gordonroxburgh
I see we’re on to the tricky questions now!
“Where do Concorde Flight Engineers come from?”
We’ve been wondering about that as well! The favourite theory is...er...no...perhaps I’d better not, most of them are bigger than me, one of them a
lot bigger!
There are no direct entrant F/Es, nor are any envisaged. They are drawn from other BA fleets, in recent years mainly the DC10, L1011 and B747C. Provided they are not within seven years of their compulsory retirement date, they bid for vacancies on Concorde in seniority order, and if successful with their bid, are allocated a course.
All they have to do then is to pass it – naturally whilst helping along any pilots on the course with them (good CRM and all that) - and they are on the fleet!
This source will disappear within about a year, as you suggest, and so to ensure that enough experienced F/Es are available on the fleet for the foreseeable future, their numbers have been steadily increased over the past few years, and are currently estimated to last the next 10 to 15 years.
The job is different and very demanding, but they all seem to love it! As
WOK has said, everyone who is on the fleet is there because they want to be, and that makes for a fantastic working atmosphere.
Spare a thought for the last two F/Es who passed the ground school and simulator course, but are still waiting to fly on the aircraft!