Whats happened to the master of navigation at the London Poly-'Rapid Ron'? He also used to do weekend ground school at Headcorn

I went back to Cass for the ATPL and Ron said on day one "Right in the CPL course you went from A to B and diverted to C,well now you;re in the Big Boys class so we shall go from C to D and divert to E". A massive cheer went around the room.

.....what was his surname? Ventham perchance??

The Ancient Mariner

I think his surname was Bain......

I last heard of Ron (got to be the same guy!) at SECOAT in 1994.
I came in delighted with my NAV results,
"I got 98% Ron"
"Oh, what went wrong?"
And back down to earth!

Fantastic instructor to get me though the NAVs!

Probably the very best teacher of any subject I've ever met. He could teach the entire CPL/ATPL syllabus all by himself; obviously in his own unique brisk, amusing style. A brilliant man. The last I heard of him was that he was teaching school at Headcorn, but how accurate that information was I don't know.

PM

and on top of that very very nice modest guy.

...and for those of you in the cheaper seats!
One of the nicest people I ever met in aviation.

Guess he would be retired by now-hope he is well

Rapid Ron - "Whoosh, whats that!"

We were just talking about him the other day. An incredibly talented teacher.

Wonderful and gifted lecturer......enjoyed his class greatly.

Rapid Ron - "Whoosh, whats that!"

Can you explain that one?

Thats one of the things he used to say. He'd explain something and as we all looked totally bemused & blank, he'd say "whoosh, whats that"...

Ron was a very nice bloke and knew his stuff. However he was very indoctrinated in the military way of doing things though, i.e repeat it again & again & again & again, until enough sh1t stuck, & with the catchphrases. It worked wonders for some people but not for everyone. C'est la vie. Personally i needed to understand the matter, rather than just blind procedure with no understanding (the RAF way). Anyways, i hope Ron is still with us , and i wish him well.

PJ, I think your comment about the RAF might draw some attention ! I think you've missed the word 'thorough' somewhere.

You know, I'm of the age where we learned times tables 'Parrot' fashion, literally singing them over and over again for a whole lesson. Now I can come out with the answer of any multiplication for any two numbers between 1 and 12 in a nano-second.

My kids have been taught the relatively new trendy way, and that the old fashioned way was bad bad bad, and, guess what, they have to think about the answer !

Which is best ? Hmmmmmmm ?

I last heard of Ron (got to be the same guy!) at SECOAT in 1994.
I came in delighted with my NAV results,
"I got 98% Ron"
"Oh, what went wrong?"
And back down to earth!

Fantastic instructor to get me though the NAVs!

That Ron was Ron Cox. Sadly he passed away a while back, I don't recall exactly when but I know I was flying out of LGW so it was somewhere between 6 and 16 years ago.

pb

Ron was (and hopefully still is) one of the most lucid instructors I have encountered and was equally charming to professionals and PPLs like me who were doing the IR exams. Good bloke.

Caco

I remember ATPL's with Rapid Ron. Cracking guy. But all the others were characters too. One wag on the course wrote the following on the blackboard during a class break:

'Rapid Ron'
Rambling Richard'
'Aggressive Adair'
'Baffling Brian'

Rapid Ron walked into the classroom, turned to the blackboard, and saw the humour. He silently walked out to return with 'Baffling Brian' who went up to the blackboard rubbed out 'Baffling' and inserted 'Baffled'.

Brought the house down!

Seriously, I don't know how those guys did it but them managed to turn eight weeks of ATPL hell into an enjoyable course.

Thanks a million !

" you're on 73........" and then he would show a picture of a gyro or something and say " whats this???" ie you needed one more mark to get 75% pass mark. That phrase "you're on 73" will live with me forever!!!!

Thanks Ron.