Just wondered where everybody is now and had an idea for an (informal!) reunion - so guys where are you?

Martin Waters, Neil Rendall, Malcolm Dudley-Cave, John Kendall, Paul Winder , Keith Hanlon, Dave Moore, Charlie Hawkins, Greg Layton, Robert Taylor, Bernard Kuflik, Pete Robinson Chris Barnard.

If anyone wants to PM me rather than post here then please do!

Cripes, looks like you got your answer !Hamsters were a funny lot anyway. Maybe they (God Bless) have all passed on to Heaven airways. I was a BG at Oxford and tried the same thing through the Old Boys Association (or something similar), ...........not even one reply ! I do feel that the Hamble Selection Board looked for clones & got them ! Recently, because we all looked the same, talked the same & had nothing interesting to say on the Flight Deck (unless it was about ourselves), BA has started to look for diversity in personality in order to balance up the Flight Deck. Good luck with the search but don't hold your breath !

We did manage a reunion after 20 years (circa 1990), have some contact with a few but can assure you we were all individuals - a very special course!!

FFB check your PMs - info about one of those names for you

Landflap:check your pms

You do not need to tell people to check their PM's as it shows on pprune when you sign in if there are private messages and also you get an email if you have done things properly.

Land Flap..just a hint too much of greenery there! 692ers would have joined BOAC/BEA in '70-71 at the age of about 21 so they would have retired at 55 in 2004-5, ie 7-8 years ago. Their index-linked pensions will now be ticking around 100K,they'll be on their local parish councils and their golf handicaps will be in single figures. Why on earth do you imagine they'd be interested in Prune? FlyBob left BA as soon as he was able in the seventies and is probably still flying now. No wonder he's still pruning. (I'm assuming your Pa was H, Bob)

Blimey, that seems to have given it a kick start. No bad feelings chaps. I do like to stir it up. Maybe I was one of the few that scraped through the Hamble Selection board but I really did look like everyone else, talked like everyone else & had nothing interesting to say on the Flight-deck unless it was about me ! The green bit is spot on. I too left as soon as I could & will have to keep going for my £20,000 a year pension. Can't play golf but am pretty mean on the local Pitch & Putt Coarse. Aaaaaagh, can't get that green spot outa my left eye ! Has been a fabbo run though...who remembers A.H.Abbott ? He told me that one in ten were successful at the Selection Stage. Of those, and he looked me square in the face, one in six is not quite what they are looking for but meets agreed criteria ! I did retort;" Well they ARE what you are looking for then, Sir, I mean Abbott, er....oh gosh !".Great sweet nostalgia though, eh? Thunderclap Newman was number one in the charts !

Land Flap..just a hint too much of greenery there! 692ers would have joined BOAC/BEA in '70-71 at the age of about 21 so they would have retired at 55 in 2004-5, ie 7-8 years ago. Their index-linked pensions will now be ticking around 100K,they'll be on their local parish councils and their golf handicaps will be in single figures. Why on earth do you imagine they'd be interested in Prune? FlyBob left BA as soon as he was able in the seventies and is probably still flying now. No wonder he's still pruning. (I'm assuming your Pa was H, Bob)

abra, I couldn't have put it better and yes the renowned Hector was my father!

Sorry. Not many Hamsters and BGs pass this way, considering how many there were.

Either life in Cyprus is too good, or broadband never made it past Aphrodite, or golf balls are more lethal than we all thought.

>>>>Not many Hamsters and BGs pass this way, considering how many there were <<<<<
................Some of their instructors do though ! I'm still in touch with my BG lot from 1971/2.
Good days ......and evenings down at the Grapes. Great bunch of guys.

Now this is more like it. Late 60's to mid 70's was, I think, pure gold. Remember Bouchere ?(not sure about the spelling). Worse steep turns I ever under achieved were with him screaming in my right ear ! Aaaaah, & the Grapes. I got there too late. All the chicks from the Radcliffe had been taken by BG 7-12 ! All alone in Langford !

you mean David Bouche, I think, of Indian extraction!

I instructed at OATS between 1978-1980 and he was there then - you could hear his briefings at the other end of the corridor!

