Flt Eng Awarded Green Endorsement on a Brit
I was a Britannia sqn copilot in May 1973 with the rest of the crew being OCU instructors doing performance trials. We were doing a net flt path second segment climb out of shortly to be opened Seeb, Muscat, Oman.
With No 4 shutdown and feathered we applied full power to the other 3 engines, planning to climb like that for the max of 5 mins. After 4 mins we got alternator overheat warnings for the live 3 engines. Since this meant the alternators were probably throwing solder into the engines the drill was to shutdown an engine with such a warning. We idled two and the lights went out, relit the shutdown engine and then shut down one whose light didn’t go out........all in 1minute. Diverted to Masirah as Seeb had closed after we had left....and the first beer didn’t touch the sides.
Flight Engineer Paddy Tranter awarded Green Endorsement, Captain Dave de Berry awarded Queens Commendation.......me?.....another sugar lump in my tea.
Dave later checked me into Gib on my first Route Check as a captain. Landed at 1600 hrs on a sunny afternoon. Shutdown and within 30 secs the flight deck was empty apart from slowcoach me. Leaving the aircraft I found the crew lined up outside like a sword party at a wedding. Dave called crew to Attention, saluted me and then presented me with my Brit Capt’s Cat Card.
That moment meant more to me than when I got my Wings. I will never forget what a gent he was. Bless him.