The legend of G-AVMR
Posted: 21 Nov 2006, 12:25
The legend of G-AVMR The County of Tyne and Wear.
For any that haven't heard it, this link tells the story of the old BA 1-11 G-AVMR that was adopted as a pet by Heathrow ATC after they'd nearly lost it once.
May appeal to some of you - made me laugh anyway.
http://www.navex.aero/gavmr.htm
Download the MP3 of the controller telling it at his retirement do - it's the way you tell 'em.
This is the MP3 in text because it can take a few listens. Probably a few small errors along the way...
Golfer Victor Mike Romeo, The County Of Tyne and Wear.
Oh, I've told this so many times...
Mike Romeo was a backup 1-11...
Who hasn't actually heard this?, nobody I bet... there's a hand, one hand's gone up.
Mike Romeo was a 1-11, BAC 1-11 dash 500, standby Shuttle I dunno Glasgow, Edinburgh to London, easterlies leave Bovingdon heading 245 runway 09 left, 10 left... der der der.
And Tony Watkins (?) is number two, he's not here but erm... I thought I'd give it to him and, he wasn't on his best form either because about 5 minutes after I thought I'd given it to him, Tony says "where's Mike Romeo?" I says "I give it to you", "no I haven't", "yes I have", "no I haven't".
And I look at the extremities of the radar, and here he is - GAVMR, 3000 feet, heading off to er... well Lyneham were getting worried. He'd gone over sort of Booker, Buckingham, Berkshire, every other blinking county. He was steaming along.
And this was before sort of, you know, "you-left-our-controlled-airspace-you've-red-information..." all that, which I've never really understood honestly.
I went to Farnborough with Nicky's mob, I thought "cor bloody... is this how you do it eh? I couldn't possibly work there, all this RIS & RAS stuff. They do it religously & do it very well, but I couldn't do it.
Anyway, I realised I'd still got Mike Romeo, and you're then faced with this sort of "Ooh Christ, how'd you phrase this?"... You know, you get this sort of trembles...
"Speedbird Mike Romeo turn left heading zero seven zero, go through the localizer and call established on zero nine left."
And he did, the tw*t 'ead!
He was one of these new boys thankfully, he hadn't cottoned on where he was. I reckon about six or seven planes had been put on between where he should have been and where he was put on.
Anyway, he came back in and about ten minutes later he actually met the glide path and came down it.
He'd been in uncontrolled airspace a long time, Anyway me & Tony watkins "that was terrible", "it was bad wasn't it", so we said from that day on we'll look after Mike Romeo, we'll really look after him.
E-watch have got their gibbon at London zoo - we'll look after Mike Romeo.
Now you can tell Mike Romeo because if he's inbound, we had the old BASIS & it says Bealine and registration and the stand number, when it's outbound we had some light operators who weren't too busy they used to get binoculars & could spy Mike Romeo from the registration.
So, it was brilliant, I mean, inbound wise you're quite busy and you'd say "Bealine 925 into the hold at Lambourne delay 10 minutes" all the rest of it der der der.
Then someone would say "That's Mike Romeo!" and you'd say "925 are you Mike Romeo?"
"Roger"
"Why didn't you say so, leave Lambourne at 270...", and they would, and it culminated in one of the, I remember, he's here tonight, I think... I remember Andy Marsh (?) was lighting operator and he'd landed on 27 left one night in a horrible pretty wintery night and he came on block 81 and I said "Bealine 925 right turn green lights it's hotel, right on the green lights it's bravo ten and it's... hold for bravo ten... oh and he hasn't even started yet"
And I looked at the BASIS and it's GAVMR. Intercom - "Andy that's Mike Romeo that one that's got to hold for bravo ten, see if you can get a new stand for him".
So Andy's into it, we all were on A-watch, we were really good, some of the other watches were, some didn't really like it, D-watch wouldn't do it. Oh except for Mike Ingles, he did it.
Anyway, up comes the stand 'hotel 34' - Now he's never been there before. Never!
So "Mike Speedbird 925 right on the inner, follow green lights you're stand now hotel three four"
So he says "er... we're a 1-11, we don't usually go there."
"Well you're Mike Romeo !?"
... "Oh, Oh yes er, so we are"
So he goes into hotels and parks up with the TriStars, you know, it looked really stupid with everything about.
It was the biggest busing problem they'd ever come across. Cause even though the plane got there, I don't think the old internal British Airways knew where hotel stands were.
But it was a really good era because... in fact pilots used to, even if it was really busy, we'd put them in the hold and they'd actually say, "er... would it help if we were Mike Romeo?"
Which is a really silly question, "course it bloody helps - push him in."
But that basically is the story of Mike Romeo, the County of Tyne and Wear.
In fact when I went down on the FARs trial, a year ago February, he was there. I got pictures of it, it's got no engines or wheels, but he was there. Sorry sight, but a year and a half ago he was still there, but he's gone now ain't he Pete.
