PB0 Early Days, Highland Airways Dragon Rapide G-ADAJ at Sumburgh
also from Barry Davidson is this golden anniversary brochure and airspace map
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Wednesday 6.1.93 Line of charter traffic on Sumburgh north western apron awaiting return of oil pollution groups and press after the wreck of the Braer Tuesday am 5.1.93
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Thursday 7.1.93 6 Dakotas and a DC6 of Air Alantique awaiting a break in the weather for the resumation of oil spill spraying dutues. The DC6 has arrived wtih supplies from Coventry and Aberdeen
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Sumburgh 12.1.93 4 x Seaking HC4s of 846 Squadron fuel stop en route from Norway to Yeovilton, with normal Sumburgh Loganair traffic
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PB8a the terminal in 1982 from Chris Stock
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Far right, Mike Wild Controlling Sumburgh Inbounds and Outbounds watched by Michael Black. On left Peter Denny handling the offshore sector work
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Terry Irvine pepares flight progress strips
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Mircro dish aerial under repair at Compass head site, Engineers Andy Stevens and Alan Ludlum
PB12a Sumburgh primary on compass head from Exnaboe by Alan Dodson
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Cossor SSR (?) radar Fitful Head, 1981
PB16a As part of the massive redevelopment of Sumburgh in the late 1970’s/early 80’s Cossor SSR was installed on Fitful Head, to the NW of the airfield. Below is a scan of a double centre page spread advert that Raytheon took out in The Economist at the time. Tony Norris
six more pictures of Fitful Head by Alan Dodson
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PB16b view from fitful head towards Sumburgh airfield
PB16c Eddy Dapre and Hugh McNally
PB16d CAA vehicle waiting below Fitful, after transferring to Landrover
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Peter Denny monitors a wave of helicopters to the east of Shetland basin, using the cossor ssr sited at Fitful Head
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The Runway 27 ILS Localiser frames the ACR 430 radar inside the “golfball” dome
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Mr A Ludlum on phone
Mr A Stevens monitoring equipment
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Spot 7 GATBJ, Sk61 of BIH unloading oilmen
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Foreground Tracey Brickles
right Karen Skinner
Far left standing Milke Wild
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Foreground John Black
Middle Tracy Brickles
Far left Mike Wild
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Some more photos via Christ Stock
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PB30 via Barry Davidson as are PB31 and PB32
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atchistory 
What is PB21 please? (PB23? atchistory) It’s no’s the current tower and looks too modern to be its predecessor. The semi VCR is intriguing.
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That’s the original tower after it had some modifications on it in early 1970s so you could see a bit more. You still couldn’t see out of one side of the tower and had to run across the room and look out the fire escape door to see to the southwest
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I was detached to Sumburgh for 4 weeks in 1972 as a ‘reward’ for passing C of C in Glasgow Tower and GMC (I was the first to actually be examined in GMC at Glasgow as it only opened that year and and those already having a tower validation were automatically given GMC too)
Sumburgh was very different in those days from what it is like now. No ‘proper’ VCR – you could only see out the airfield side of the first floor windows – no radar and above all the terminal building wasn’t even in the planning stages! There was just the VOR on the airfield and the NDB on Sumburgh Head about a mile south. Fitful Head was useful in the days before the radar was sited there; being about 1,000ft AMSL you looked at Fitful when doing a Met Ob; if the cloud touched the top it was 1,000ft, if above or below the top you reported 1200ft or 800ft!!
BEA and Loganair flew regular schedules; BEA Viscounts doing the mainland stuff and Loganair Islanders inter islands. An episode ot the TV series ‘Shetland’ was recently shown on TV and I recognised the old Tingwall (Lerwick) airstrip in it from when we landed there on my ‘compulsory’ round the islands trip with Loganair although this wan’t my first flight with them; I’d already visited Foula, a rocky outcrop in the Atlantic with little in the way of port facilites for boats and no beaches either so the occupants built their own airstrip! (Miss Foula and your next landfall is Nova Scotia).
Also resident at Sumburgh were BEA Helicopters and Bristow Helicopters, with Air Anglia providing Dakotas for crew changes for the oil rigs.
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Hi Terry.
Great story! Do you remember when the ILS was installed on R/W 27/09? I believe high fluorescent buoys anchored to mark the flight path with sodium flares either side of the threshold. Any info would be useful as I believe that the helicopters used to shut down on Fitful until the fog cleared from the airfield.
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Miss Foula and your more likely to hit Labrador!
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The excellent photo’s taken at Sumburgh would be very welcome on the “Sumburgh Airport Archive” site on Facebook. Is it possible for me to re-post these, if so who can give me permission?
Cecil Duncan retired, ex AFS Sumburgh.
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Hi Cecil
Please do use them. Where the photographs are credited to an individual then please credit them on your site too.
John Levesley
atchistory
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