Gatwick

Back in the 60s I had a strong interest in all things aeronautical and Lee and I spent many a happy hour beside the runway at Gatwick, where one could sit close up to the chain-link fence and have an uninterrupted view of arriving and departing aircraft. There were Dan-Air Ambassadors, Viscounts, Comet 4s, B.A.C. 1-11s, Heralds, with their screaming Rolls-Royce Dart engines, TU 124s and 134s, VC 10s of British United Airways and increasingly 707s, 727s, DC8s, DC9s and the very fast Convair Coronado, which left its four trails of black smoke across the sky when it climbed away!

In order to further my knowledge of the comings and goings of civil aircraft, I bought an airband radio with which I was able to listen in to Gatwick and Heathrow traffic. Some of the exchanges between pilot and controller were quite amusing, but none more so than the following.

It was a cold winter night and there had been a fair covering of snow at Gatwick. A 707 captain called Gatwick tower for take-off clearance and runway conditions. Controller: “The runway has been swept, de-iced and grat!” Captain: “And what?” Controller: “Grat! Or whatever the past tense of ‘gritted’ is!”