That is the story of Mike Romeo.
For any that haven't heard it, this link tells the story of the old BA 1-11 G-AVMR that was adopted as a pet by Heathrow ATC after they'd nearly lost it once.
May appeal to some of you - made me laugh anyway.
http://www.navex.aero/gavmr.htm
Download the MP3 of the controller telling it at his retirement do - it's the way you tell 'em.
This is the MP3 in text because it can take a few listens. Probably a few small errors along the way...
Golfer Victor Mike Romeo, The County Of Tyne and Wear.
Oh, I've told this so many times...
Mike Romeo was a backup 1-11...
Who hasn't actually heard this?, nobody I bet... there's a hand, one hand's gone up.
Mike Romeo was a 1-11, BAC 1-11 dash 500, standby Shuttle I dunno Glasgow, Edinburgh to London, easterlies leave Bovingdon heading 245 runway 09 left, 10 left... der der der.
And Tony Watkins (?) is number two, he's not here but erm... I thought I'd give it to him and, he wasn't on his best form either because about 5 minutes after I thought I'd given it to him, Tony says "where's Mike Romeo?" I says "I give it to you", "no I haven't", "yes I have", "no I haven't".
And I look at the extremities of the radar, and here he is - GAVMR, 3000 feet, heading off to er... well Lyneham were getting worried. He'd gone over sort of Booker, Buckingham, Berkshire, every other blinking county. He was steaming along.
And this was before sort of, you know, "you-left-our-controlled-airspace-you've-red-information..." all that, which I've never really understood honestly.
I went to Farnborough with Nicky's mob, I thought "cor bloody... is this how you do it eh? I couldn't possibly work there, all this RIS & RAS stuff. They do it religously & do it very well, but I couldn't do it.
Anyway, I realised I'd still got Mike Romeo, and you're then faced with this sort of "Ooh Christ, how'd you phrase this?"... You know, you get this sort of trembles...
"Speedbird Mike Romeo turn left heading zero seven zero, go through the localizer and call established on zero nine left."
And he did, the tw*t 'ead!
He was one of these new boys thankfully, he hadn't cottoned on where he was. I reckon about six or seven planes had been put on between where he should have been and where he was put on.
Anyway, he came back in and about ten minutes later he actually met the glide path and came down it.
He'd been in uncontrolled airspace a long time, Anyway me & Tony watkins "that was terrible", "it was bad wasn't it", so we said from that day on we'll look after Mike Romeo, we'll really look after him.
E-watch have got their gibbon at London zoo - we'll look after Mike Romeo.
Now you can tell Mike Romeo because if he's inbound, we had the old BASIS & it says Bealine and registration and the stand number, when it's outbound we had some light operators who weren't too busy they used to get binoculars & could spy Mike Romeo from the registration.
So, it was brilliant, I mean, inbound wise you're quite busy and you'd say "Bealine 925 into the hold at Lambourne delay 10 minutes" all the rest of it der der der.
Then someone would say "That's Mike Romeo!" and you'd say "925 are you Mike Romeo?"
"Roger"
"Why didn't you say so, leave Lambourne at 270...", and they would, and it culminated in one of the, I remember, he's here tonight, I think... I remember Andy Marsh (?) was lighting operator and he'd landed on 27 left one night in a horrible pretty wintery night and he came on block 81 and I said "Bealine 925 right turn green lights it's hotel, right on the green lights it's bravo ten and it's... hold for bravo ten... oh and he hasn't even started yet"
And I looked at the BASIS and it's GAVMR. Intercom - "Andy that's Mike Romeo that one that's got to hold for bravo ten, see if you can get a new stand for him".
So Andy's into it, we all were on A-watch, we were really good, some of the other watches were, some didn't really like it, D-watch wouldn't do it. Oh except for Mike Ingles, he did it.
Anyway, up comes the stand 'hotel 34' - Now he's never been there before. Never!
So "Mike Speedbird 925 right on the inner, follow green lights you're stand now hotel three four"
So he says "er... we're a 1-11, we don't usually go there."
"Well you're Mike Romeo !?"
... "Oh, Oh yes er, so we are"
So he goes into hotels and parks up with the TriStars, you know, it looked really stupid with everything about.
It was the biggest busing problem they'd ever come across. Cause even though the plane got there, I don't think the old internal British Airways knew where hotel stands were.
But it was a really good era because... in fact pilots used to, even if it was really busy, we'd put them in the hold and they'd actually say, "er... would it help if we were Mike Romeo?"
Which is a really silly question, "course it bloody helps - push him in."
But that basically is the story of Mike Romeo, the County of Tyne and Wear.
In fact when I went down on the FARs trial, a year ago February, he was there. I got pictures of it, it's got no engines or wheels, but he was there. Sorry sight, but a year and a half ago he was still there, but he's gone now ain't he Pete.
That is the story of Mike Romeo.
