Teesside Airport Movements Trip Reports


Manchester

By Chris Smith and Stuart Reid

Like most enthusiasts I have been craving a trip for a while now and was planning on jumping on the Loganair to Aberdeen, but looks like I'm going to have to wait a little while longer for that, so instead jumped in the car in search of Jet2s. Knowing Stuart was on furlough (and after checking current Government guidelines), I gave him a bell and 12 hours later we were on the road.

Thursday 29th April

I met Stuart opposite Eden Flight Training and we kicked things off with a quick dash between the hangars to bag the two visiting King Airs, although IASC is in all likelihood resident, having switched with IASA which has taken over duties at the Isle of Man base. By 9.15am we were en-route.

REG	A/C TYPE	OPERATOR	NOTES
Teesside International Airport MME / EGNV
G-FLYW	Beech 200 Super King Air	Fly Wales
G-IASC	Beech 200 Super King Air	IAS Medical

The decision to include Liverpool was made as we were leaving Teesside, with Chris having never been and Stuart not for 11 years. Given the on-going pandemic situation there isn't the usual reliance on arrivals and departures, as such we could enjoy a more fluid and relaxed itinerary, that said we had our eye on four exotics at Manchester; the Emirates, Ethiopian, Etihad and Qatar and the sudden inclusion of Liverpool put some of these at risk.
Funny little airport Liverpool, I was expecting to find the jewel in Peel's crown but Doncaster Sheffield is bigger in terms of infrastructure. I'll start at the end - a visit to the original airport site at Speke where the architecturally-impressive original terminal building (largely preserved) and hangars (heavily modernised) still remain. It looks kinda like Berlin Tempelhof and Shoreham had a secret love child. Derelict here are a number of old airliners and airport vehicles, a growing collection as I seem to remember reading about the excitement at the Jetstream being first to arrive, although Stuart reports most were present in 2010. A rogue piece of taxiway still exists that connected the new runway with the original terminal, before a replacement was built much closer to the current runway (I think the current terminal is the third example). The time slider feature on Google Earth shows much of the original airport was still in place as recently as 2000.
Back to the current airport and we drove down to the far end where Ravenair operate the Business Aviation Centre, here a wealth of GA can be read off easily mostly made up of the Ravenair fleet. Also sharing this area is the Liverpool Flying School, Keenair and Skyport - great to see operators proudly displaying their branding on their hangars and premises, instead of the usual bland and bare facades! This location would be excellent when 27 is in use (09 was active during our visit), with a spotter car park and raised mound. We drove 'round the back' with no issues although a local advised us people can often get chased away, so in normal times we would recommend the use of the café here to circumnavigate this. Next we went after the mostly-stored easyJet and Ryanairs, which proved tricky given you have to keep moving on the roads which are marked with double pink lines, or face being slapped with a £100 fine, and the 40-minute free car park seemed to be covid-closed. Best we could do was try (and fail) to count numbers, and providing nothing was parked directly behind the terminal, we saw everything.

Liverpool John Lennon Airport LPL / EGGP
EI-EFC	Boeing 737-8AS	Ryanair
EI-EFO	Boeing 737-8AS	Ryanair
EI-EFX	Boeing 737-8AS	Ryanair
EI-ENR	Boeing 737-8AS	Ryanair
G-BGSH	Piper PA-38-112 Tomahawk	Private	Fuselage only
G-EZAY	Airbus A319-111	easyJet
G-EZBJ	Airbus A319-111	easyJet
G-EZBR	Airbus A319-111	easyJet
G-EZBW	Airbus A319-111	easyJet
G-EZFR	Airbus A319-111	easyJet
G-EZOF	Airbus A320-214	easyJet
G-EZTK	Airbus A320-214	easyJet
G-EZTZ	Airbus A320-214	easyJet
G-EZWU	Airbus A320-214	easyJet
G-EZWZ	Airbus A320-214	easyJet
G-GFRA	Piper PA-28RT-201T Turbo Cherokee Arrow IV	Ravenair
G-GYAV	Cessna 172N Skyhawk	Southport and Merseyside Aero Club
G-LFSH	Piper PA-38-112 Tomahawk	Liverpool Flying School
G-LFSL	Piper PA-38-112 Tomahawk II	Keenair	Red Arrows c/s
G-LFSM	Piper PA-38-112 Tomahawk	Liverpool Flying School
G-LFSN	Piper PA-38-112 Tomahawk	Liverpool Flying School
G-LFSO	Piper PA-38-112 Tomahawk	Keenair
G-NIKL	Robinson R22 Beta	Go Exclusive Ltd
G-OMCM	Airbus H125 B3	TJ Morris Ltd
G-RVNC	Piper PA-38-112 Tomahawk	Ravenair
G-RVNG	Partenavia P68B Victor	Ravenair
G-RVNJ	Partenavia P68B Victor	Ravenair
G-RVNK	Partenavia P68B Victor	Ravenair
G-RVNO	Piper PA-34-200T Seneca II	Ravenair
G-RVRB	Piper PA-34-200T Seneca II	Ravenair
G-RVRE	Partenavia P68B Victor	Ravenair
G-RVRJ	Piper PA-23-250 Aztec E	Ravenair
G-RVRM	Piper PA-38-112 Tomahawk	Ravenair
G-RVRN	Piper PA-28-161 Cherokee Warrior II	Ravenair
G-RVRO	Piper PA-38-112 Tomahawk II	Ravenair
G-RVRY	Piper PA-38-112 Tomahawk	Ravenair
G-RVRZ	Piper PA-23-250 Aztec E	Ravenair
G-TAJB	Airbus H145 D-2	Blythe HCI Ltd (Kingmoor Aviation)
G-UZHK	Airbus A320-251N	easyJet
G-UZHR	Airbus A320-251N	easyJet
M-SPOR	Raytheon 200 Super King Air	Select Plant Hire Company Ltd

