On Sat, 08 Sep 2007 10:50:00 -0700, Jon
wrote:

On 8 Sep, 10:35, "dB" wrote:
I once heard that a building either at or near Croydon Airport has the
word NO written on so as to advise pilots that they are not
approaching Gatwick.

There used to be a gasholder at South Harrow with NO painted on the
side to indicate that it was near Northolt airfield and not on the
approach to Heathrow.

That was done after someone tried to land a 747 at Northolt.

The gasholder still standing in Southall has an arrow and 'LH' marked
on it for the same reason. ISTR being told someone did land a 707 at
Northolt by mistake in the 1970's, and it had to be stripped of all
non-essential components to make it light enough to take off again
safely.

http://www.abpic.co.uk/photo/1001607 and
http://www.thirdamendment.com/wrongway.html refer to this incident in
October 1960.

Wikipedia's page on [[RAF Northolt]] states "In days before such
navigational aides as instrument landing system (ILS) and the global
positioning system (GPS), the letters NO (for Northolt) and HR (for
Heathrow) were painted on two gasometers situated on the approach to
each airfield, one at Southall for the approach into Heathrow and one
at South Harrow for the approach to Northolt in an effort to prevent
recurrence of such errors." - this seems to imply that they're no
longer there, and certainly I cannot find any evidence from a quick
Google Maps search.

"James Farrar" wrote in message

On Sat, 08 Sep 2007 10:50:00 -0700, Jon
wrote:

On 8 Sep, 10:35, "dB" wrote:
I once heard that a building either at or near Croydon Airport
has the word NO written on so as to advise pilots that they are
not approaching Gatwick.

There used to be a gasholder at South Harrow with NO painted on the
side to indicate that it was near Northolt airfield and not on the
approach to Heathrow.

That was done after someone tried to land a 747 at Northolt.

The gasholder still standing in Southall has an arrow and 'LH' marked
on it for the same reason. ISTR being told someone did land a 707 at
Northolt by mistake in the 1970's, and it had to be stripped of all
non-essential components to make it light enough to take off again
safely.

It was a PanAm 707 in October 1960. The racket must have startled the
residents of Harow-on-the-Hill and Harrow school, which is right under
the flight path.


http://www.abpic.co.uk/photo/1001607 and
http://www.thirdamendment.com/wrongway.html refer to this incident in
October 1960.

Wikipedia's page on [[RAF Northolt]] states "In days before such
navigational aides as instrument landing system (ILS) and the global
positioning system (GPS), the letters NO (for Northolt) and HR (for
Heathrow) were painted on two gasometers situated on the approach to
each airfield, one at Southall for the approach into Heathrow and one
at South Harrow for the approach to Northolt in an effort to prevent
recurrence of such errors." - this seems to imply that they're no
longer there, and certainly I cannot find any evidence from a quick
Google Maps search.

I don't know about Southall, but the Northolt gas holder is long gone,
to be replaced by a small retail park with three large stores:
http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?hl=en&...8476&z=17&om=1

Sadly, they don't have any helpful messages for passing pilots painted
on their roofs.

That's the Piccadilly line passing on the left, and you can still see
the remains of the old freight branch pointing at what is now a Waitrose
store.

James Farrar wrote:

Wikipedia's page on [[RAF Northolt]] states "In days before such
navigational aides as instrument landing system (ILS) and the global
positioning system (GPS), the letters NO (for Northolt) and HR (for
Heathrow) were painted on two gasometers situated on the approach to
each airfield, one at Southall for the approach into Heathrow and one
at South Harrow for the approach to Northolt in an effort to prevent
recurrence of such errors." - this seems to imply that they're no
longer there, and certainly I cannot find any evidence from a quick
Google Maps search.

The Southall gasometer seems to still have LH on it...
http://maps.live.com/default.aspx?v=...0103&encType=1

On Sun, 9 Sep 2007 00:29:10 +0100, "John Rowland"
wrote:

James Farrar wrote:

Wikipedia's page on [[RAF Northolt]] states "In days before such
navigational aides as instrument landing system (ILS) and the global
positioning system (GPS), the letters NO (for Northolt) and HR (for
Heathrow) were painted on two gasometers situated on the approach to
each airfield, one at Southall for the approach into Heathrow and one
at South Harrow for the approach to Northolt in an effort to prevent
recurrence of such errors." - this seems to imply that they're no
longer there, and certainly I cannot find any evidence from a quick
Google Maps search.

The Southall gasometer seems to still have LH on it...
http://maps.live.com/default.aspx?v=...0103&encType=1

Ah, it's on the side, not the top. Thanks.

On 9 Sep, 00:29, "John Rowland" wrote

The Southall gasometer seems to still have LH on it

It certainly does - I see it through the window every day I'm at work.

Jon

On 8 Sep, 20:54, James Farrar wrote:
On Sat, 08 Sep 2007 10:50:00 -0700, Jon
wrote:



On 8 Sep, 10:35, "dB" wrote:
I once heard that a building either at or near Croydon Airport has the
word NO written on so as to advise pilots that they are not
approaching Gatwick.

