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Doncaster Sheffield Airport

A Friends of Teesside International Airport visit

Sunday 8th September
Report by Chris Smith

Teesside Airport may have parted ways with Doncaster Sheffield Airport as far as ownership is concerned, but the two Friends groups have no intention of severing ties not least because our group wouldn't exist without theirs and it always gives us something to aspire to when we see how refined their operation is and how much freedom they have across the whole airport and its affiliated businesses. We met at FODSAs new office, their previous one was smaller but had the best view on the airport, looking across to the hangars, adjacent ramp and the runway. They had to vacate when Aeros Flight Training came knocking on the airports door and have since moved up the corridor and have a gigantic "suite" with two connecting rooms both of similar size to their old one! The visit began with a short talk on the history of FODSA and the current operations at Doncaster Sheffield Airport, who recently more or less dropped the controversial "Robin Hood Airport" part, although it still appears in the logo but far less emphasized. As it stands Flybe will leave the airport at the end of the current summer season due to the imminent retirement of the Embraer jets, though there is still a hope that the routes within the range of a Dash 8 will be retained on w-patterns from other bases. We then went airside to the new National Police Air Service facility, where their four newly delivered and immaculate P68 aircraft are preparing for CAA certification for the role they are set to perform. FODSA themselves had not yet been here and were not expecting such a good presentation and talk by the Sergeant in charge of the base, which is also set to become the first in-house engineering base for the rotary fleet in future, which is currently carried out by Airbus Helicopters at either Oxford or Chester Hawarden. The Sergeant stressed photos were allowed but not to be put on "social media" and I'm trusting he did not mean the wider Internet, thus they are included below. Next was lunch at the Wetherspoons in the departure lounge - a busman's holiday for me, but they do pizza which my pub does not yet, and I know I'm biased but we do the best pizza outside of Milan so I was quite happy!! A big thank you to Ian Smith, Commercial Director at DSA for covering the bill! From here we remained airside, walking up to the end of the main apron to see a mini 'maintenance village' where amongst other activities the TUI engineers work from portacabins. Challenger SP-ZSZ, a Doncaster regular, was parked here and almost ready to go. From here we went down to their "CP1" or main landside/airside access point, jumped in the cars and went to the far hangar, used for cargo. In line with the Peel policy "Why should we provide a facility for a third party to make a profit and only take ten percent when we can do it better ourselves and take 100%" that we benefited from towards the end of their tenure in charge of us, the DSA cargo operation has recently been brought in-house, though the previous tenant Anglo World Cargo remains based in another form. DSA Cargo have transformed cargo handling ops at the airport and watching them deal with the 135 tonne payload of recently departed B744F TF-AMM was a pleasure and seemed largely effortless, I got the impression it would take five or six consecutive 747s before they started breaking a sweat! The cargo was perishables including flowers, fruit and veg from Kenya destined for a number of UK supermarkets including Tesco, Aldi and M&S, and our host was keen to stress to all the male's present that they are the same flowers whether you're at Aldi or M&S and all that gets changed is the paper and the price!! Recently, the cargo handlers had to deal with four 747s and two An124s - all for one Taylor Swift concert! From here we went back to Heyford House to FODSAs old office now accommodated by Aeros Flight Training to have a look at their new £250k DA42 flight simulator, which is a stunning bit of kit. A full cockpit mock-up and three screens lead to almost 100% realism and all time completed on the simulator counts towards the hours needed to pass whichever course is being taught, in fact such is the realism that the airframe counts down the "hours until service required" the same as the real aircraft would, and then the unit requires servicing also! Final stop of the tour was over to the fire department, where we were given a tour of the building, a talk by one of the firefighters, followed by a look at the four fire tenders parked in the bays. We then returned to the FODSA suite for a final farewell speech, tea/coffee/biscuit and exchange of thanks between the two groups, with FODSA presenting Friends of Teesside members with goodybags containing various DSA merchandise, and Friends of Teesside took the opportunity to surprise young member and very delighted Kieran Ness with a space in P28R G-STEA for the return journey home. All in all an excellent day, sadly both Textron and 2Excel Aviation were all shut up, although the latter is a 24hr/365 operation and consists of about four subsidiaries including BroadSword Aviation Partners and T2 Aviation, we were told three or so of the offshoots were open to us visiting but one was not and that was enough to put a stop to it, sadly. Textron have always been weary of visitors and despite some early progress when a member of staff there showed some interest in hosting a visit, he must have been reigned in as no further communication was received. The only other thing to note is the Vulcan To The Sky Trust seems to be a lost cause, with planning permission for a hangar and engineering 'centre of excellence' expired and the two aircraft effectively abandoned and open to the elements in a remote corner of the airport.

