Brian,
Being a BBC film crew member m Scotland in the 1960s and 1970s meant that very often I got to be up close and personal with BEA Viscounts for travel to the Outer Isles and the Orkneys and Shetlands, so seeing some pictures of them brings back lots of memories. One that I do remember quite clearly was a flight from Inverness back to Glasgow on a Viscount. After take off, the captain annouced that he would take us the scenic route and we then flew down Loch Ness at probably about 3000ft, passing Ben Nevis below its peak, a quick left hand down then right hand down to come off Loch Linnhe into Loch Leven, over Ballachulish past the Buachaille level with its peak and down Glen Coe to Rannoch Moor. Then he get a bit more height to get over the mountain range to the north of the Clyde. It was a beautiful day and the flight was very smooth. I'm not sure if that flight would have been in BEA's standard operating procedures.
We once did a programme on air traffic control in Scotland and we spent a fair bit of time at the control room at Prestwick. There I do remember one of the senior staff saying that Scottish air transport had one of the best safety records primarily because almost every airport in the country had some problem which meant that air crews had to be wide awake to land or take off. Like taking off from Sumburgh on the original runway where the runway pointed SSE over Sumburgh Head and as you took off the ground came up with you such that your height above ground stayed much the same until you crossed the Head and the sheer cliffs fell away to the sea.
The other aircraft in Scotland at the time were the BEA Heralds for the Tiree run and the Loganair Islanders and Skyvans. I once saw one of the flight crew on a Herald having to do some maintenance on an engine with the covers open on the sand at Tiree. We were in a Loganair Skyvan and we took off before we saw if he finished the job but he must have since I believe it would have been a write off if it didn't beat the tide.
Jim.
