Chop rate
We were kept in line by a high chop rate..33% on my course..I had three chop flights and eventually got through and although I was third on my course the insecurity and lack of confidence stayed with me as it did with many others. You could add to that the non socialising with instructors, being watched most of the time and the stories of the security services presence.
So it wasn’t that simple. Several of those chopped went on to be wide bodied captains.
The bullying was worse in the airline and a some left especially from BEA where the accident rate mirrored the poor instruction. 8 hull loses in my 6 years. The stories from the BOAC cadets with the Atlantic barons still shock me.
For me it was the dream of flying and sticking the industry out to attain the dream. I was very lucky to get on the experiment of putting BEA copilots straight into the RHS of a BOAC aircraft..the VC 10 ..an absolute dream job and mainly good instructors, most were from the first Hamble course, although I had one for a repeat base training detail after I failed a check who should have recognised my problem and didn’t.
I left to fly for the Swiss and can honestly say money was no object which left BA in the shadows especially in the training department.
Unlike my time at Hamble and in BEA where I was permanently skint, SR paid cadets a proper salary as they did to new entrants. They also equalised rosters so that the managers and trainers did their fair share of the work and we got a taste of the cream...motivation is about the whole package.
Last edited by blind pew; 17th Mar 2018 at 13:15.