A view of the opening ceremony of the Concorde Visitor Centre in February 2009
I have been a guide on Concorde G-BOAC at Manchester Airport since the tours started in 2004. I conduct in-depth Technical Tours as well as the shorter 'Classic' tours. Also, tours on our Trident 3b, DC10 front section, the Avro RJX (the very last airliner to built in UK), and now 'The Mighty Hunter' - our Nimrod MR2!
The Concorde hangar from Nimrod
We run corporate events, private events, and weddings, and I act as guide on these as well. I also work with senior students from schools and colleges who visit us, giving presentations on such subjects as 'the Airport as a Business, IT, Handling Airport Passengers, Airports & the Environment, and many other subjects. Recently, we have acquired an RAF Nimrod MR2 aircraft and we now have an extensive tour program for this exciting aircraft.
Me in the P1 seat of the Nimrod
The Nimrod and our Trident 3b dominate the car park
This is a our RJX in the snow, winter 2009 / 10
In 2017 I decided it was time to retire from tour guiding. The Airport was gradually moving the emphasis of the tours from 'museum' to 'Disneyland'. I still enjoyed the Technical Tours where we had time to describe the aeroplane and its operation in detail to interested attendees who asked intelligent questions, but these were becoming rare and the Airport was slowly increasing the number of tour attendees which was leaving less time in the flight deck for each attendee. Instead, shorter tours concentrating on the celebrity aspect of Concorde (who flew on it, where the Queen sat etc.) were becoming our bread and butter.
Time to leave!
