Conversation reminiscing over the Britten- Norman trilander Trislander Key Publishing Ltd Aviation Forums > Commercial Aviation > Kondair Cargo, Stansted, remember?
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View Full Version : Kondair Cargo, Stansted, remember?
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Newforest21st February 2012, 04:36
Just come across the above name with which I was not familiar. There seem to be some interesting incidents in the short life of this company, anyone recall them before I reveal them?
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MSR77721st February 2012, 16:07
Yes, I remember them well. Back in the early to mid 80s at Servisair, we used to handle them at STN. Their Trislanders looked pretty good in that classy silver, red and blue livery. I'm pretty sure that there was also a Piper Chieftain in the same scheme, which would often perform crew positioning flights for airlines such as Britannia, Air UK etc, as well as newspaper/light cargo charters. Our dealings with Kondair, were mostly concerned with the night time newspaper flights, mainly to AMS, although there could have been other destinations. I can to this day remember the night I put weather paperwork and manifests onto a Trislander newspaper flight to AMS, that sadly crashed with the loss of the pilot. It shocked us all on shift that night, as we knew all the Kondair crews very well. There was another episode concerning a Trislander, thankfully this one had a happy ending, but that's as far as I go on that:)
I can also remember a very fearsome captain by the name of Phil Jeffries, well he scared the b'jesus out of this young Traffic Officer! But underneath that exterior, he was a thorough gentleman......so long as you didn't **** up. Both he and the rest of Kondair, became part of the Titan Airways operation.........from little acorns:)
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Newforest21st February 2012, 16:42
Yes, that was a sad accident to G-BDTP.
I will remind you of other incidents tomorrow.
aviation-safety.net/database/record.php?id=19860914-0--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
MSR77722nd February 2012, 03:37
Look forward to that.
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Newforest22nd February 2012, 04:58
Also in 1986, from a book about aviation in Alderney.
...the same year another Trislander, registered G-LCOC, was acquired. This aircraft was the subject of quite an interesting incident in September 1986 under the ownership of Kondair, a cargo and freight airline with three Trislanders, G-LCOC (then registered G-BCCU) being one of them. The pilot was flying from Amsterdam Schiphol to London Stansted at 1000ft. He nodded off half way through his journey and woke up 10 minutes later. He fell asleep again soon after, but this time the consequences of his ‘lack of attention’ were somewhat worse.
He was leaning forward on the control column, so the aircraft started to descend. He only woke up when the wheels were brushing the surface of the North Sea and so he took evasive action (albeit probably a little dozy!), and climbed back to 1000ft.
When he looked out of the window to check for external damage, he noticed that the right wheel was missing and the undercarriage leg was damaged, but he managed to limp back to London Stansted, where he landed safely... his lesson learnt and his future job prospects grave, no doubt!
As far as I know, the NDB is placed slightly to the right of the 26 approach and far enough back that it does not pose a significant problem.
I would speculate that the aircraft would have returned to Guern so Anglo-Normandy (aurigny engineering) could have a look at it.
And there will be more tomoroow!
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MSR77722nd February 2012, 19:10
Yup, that was the happy ending ie: he got down alive and in one piece, that I alluded to in my earlier post. The landing was not very dignified so I'm told.
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Flightmech23rd February 2012, 06:04
I remember watching that Trislander land at STN (minus parts of its main gear) from the open doors of ATEL's hangar 1
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Newforest24th February 2012, 03:53
And the final episode of my investigative flight involves the extraordinary or controversial encounter that G-BDOS had with an alleged UFO. You be the judge!
wiki.razing.net/ufologie.net/htm/kondair84.htmOne aviation historical site lists Kondair as being in existence in '85 and '86, but one of the previous incidents occurred in '84 and they were still advertising for pilots in '88.
www.flightglobal.com/pdfarchive/view/1988/1988%20-%200317.html--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
MSR77724th February 2012, 05:17
Well, I joined Servisair back at the end of '81, and while I admit that I can't be absolutely sure when we started to handle that airline, I'm certain that they were around prior to '85. As Flightmech has said, the incident in question took place in '84, and it was in my early career at Servisair, when I was 'ramping' their flights. I can remember that one of the Trislanders back then, was waring quite a garish green and yellow striped livery with 'XP' titles, it was repainted in the Kondair silver/blue livery some time later.
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Newforest24th February 2012, 12:14
I had contact today with my historical reference who states that the next web update will show Kondair forming in 1977 and being taken over by Titan in 1989.
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civilspotter24th February 2012, 13:46
to put some images to the story
nsm07.casimages.com/img/2012/02/24//1202240753571221399486036.jpg (http://www.casimages.com/img.php?i=1202240753571221399486036.jpg)
nsm07.casimages.com/img/2012/02/24//1202240753561221399486035.jpg (http://www.casimages.com/img.php?i=1202240753561221399486035.jpg)
The mentioned Chieftan probably was G-RUSH
rgds
EC
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MSR77724th February 2012, 14:06
Thanks for posting those EC. Having trawled my old log books, I do have an entry for me ramping G-RUSH, and it was indeed a Chieftan.
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