Crowne Plaza Liverpool John Lennon Airport
G-AMLZ	Percival P.50 Prince 6E	Speke Aerodrome Heritage Group	ex private owner
G-ANCF	Bristol 175 Britannia 308F	Britannia Aircraft Preservation Trust	ex Invicta International Airlines
G-BEJD	Avro 748-1	Speke Aerodrome Heritage Group	ex Emerald Airways, Dan-Air markings
G-JMAC	British Aerospace Jetstream 41	Speke Aerodrome Heritage Group	ex BAe Systems
G-SEXY	American Aviation AA-1 Yankee	Speke Aerodrome Heritage Group	ex private owner (wears LFS c/s)
WH291	Gloster Meteor F8	Speke Aerodrome Heritage Group	ex Royal Air Force

OTT
G-POLC	Eurocopter EC135 T2+	NPAS Barton

Manchester was the monkey in the wrench, Liverpool took longer than expected and we missed the Emirates and Etihad but the Qatar departed right before us as we drove down the M56. We went straight to the mound adjacent to 23L knowing full well this runway would not be in use, but it was the only way to see across to the executive terminal. With movements best described as no better than peak Newcastle, we didn't hang around here and headed to the Terminal 1 multi-storey car park. This is where the proceedings took a turn for the worse, the car park is now pre-bookings only, whether that's a covid measure or permanent I'm not sure but we couldn't get in and with it being a one-way system, had to buzz for help at the exit barrier to get out, and whilst reversing in that same area I may or may not have hit a bollard...
Next we went to Terminal 3 to log the parked Ryanairs, and much to our surprise were able to stop on a usually busy road and get out to photograph them, this was thanks to the pandemic restricting all flights to T1, with all T3 facilities closed off. Unfortunately this meant we canned a stop by T2 where a new MSCP has recently gone up along with a new aircraft pier, we figured with T3 closed there was no reason for T2 to be any different. Sadly, most of the parked aircraft at Manchester went begging. Some football charters bringing Manchester City fans back from beating Paris St Germain in the 1st leg of the Champions League semi-finale was a small consolation prize.

