The course and the exam were indeed based on the Britannia. It was necessary to extract figures from a set of graphs, and then use these figures to DRAW a graph from which you got your MTOW and V1/VR ratio.
Drawing your own performance charts was part of the HS 748 type rating course at Woodford, Cheshire in 1966. The RAAF had bought two HS 748's VIP version and two crews were sent to UK for the course prior to ferrying both aircraft back to Canberra, Australia. The one month ground course was a bit "iffy" in our opinion but that is another story on its own.
The two day Performance part of the course was run by a white dust coated "gentleman" who was a bit younger than we thirty year olds. He looked down upon us Colonials with obvious disdain and we could pick that.
After going through the charts in the AFM he then led us through the construction of these charts. This was superfluous as far as we were concerned particularly as he treated us like children.
The second day was coming to an end and we were getting irritable with his attitude. He then handed out an examination paper requiring the drawing of performance charts. We all got varying answers and he got angry and sulked.
"You are not leaving this room until you get the answers right" he snarled.
"You can go and get F#*`cked" said our flight commander, a Squadron Leader who did not mince words. "Come on chaps, we are off to the pub" he said and we all trooped from the room muttering about two days of wasted time with this clown. The Chief Test pilot at Woodford, Jimmy Harrison, quietly agreed with us after he heard what had happened. We later heard via the grapevine that the white coated gentleman was pulled off lecturing Performance courses
