very knowledgeable about his aircraft. He was dying to see an Embraer 190 in BA colours and another in BMI colours take off. I told him of the times when me and a couple of friends used to sit here around 25 years ago and watch what came in, albeit with nothing more than binoculars, as SLR cameras were expensive, and I was never lucky enough to get a scanner until I was a bit older.

He asked what sort of aircraft I used to see, and I rattled them off “S-61’s, Pumas, Chinooks, Bell 214 & 412’s, S-76’s, Dauphin, BAC 1-11’s, 737-200’s, BAF Viscounts, Brymon Dash 7 & 8’s, Banderantes, Gulfstream 1’s, even the last of the BA Tridents before they were retired. Ever numerous were the flying school Cessna’s doing circuits and bumps, and the occasional visit from the nearby bases of Lossie, Kinloss and Leuchars supplying the odd Phantom, Hunter, Bucc, Jag, Shack, Nimrod and occaisonally the SAR Wessex or Sea King coming in for a refuel after visiting the local hospital following an emergency airlift. Quite a potential smorgasbord of avation hardware, given the blandness that now exists in Scottish regional aviation.

However, it was when I mentioned what was the most numerous commercial fixed wing movement on Saturdays that I got an inkling that maybe times have changed. I said “Of course, most of the flights on Saturdays tended to be the HS748 / Budgies of BA and Dan Air” to which I got the reply – “Ah yes, they were crap, weren’t they?” 😮

I nearly choked! Given the list of aircraft I could name, whereas all I saw in the time I was there was 2 Emb 190, 1 Emb 145, and a Fokker 100 and a couple of Pumas. I am hoping that this was just a very mistaken opinion or he was thinking of the ATP. Given the relative success of the 748, I was dumbfounded….

Either that or before I reach 40, I am heading into the historic category as well!! 😉

It does make the point that despite all the media and information out there, that some enthusiasts are still ignorant of the UK’s great post war aviation achievements, especially if they get excited over a brazillian aircraft which looks like a baby 737……

Ho Hum…..

Hope you don’t mind my musing.

Kind Regards,
Scotty