Hiya Bob,

It's great to hear from you.

Do we lowly members of 692C get a look-in?

Like you, I'm still flying 'littlies', see www.redhawksduo.co.uk (http://www.redhawksduo.co.uk)
Would you believe, we've just been asked to quote to display at Farnborough next year? Who'da thought it?

It would be great to see some of the old faces again (doubt I would recognise most of them now, though).

I did bump into Chris Robinson in our local pub last year. He was flying freight for Singapore then. And I was in contact with Dave McCullouch and Mike Codd last year, so I guess they're still going strong.

Are you aware of the ROFs? Retired pilots (any airline) with British-based light aeroplanes who attend a mutual fly-in every Tuesday throughout the summer months. I haven't been this year, although we do keep intending to in our Champ. Saw a few familiar faces last year though.

Stay in touch, and I would enjoy attending a spring or autumn get-together if 692C types become eligible.

Yours, Bob

I instructed at OATS between 1978-1980 and he was there then

Still was in 1999-2000! I believe he was forced into retirement when OATS was sold to BBA Group. Remember those briefings as well!

In 1957 he was one of four IAF sqn ldrs (the others, names never to be forgotten were: Bhatnager,McNeil and Kanvar Singh) who with maybe ten junior officers, attended a Hunter conversion course at Chivenor.

Hi BobGrim!

Yes happy days - am sure we could accomodate 692C or even 692A - it'll only cost a few G and Ts.

Ok will PM you and lets see what we can organise - would be great to meet up again!

Bob

Some you 1970's Hamble-trained chaps may be interested to know that our group's PA28 was originally used at Hamble for training during that period - registration G-AYAU if you want to check your log books (although she flies under a different registration now).

There are additional vision panels in the cockpit roof due, I understand, to there being a fatal accident involving two similar aircraft in the circuit/final approach at Hamble.

Still going strong after all these years!

Fond memories of Hamble but from (literally) the other side of the tracks as a member of Southampton UAS 1975-77. Very busy airfeld with lots of circuit traffic and a "mini" Heathrow system of two take off and landing runways separated by a sterile area.

We used to dine in the college restaurant and use the bar on occasions.

Yes a previous poster is right - the Cadets did all look the same!!!:ok:

Also excellent pubs in the village I recall

Good luck with the reunion - co-organised a RN Pilots course one a few years back - hard work!

Do you gents have any photos of the courses at all?

I am researching some notable accidents for some HR training. Can anyone give me a date of two Hamble related incidents. Baron wheels up at Le Touquet and the mid air at Hamble that lead to the overhead windows being fitted in the 180s?

Regards again Bob-(flew with both you and your dad!)

"Baron wheels up at Le Touquet and ............."

Thought that was at Cherbourg??? late 1974ish?

Baron G-AWAG experienced loss of undercarriage control at Cherbourg then flew to Hurn for a wheels up landing Dec 9 1971

PA-28s G-AVBD & AVBI collided over Burseldon, close to/in the Hamble circuit Feb 27 1970 - two killed.

Baron G-AWAK landed wheels up in Cherbourg sometime mid-late 1974 IIRC.
Cadet 'chopped' as a result.
'AK spent the whole of my ('74) course on trestles in the hangar.

Thanks for that-yes Cherbourg.

Just found circuit incident on AAIB site. 10 in the circuit at the time!!!!

Fond memories of Hamble but from (literally) the other side of the tracks as a member of Southampton UAS 1975-77

Only just happened across this thread - I was on 732, so not quite as venerable as some of the gentlemen here - but here are some pics of the airfield taken in May this year when I moored up in Hamble marina and went for a wander down memory lane. The airfield was, as most know, "scalped" and is now essentially wasteground covered in brambles, and grazed by pikies' horses tethered to chains.
The only datum I found for orientation was the concrete infill between the railway tracks where the taxiway was:

http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d197/dcdriver/Hamble%20May%202011/IMG_0262.jpg[/IMG]

and a view towards the old UAS hangar (for sealion)

http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d197/dcdriver/Hamble%20May%202011/IMG_0258.jpg