Manchester Airport MAN / EGCC
A7-ALY	Airbus A350-941	Qatar Airways
D-AINE	Airbus A320-271N	Lufthansa
D-CMXM	Embraer EMB-505 Phenom 300	Air Hamburg
EC-JRP	ATR 72-212	Swiftair	Operating for West Atlantic
EI-DCP	Boeing 737-8AS	Ryanair
EI-DHE	Boeing 737-8AS	Ryanair
EI-DYE	Boeing 737-8AS	Ryanair
EI-EBS	Boeing 737-8AS	Ryanair
EI-EFJ	Boeing 737-8AS	Ryanair
EI-EKR	Boeing 737-8AS	Ryanair
EI-ENN	Boeing 737-8AS	Ryanair
EI-FSL	ATR 72-600	Aer Lingus Regional (Stobart Air)
EI-IMS	Airbus A319-111	Alitalia
ET-AXS	Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner	Ethiopian Airlines
G-DRTN	Boeing 737-86N	Jet2.com
G-EUUN	Airbus A320-232	British Airways
G-EZNM	Airbus A319-111	easyJet
G-EZUA	Airbus A320-214	easyJet
G-JZBG	Boeing 737-800	Jet2 Holidays
G-LSAC	Boeing 757-23A	Jet2 Holidays
G-MDSI	Pilatus PC-12/47E NGX	Ravenair
G-POWN	Airbus A321-211	Titan Airways
G-SAJC	Embraer ERJ-145EP	Loganair
G-SAJL	Embraer ERJ-145EP	Loganair
G-TUIM	Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner	TUI Airways
G-UZLD	Airbus A320-251N	easyJet
G-VMIK	Airbus A330-223	Virgin Atlantic Airways
G-VUFO	Airbus A330-343X	Virgin Atlantic Airways
N903FD	Boeing 757-2B7SF	FedEx Express
TC-LSS	Airbus A321-271NX	Turkish Airlines

Runway Visitor Park
G-AWZK	Hawker Siddeley HS.121 Trident 3B-101	Trident Preservation Society	ex British Airways
G-BOAC	Aérospatiale/BAC Concorde 102	Runway Visitor Park	ex British Airways
G-DMCA	McDonnell Douglas DC-10-30	Runway Visitor Park	ex Monarch Airlines
G-IRJX	BAe Avro RJX100	Runway Visitor Park	ex BAe Systems
XV231/31	Hawker Siddeley HS.801 Nimrod MR2	Runway Visitor Park	ex Royal Air Force
OTT
G-DHLE	Boeing 767-3JHERF	DHL Air	D0982 EMA-CVG
G-ETKT	Robinson R44 Clipper II	Heli-Sphere Helicopters

We briefly considered dropping into City Airport Manchester, we'd more or less abandoned the idea anyway when the sat-nav taking us a different route confirmed it. We went straight to the raised waste ground behind Multiflight and to our horror it was barriered off! Again, not sure if this is some kind of covid measure to stop crowds gathering, but the private lane to the right leading to a crash gate was available, and as it happens closer to where we needed to be. We took the path between the perimeter fence and golf course and were able to read off all stored Jet2s, which I'm not sure was all that many more than you would find here in normal times (several -300s which may never fly again?). Nothing else was at the terminal and both Mutliflight and the flying schools were all closed up.

Leeds Bradford Airport LBA / EGNM
G-DRTA	Boeing 737-85P	Jet2 Holidays
G-DRTY	Boeing 737-8AS	Jet2.com
G-GDFG	Boeing 737-36Q	Jet2.com
G-GDFK	Boeing 737-36N	Jet2 Holidays
G-GDFL	Boeing 737-36N	Jet2 Holidays
G-GDFM	Boeing 737-36N	Jet2 Holidays
G-GDFO	Boeing 737-3U3	Jet2 Holidays
G-GDFX	Boeing 737-8K5	Jet2.com
G-JZBB	Boeing 737-800	Jet2.com
G-JZHC	Boeing 737-8K5	Jet2.com
G-JZHK	Boeing 737-800	Jet2 Holidays


Final call was a surprisingly busy Coney Park, the heliport itself was shut but the caravan storage site next door was not, and four out of five whisks were logged.

Leeds Heliport (Coney Park) EGNP
G-CBAK	Robinson R44 Clipper	Phoenix Building Systems Ltd
G-CDYR	Bell 206L-3 Long Ranger III	Yorkshire Helicopters (Helicopter Services)
G-HECK	Robinson R44 Raven II	Helivation Aviation
G-IBED	Robinson R22 Alpha	Swift Helicopter Services
	Robinson R44


We might have tried Chester Hawarden too in normal times, but my understanding is it's one of the worst airports in the country for vantage points, but the spotter at Liverpool told us to pull up at the security gate and ask to visit the Chocks Away Diner which gets you into the inner perimeter, although he cautioned it can still be hit and miss.
On arrival back at Teesside jungle jet G-RJXH was just arriving from Heathrow to join the two King Airs which were still in, and to cap the day off C17A ZZ174 was just passing overhead mid-level.
Manchester was a disappointment, on hindsight we should have dumped the car somewhere and walked to the MSCP, and we probably should have dropped into Leeming on the way down what with three Apache and a Hunter being based there at present, but otherwise great to get out and about again! Many thanks to Stuart for the company and superior Mk.I eyeball!