There used to be a gasholder at South Harrow with NO painted on the
side to indicate that it was near Northolt airfield and not on the
approach to Heathrow.

That was done after someone tried to land a 747 at Northolt.

The gasholder still standing in Southall has an arrow and 'LH' marked
on it for the same reason. ISTR being told someone did land a 707 at
Northolt by mistake in the 1970's, and it had to be stripped of all
non-essential components to make it light enough to take off again
safely.

http://www.abpic.co.uk/photo/1001607 and
http://www.thirdamendment.com/wrongway.html refer to this incident
in October 1960.

Wikipedia's page on [[RAF Northolt]] states "In days before such
navigational aides as instrument landing system (ILS) and the global
positioning system (GPS), the letters NO (for Northolt) and HR (for
Heathrow) were painted on two gasometers situated on the approach to
each airfield, one at Southall for the approach into Heathrow and one
at South Harrow for the approach to Northolt in an effort to prevent
recurrence of such errors." - this seems to imply that they're no
longer there, and certainly I cannot find any evidence from a quick
Google Maps search.


The gasometer is still there at Southall along with the letters
painted on it - in fact what's actually painted on them is "LHR"
accompanied by an arrow below pointing forwards (though of course the
precise arrangement may have been different in the past). You can see
it from the train on the GWML. Presumably this is provided by
arrangement between the gas board - now Transco - and BAA / the CAA /
NATS.

Here is conformation, albeit without a photo of the LHR markings on
the side:
http://www.route79.com/journal/archives/000213.html

And here, courtesy of a Flickr contributor, is photographic proof of
the LHR and arrow markings:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/route79/276017099/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/route79/162905004/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/fictiondreamer/1138463729/

Great great curry houses in Southall too - and authentic, in the
truest sense of the word.

On 9 Sep, 15:32, Mizter T wrote:

(snip)

The gasometer is still there at Southall along with the letters
painted on it - in fact what's actually painted on them is "LHR"
accompanied by an arrow below pointing forwards (though of course the
precise arrangement may have been different in the past). You can see
it from the train on the GWML. Presumably this is provided by
arrangement between the gas board - now Transco - and BAA / the CAA /
NATS.

Here is conformation, albeit without a photo of the LHR markings on
the side:http://www.route79.com/journal/archives/000213.html

And here, courtesy of a Flickr contributor, is photographic proof of
the LHR and arrow markings:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/route79/276017099/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/route79/162905004/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/fictiondreamer/1138463729/

Great great curry houses in Southall too - and authentic, in the
truest sense of the word.


And this is the bit where I admit to being a complete idiot! The text
on the markings does of course merely state "LH" as opposed to "LHR" -
I was going by memory as opposed to actually looking at those Flickr
photos that I'd found, d'oh!

I've also just looked at the link to Live Maps that John Rowland
provided in another post - the birds eye view shows it clearly.

The cause of my befuddlement is that LHR is of course the IATA code
for Heathrow.

On Sep 9, 3:32 pm, Mizter T wrote:
On 8 Sep, 20:54, James Farrar wrote:


http://www.flickr.com/photos/route79...er/1138463729/

That last one is really good - there's the gasometer and a strange
redbrick gothic tower, a mirror of the gasometer, in the foreground.
I'd love to live in a place like that, as long as it had a lift.

On 9 Sep, 21:23, Offramp wrote:
On Sep 9, 3:32 pm, Mizter T wrote:

On 8 Sep, 20:54, James Farrar wrote:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/route79...ww.flickr.com/...

That last one is really good - there's the gasometer and a strange
redbrick gothic tower, a mirror of the gasometer, in the foreground.
I'd love to live in a place like that, as long as it had a lift.


I see you're posting via Google Groups (as I do) which unfortunately
makes a horrendous mess of mangling together URLs when quoting
previous posts, so here's a clean link to the photo in question:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/fictiondreamer/1138463729/

I think I've located where the tower is - it's very near Southall
station on a road called The Straight and is marked "Water Tower" on
this map:
http://www.streetmap.co.uk/newmap.srf?x=512448&y=179802

It looks like it occasionally gets used as a film location...
http://www.westlondonfilmoffice.co.uk/index.php?siid=2736
(the photo might be a bit old and is from a different angle but it's
definitely the same place)

This website in homage to the Professionals TV programme claims the
water tower is known locally as "The Cockpit"! - a quick search on the
web failed find any other evidence on the web to back this up, but
then again it's the kind of local word-of-mouth thing that doesn't
necessarily ever get on to the web...

http://www.mark-1.co.uk/Professionals/a13.htm
(scroll down for photo or search the text)

Mizter T wrote:

I think I've located where the tower is - it's very near Southall
station on a road called The Straight and is marked "Water Tower" on
this map:
http://www.streetmap.co.uk/newmap.srf?x=512448&y=179802

http://maps.live.com/default.aspx?v=...9818&encType=1


There's a water tower converted to flats in Ladywell which I mentioned
recently.
http://users.ox.ac.uk/~peter/workhou...eLadywell3.jpg

The best one is in Suffolk...
http://www.devsys.co.uk/Album/Places...e%20clouds.jpg