Teesside Airport may have parted ways with Doncaster Sheffield Airport as far as ownership is concerned, but the two Friends’ groups have no intention of severing ties, not least because our group wouldn’t exist without theirs, and it always gives us something to aspire to when we see how refined their operation is and how much freedom they have across the whole airport and its affiliated businesses.
We met at Friends of Doncaster Sheffield Airport (FODSA)’s new office on 8th September 2019. Their previous office was smaller but had the best view on the airport, looking across to the hangars, adjacent ramp and the runway.
Sadly they had to vacate when Aeros Flight Training came knocking on the airport’s door and have since moved up the corridor to a gigantic “suite” with two connecting rooms, both of similar size to their old one!
Our visit began with a short talk on the history of FODSA and the current operations at Doncaster Sheffield Airport, which recently more or less dropped the controversial “Robin Hood Airport” part of its name, although it still appears in the logo but far less emphasized.
As it stands Flybe will leave the airport at the end of the 2019 summer season due to the imminent retirement of the Embraer jets, though there is still a hope that the routes within the range of a Dash 8 will be retained on w-patterns from other bases.
We then went airside to the new National Police Air Service facility, where their four newly delivered and immaculate P68 aircraft are preparing for CAA certification for the role they are set to perform. FODSA themselves had not yet been here and were not expecting such a good presentation and talk by the Sergeant in charge of the base, which is also set to become the first in-house engineering base for the rotary fleet in future, which is currently carried out by Airbus Helicopters at either Oxford or Chester Hawarden.
Next was lunch at the Wetherspoons in the departure lounge. A big thank you to Ian Smith, Commercial Director at DSA for covering the bill!
From here we remained airside, walking up to the end of the main apron to see a mini ‘maintenance village’ where, amongst other activities, the TUI engineers work from portacabins. Challenger SP-ZSZ – a Doncaster regular – was parked here and almost ready to go.
From here we went down to their main landside/airside access point, jumped in the cars and went to the far hangar which is used for cargo. In line with the Peel policy “Why should we provide a facility for a third party to make a profit and only take ten percent when we can do it better ourselves and take 100%” that Durham Tees Valley saw towards the end of their tenure in charge of us, the DSA cargo operation has recently been brought in-house, though the previous tenant Anglo World Cargo remains based in another form. DSA Cargo have transformed cargo handling ops at the airport and watching them deal with the 135 tonne payload of recently departed B744F TF-AMM was a pleasure and seemed largely effortless. I got the impression it would take five or six consecutive 747s before they started breaking a sweat!
The cargo being handled on our visit was perishables including flowers, fruit and veg from Kenya destined for a number of UK supermarkets including Tesco, Aldi and M&S. Our host was keen to stress to all of the men present that they are the same flowers whether you buy them at Aldi or M&S, and all that’s changed is the paper and the price!!
Recently, the cargo handlers had to deal with four 747s and two An124s – all for one Taylor Swift concert!
From here we went back to Heyford House to FODSAs old office, now accommodated by Aeros Flight Training, to have a look at their new £250k DA42 flight simulator, which is a stunning bit of kit.
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A full cockpit mock-up and three screens meant almost 100% realism and all time completed on the simulator counts towards the hours needed to pass whichever course is being taught. In fact, such is the realism that the airframe counts down the “hours until service required” the same as the real aircraft would, and then the unit requires servicing also!
Final stop of the tour was over to the fire department, where we were given a tour of the building, a talk by one of the firefighters, followed by a look at the four fire tenders parked in the bays.
We then returned to the FODSA suite for a final farewell speech, refreshments and exchange of thanks between the two groups, with FODSA presenting Friends of Teesside members with goody bags containing various DSA merchandise. Friends of Teesside took the opportunity to surprise young member Kieran Ness with a space in PA-28R G-STEA for the return journey home, which he was delighted with.
All in all an excellent day. Sadly both Textron and 2Excel Aviation were shut up. Although the latter is a 24hr/365 operation and consists of about four subsidiaries including BroadSword Aviation Partners and T2 Aviation, we were told three or so of the offshoots were open to us visiting but one was not and that was enough to put a stop to it.
The only other thing to note is the Vulcan To The Sky Trust seems to be a lost cause, with planning permission for a hangar and engineering ‘centre of excellence’ expired and the two aircraft now parked outside in the elements in a corner of the airport.
A huge thank you to Andrew Bosmans (Chairman), Paul Maddison (Vice-Chairman and responsible for the arrangements on the day), Andrew Thompson (Social Secretary) and my opposite number Keith Stones (Secretary) and the rest of the FODSA team for being such gracious hosts as always!