Dundee Airport
DUNDEE: Civil regional airport (also known as RIVERSIDE PARK)
Note: All eight of these pictures were obtained from Google Earth ©
Picture by Austin J Brown
Operated by:
1965: Dundee Corporation
1980s/1990s: Tayside Regional Council
2000: Dundee City Council
British airline users: Autair, British Eagle, Brymon Airways, Business Air, Flybe
Flying club/schools: Tayside Aviation, Tayside Flying Club
Maintenance: Tayside Aviation
Location: S of A85, north bank of Firth of Tay, 0.5nm S of Dundee
Period of operation: 1963 to present day (The airport moving somewhat to the west for the hard runway)
Reproduced with the kind permission of Pooleys Flight Equipment Ltd. Copyright Robert Pooley 2014:
Runway(s): Originally narrow roughly east-west orientated grass airfield known as RIVERSIDE PARK and also as RIVERSIDE DRIVE up to 1975 and possibly beyond? The grass runway was: 10/28 1219x122 grass
It appears the original hard 10/28 runway was 900 metres long
1990: 10/28 1100x30 hard
2000: 10/28 1400x30 hard
NOTES: The original airfield was just east of the present airport and is now playing fields. It appears that when commercial flights were envisaged, obstacle clearance over the city and the Tay railway bridge was insufficient, hence the construction of the present day airport situated further west. But not quite so it appears - see below.
In September 2020 I was kindly contacted by Mr Graham Frost, a great friend of this 'Guide', who sent me this picture.
He tells us that the original airport had a very basic terminal in the SE corner of the airfield, and the British Eagle DH104 Dove 'Eaglet' (G-AROI), ran a PRESTWICK, RENFREW, EDINBURGH, DUNDEE service. It also appears that Autair operated a HS.748 service to LUTON, with RAF LEUCHARS being the diversion when RIVERSIDE was waterlogged. Graham also tells us that IDS flew a Cessna Citation onto the grass in the mid-1970s and the Tipsy Nipper G-AVXD was another visitor.
In 2022 Graham found some more information. It appears the first Autair HS.748 flight, was by G-ATMI, and commenced on the 18th May 1966. It seems that sometimes the flight was direct, or otherwise via SQUIRES GATE (Blackpool), and/or CARLISLE.
Is it just possible, poking its nose into the right-hand side of the picture, that this could be the Piper PA-23 Aztec G-AZHA flown by Jim McKercher? See: ANOTHER MEMORY below.
A PERSONAL MEMORY
I can still vividly remember my first and only landing here as a ‘rooky’ PPL in 1992. A strong northerly wind was blowing and creating turbulent cross-wind havoc. My “co-pilot” sitting in the right-hand seat was my friend and colleague, Austin "Aussie" J Brown, the well known aviation photographer who had only recently given up flying commercially with a wealth of airline flying experience. So here I was fighting the controls for dear life - with him being faintly amused. I’ve learnt an awful lot about flying since - mostly forgotten of course. I’m glad to say I managed to land our 172 without causing any damage, (more by luck than judgement?), and later watched a small airliner land nose-wheel first! It really was a bit rough at the time.
ANOTHER MEMORY
Imagine my delight years years later hearing from Jim McKercher who used to fly the PA-23 Aztec G-AZHA out of RIVERSIDE DRIVE on charter work. One job involved flying a night charter either on a Friday or Saturday to Belfast in 1976 carrying newspapers. Returning at around two or three o’clock in the morning when the weather was bad RAF LEUCHERS would give him a PRA (Precision Radar Approach) and still had him on radar at 200ft! Jim says this was a brilliant service as the airfield had no approach lighting, just some gooseneck flares spaced out on the grass. It was Jim who sent me James Allans excellent book Wings Over Scotland plus providing more advice and information from his long and varied flying career. In fact he even remembers seeing, in 1940 or thereabouts, when about four years old, the aircraft at METHVEN CASTLE in PERTHSHIRE and really wishing the bus driver would slow down to give him more time to look. I wonder how many others, reading this, have similar childhood memories?
DUNDEE PICTURE GALLERY
I have to admit that all the pictures I have of Dundee were taken on our one and only visit to this singular and unusual airport on the 14th October 1992. If you would like to add others I would be most interested to view them. (Preferably in jpeg format)
First picture by the author. Second picture by Austin J Brown and the third picture by the author.
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