I came from years on Collins FD 108 onto the Smiths. Had heard years of moans, but quite liked it.
Dunno why.
My pal was looking at the 108 in me shiny jet, when he was on Brits. I kept a dead pan face as I told him that if we did a back CRS we had to take the istruments out of their mounts, and swap them over. A crew walked on at that moment, and the joke was forgotten. Years later, said mate was trainig on 707s, and yep, he started to quote me in the classroom. It was about the time everyone in the room was staring at him that he realized he'd been had. I'd tought him electrickery since he was 6 years old, so I guess it's not so surprising he fell for it.
I completed a Comet ground school and Comet simulator course with Dan Air in the autumn of 1973 but never did the flight training as the course was cancelled on Christmas eve...somethying to do with the Arabs putting up the price of fuel.
I think I can remember Ken Balsden SP? standing in front of our class and saying how worried he was about that price increase. From 10 to 12 old pennies / gal wasn't it?