Piloting Concorde!

August 15th, 2004 by JCB
Posted in Articles, Features | No Comments »

LONDON PILOTS PILOT CONCORDE!

World exclusive photo scoop for the PILOT magazine

View the original illustrated pdf magazine article (Page 10):

pilotmag.co.uk/userfiles/Pilotmag%20278%20(Jul%2004).pdf

On 19^th April the last commissioned British Airways Concorde made its final journey to the Museum of Flight in East Fortune, East Lothian, Scotland. Due to the fact that there was no runway near to the museum capable of accepting Concorde the decision was made to take the aircraft by barge from Isleworth near Heathrow to Scotland under tow. The barge chosen for the voyage was the recently launched Terra Marique owned by R Wynn which has been largely funded by the government to assist the transport of abnormal loads by water, and to reduce congestion on the roads. The Concorde was to be its .rst major test and with the world’s media watching it was essential that everything went smoothly. Three London pilots, John Reid, John Freestone and Peter Widd are authorised London “bridge” pilots and although they were all involved in the planning John Reid, being on duty at the time of the trials became the lead pilot and therefore very much the hidden hero behind the success of the operation. Isleworth is right at the uppermost reaches of the tidal Thames and being beyond the limit of the London pilotage district also required the use of a London Waterman for the upper two miles. Navigation this far up the Thames has two major problems for pilots to contend with, namely the lack of water and low bridges. There were several critical bridges on the passage where the barge would be experiencing a minimum under keel and air draft clearance and this involved careful tidal and air draft calculations and required the up river passage to be staged over three tides. Early trials with the Terra Marique revealed that although the .tted with four thrusters these were ineffective in the strong tidal flow of the river and it was therefore decided to use two small river tugs: Bennett’s Steven B and the Port of London Authority’s Impulse. Further trials also revealed control problems when navigating with the tide so the decision was taken to undertake all under bridge towage against the flood tide for maximum control. The Steven B is a pusher tug and because the

barge had a stern door it was necessary to lash it up to the bow and to push the barge

stern first. In the month leading up to the passage John Reid worked closely with R

Wynn, Bennett’s, Chris Livett (Waterman) and the PLA and it is to the credit to all

involved that the passage was finally executed without a hitch although not without a few raised heartbeats resulting from a 45 minute delay in departure which made the Albert Bridge transit extremely critical. Many observers and the media were disappointed that once loaded onto the barge Concorde was actually placed on a hydraulic platform which lowered the aircraft out of sight (her lowest ever altitude?) of the many spectators lining the banks of the Thames. However, in the interests of permitting our politicians to have an excuse to visit the bar on the terrace the pilots had to plan for a one hour pause in the passage off the Houses of Parliament in order that Concorde could be raised up for a short period by way of a farewell salute. With no press permitted on either the barge or

the tug, John Reid took conduct of the pilotage and John Freestone and Peter Widd

provided essential back up by assisting in ensuring the critical alignment of the barge for

passing under the bridges. In common with most pilots they all understate their essential role but John Freestone did manage to find time to take some excellent and unique photographs during the passage. Once clear of the upper river the tow was berthed at the Littlebrook Power Station jetty just under the Dartford Bridge and handed over to the deep sea tug Argus on the 14^th April with pilot Cerwyn Phillips who piloted the vessel to the outer port limits. Following a safe sea passage, Concorde was reassembled and rolled out for permanent display at the National Museum of Flight Link: (www.nms.ac.uk/ concorde/) on 19^th April.

Although, as usual, the role of pilots was ignored by the media, the reputation of the

port rested totally upon pilotage skills and this passage has proven to be a very

positive PR exercise not just for the PLA but also for the concept of using UK’s

waterways rather than roads. The UKMPA are already members of the new Sea and

Water group (www.seaandwater.org) which is driving forward this European initiative in the UK.