40 years of all things GLA for me !

[Allen McL]

So it was 40 years ago, in late October 1980, that I first got bitten by the aviation bug, when a GLA based Loganair Islander pilot came to my primary school in Paisley during a careers week, to give us a classroom talk about his job flying around Scotland and getting up to all sorts of hijinks. He asked if anyone in the class wanted to come down to the hangar for a tour, and this then 9 year old's hand was first up in the air. Followed by my 'bestie' John Stobo and one or two others. I can't recall the name of the chap but remember him telling us he lived with his wife and kids in nearby Inchinnan.

A great wee tour round followed that weekend, with access to Loganair, the tower, all round the BAMG facility, lunch provided by Servisair and a wee scoot up and down the runway in a yellow BAA Glasgow Landover, via the fire dump for a look inside the old Vickers Varsity that occupied the space back then. Finally a bag of souvenirs including a Glasgow Airport metal pin badge that I still have.

Many years and weekends of cycling down with pals followed. Watching the planes come and go, wishing we could afford to go on them somewhere nice. Or hanging around the terminal, chipping together for a packet of sweeties, hoping to maybe see a famous face or a footballer passing through. I recall chasing after TV's John Craven one afternoon to offer him a strawberry Chewit, which he gleefully accepted. Years later on an actual TV shoot that I was filming with him, I recounted the tale, he offered me a spearmint chew by return !

Blimey, I've gone from 9 to 49 in the blink of an eye, and still popping along to GLA whenever I can. A lot has changed in the intervening years, but a lot feels the same too. Like an old friend

Difficult times just now obviously, but I'm confident my old 'friend' will happily see out the next 40 years, and maybe there's some 9 year old at school just now, about to receive a very entertaining careers talk by a man in charge of tartan tailed flying machine too.

[Clive]

Nice one Allen. Enjoyed that.

[ianegpf]

Agreed, enjoyed that also. Brought back some fading memories of a decade before you when we used to cycle to the airport from Drumchapel via the Renfrew ferry.....

IB

[bill]

1973 was the year the aviation bug bit me.I'd flown to Turin (as a wide eyed 12 year old) via LHR on BEA Tridents and back on Alitalia DC-9 to LHR and back up the road on another Trident.Could not believe the size of Heathrow even back then and was hooked from then on. Living in Renfrew at the time it was easy to run up to the airport and back (in the days when I could run). Most summers were spent in the graveyard spotting and when I got my first airband scanner I was off and running. Everyone should have a hobby and aviation is a hard one to beat.Ironically,after moving to London around 1984/1985 I lost all interest in the hobby (found other interests ) but soon rekindled the passion on moving home in 1998.

[Aerecosse]

Used to go over with a mate from my street.... we used to get the bus into town and then the citylink bus to the airport we were only about 13 or so at the time and spent the day going around collecting as much free stuff as we could watching the planes, few treats in John Menzies and then head home the same way.... covered my whole bedroom wall with pics, timetables, the whole lot.... great memories

[atuk]

Taking the bus P7 from Moss Street to Glasgow Airport and going up to the terrace. A highlight was purchasing the monthly timetable and spending Saturday and Sunday afternoons spotting.

My sister, at that time, worked in The Excelsior Hotel during her university holidays and this meant trips at 2330 with my Dad to collect her from work. A Friday night regular was a DA 1-11 series 400 at stand 1 outbound for Rimini - a forgotten destination these days.

I well remember the visits by DC8s of Lofleidir, SAS, Air Spain and Aviaco plus the 707s of Dan Air and Donaldson. I used to trawl the Timetables to see what operated when and a highlight was my Dads trip to MAN on the BE S11 when he brought me back a MAN June 73 timetable.

That was me hooked! I realised there was a pattern to this with aircraft operating back to back flights and this led to Northern Airport Charters for Scottish Air News then joining with Airport Timetables for BHX EMA and LTN to form Airport Timetables UK which ran for the best part of 30 years.

I fell in love with aviation aged 13 and now fifty years later my love remains as strong as ever. I’ve been so fortunate to work in this industry, on the sidelines, in ground handling and travel agencies.

Here’s hoping there are brighter skies ahead for aviation and the dark clouds of 2020 become a distant memory.

[atuk]

Taking the bus P7 from Moss Street to Glasgow Airport and going up to the terrace. A highlight was purchasing the monthly timetable and spending Saturday and Sunday afternoons spotting.

My sister, at that time, worked in The Excelsior Hotel during her university holidays and this meant trips at 2330 with my Dad to collect her from work. A Friday night regular was a DA 1-11 series 400 at stand 1 outbound for Rimini - a forgotten destination these days.

I well remember the visits by DC8s of Lofleidir, SAS, Air Spain and Aviaco plus the 707s of Dan Air and Donaldson. I used to trawl the Timetables to see what operated when and a highlight was my Dads trip to MAN on the BE S11 when he brought me back a MAN June 73 timetable.

That was me hooked! I realised there was a pattern to this with aircraft operating back to back flights and this led to Northern Airport Charters for Scottish Air News then joining with Airport Timetables for BHX EMA and LTN to form Airport Timetables UK which ran for the best part of 30 years.

I fell in love with aviation aged 13 and now fifty years later my love remains as strong as ever. I’ve been so fortunate to work in this industry, on the sidelines, in ground handling and travel agencies.

Here’s hoping there are brighter skies ahead for aviation and the dark clouds of 2020 become a distant memory.

[Allen McL]

Great replies everyone and good to read all the stories. Continuing the nostalgia theme, I pre-ordered this wee GLA themed memento several months ago, which finally arrived the other week, me having completely forgotten all about it too so a nice surprise. It's a Thorneycroft Nubian airport fire tender, manufactured in 1:76 scale by Oxford Diecast. If anyone fancies one, it may still be available online, roughly £18.99 plus shipping. Alternatively, I appear to have pre-ordered it twice from different dealers, both have turned up, so if anyone wants my unopened spare, I'll accept a crisp £20 note and drop it off at your door, (assuming reasonable proximity to GLA)

2021-02-15_07-52-58 by Allen McL, on Flickr