Concorde background yesterday at Edinburgh

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The background for those outside the UK is that there were three Concorde
flights yesterday: a JFK-LHR, a LHR-LHR via the Bay of Biscay, and
LHR-EDI-LHR via the North Sea.

Our bus at EDI was G-BOAE, which routed via Aberdeen on the North East Coast
of the UK,

Glasgow Airport ATC (40 miles to the west of EDI) had asked if 'AE could do
a low approach and go around, or a flypast, at Glasgow. The Captain replied
that he'd love to, but couldn't, as he was under strict instructions from
the company with regard to what was on the agenda for the day. 'AE held over
STIRA VOR at 3000 feet, to lose 3 tonnes of fuel (in approx 6 minutes!) as
he was slightly heavy for an Edinburgh landing. He then routed over the
Forth Bridges before landing at 1200 local.

The event was well publicised in the UK (see bbc.co.uk for much more
detail), and I'd guess that between 5 and 10 thousand people were around the
perimeter watching.

Departure was at 1400 local, and 'AE took off at 1415, with 56 pax and the
rest made up of BA staff and press. With virtually no baggage, 'AE left the
ground using only about 6000 feet of EDI's 8500ft runway, the climbout was
phenomenal, looked like nearly 30 degree climb between 1000 feet and 4000
feet.

Here's a quote from fellow Scottish lister Doug Maclean : "I can confirm the
route though not exactly the time as I was working the Montrose sector at
the time (126.92) Concorde maintained FL290 after a phenomenal climb out of
Edinburgh.  Level (at FL290) before Perth (Perth is maybe 60nm DME from
EDI!!!). They said they wanted to accelerate 15 nm NE of AND (Aberdeen).
There was traffic affecting its climb so it would not have climbed until
well offshore.  We gave it a block of FL500-600 to operate when cleared to
accelerate.  Not a lot of other traffic at that level...."

'AE landed at LHR at about 1600 local, within 10 minutes the other two
aircraft had also landed.

Jim

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