A huge thank you to Andrew Bosmans (Chairman), Paul Maddison (Vice-Chairman and responsible for the arrangements on the day), Andrew Thompson (Social Secretary) and my opposite number Keith Stones (Secretary) and the rest of the FODSA team for being such gracious hosts as always!

REG	A/C TYPE	OPERATOR	NOTES
9H-VCG	Bombardier BD-100-1A10 Challenger 350	VistaJet Malta
CS-DXN	Cessna 560XL Citation XLS	NetJets Europe
G-BBKA	Reims Cessna F150L	Aviolease Ltd t/a Yorkshire Aero Club
G-BFIB	Piper PA-31-310 Navajo	BroadSword Aviation Partners
G-BGGI	Piper PA-38-112 Tomahawk	Aeros Flight Training
G-BHWA	Reims Cessna F152	Doncaster Sheffield Flight Training
G-BNTD	Piper PA-28-161 Cherokee Warrior II	Doncaster Sheffield Flight Training
G-BZBF	Cessna 172M Skyhawk	Aviolease Ltd t/a Yorkshire Aero Club
G-CIUU	Reims Cessna F152	Doncaster Sheffield Flight Training
G-CTTS	English Electric Canberra B2	Vulcan To The Sky Trust	Stored - marked WK163
G-DSKY	Diamond DA 42 Twin Star	Aeros Flight Training
G-FBJG	Embraer ERJ-175-200STD	Flybe
G-FBJJ	Embraer ERJ-175-200STD	Flybe
G-FDZB	Boeing 737-8K5	TUI Airways	Tech
G-FSEU	Beech 200 Super King Air	Nimbus Air Ltd (BroadSword Aviation Partners)
G-GAVA	British Aerospace Jetstream 31	Links Air	Derelict following 2014 landing gear collapse
G-LYNC	Robinson R22 Beta	Hummingbird Helicopters
G-POLV	Vulcanair P68R	NPAS Doncaster
G-POLW	Vulcanair P68R	NPAS Doncaster
G-POLX	Vulcanair P68R	NPAS Doncaster
G-POLZ	Vulcanair P68R	NPAS Doncaster
G-STEA	Piper PA-28R-200 Cherokee Arrow	David Breden	One of our 'vehicles' to DSA
G-TAWK	Boeing 737-8K5	TUI Airways
G-TAWS	Boeing 737-8K5	TUI Airways
G-TAWV	Boeing 737-8K5	TUI Airways
G-TUIH	Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner	TUI Airways
G-VLCN	Avro 698 Vulcan B2	Vulcan To The Sky Trust	PWFU - marked XH558
G-XCIT	Pioneer 300	Private
N53GX	Bombardier BD-700-1A10 Global Express	York Aviation GP Inc
SP-ZSZ	Bombardier BD-100-1A10 Challenger 300	Blue Jet
TF-AMM	Boeing 747-4H6/BDSF	Astral Aviation
OTT
A7-AND	Airbus A350-1041	Qatar Airways
C-GHLA	Boeing 767-35HER	Air Canada Rouge
D-AIKO	Airbus A330-343E	Lufthansa
EI-GXK	Boeing 737-800	Ryanair
G-JZHH	Boeing 737-85P	Jet2.com
M-IKEY	Eurocopter AS365N3 Dauphin II	Whirligig Ltd
N45956	Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner	United Airlines
N700CK	Boeing 747-4R7F	Kalitta Air
TC-JNA	Airbus A330-203	Turkish Airlines

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