Captain Airclues:
"I think that your ex-BCAL mate was pulling your leg"
I think not; he regaled several of us in the pub for nearly an hour on the subject. Frankly, he was as incredulous as the rest of us. This was some time ago and if the practice has ceased then I for one am very pleased.
M.Mouse:
".....reporting sick downroute....."
That is not what I meant or what I thought I said. The wheeze was to call in sick (when not sick) from home a few hours before reporting to start a long Far East series of flights.
I quite agree with you that if you are sick then you are sick and should certainly not go near an aeroplane. This played a part in the incident when the BA 747 almost demolished the Penta at Heathrow if my memory serves me right.
".....do you really think that the majority of BA pilots are any different from pilots in any other airline?"
I am sure you are right in saying that a lot of BA pilots are just the same as the rest of us. However, you have had more than your fair share of absolute pillocks as well.
My crew and a BA crew got into conversation in my favourite watering hole in Dubai one night. The BA captain told me that it must be awful for me not having the opportunity to fly for a proper airline!
One of the Atlantic barons is a fellow-member of one of the aviation interest groups to which I belong. He is absolutely insufferable (and is also the most boring after-dinner speaker I have ever had to listen to)!
Another Atlantic baron told me one night in New York that BA and Pan American were the only true professionals on the North Atlantic. I thought that was a bit rich since he had exactly the same triple INSs and flew the very same NAT tracks that I did.
A few weeks later a BA Tristar crew forgot to update their waypoints and watched as the aircraft describe a 180° turn in the airway as it went from Waypoint 9 back to Waypoint 1 which was the first point after take-off from Heathrow! The result was that they nearly collided with a DC-9 (?) coming down the airway behind them at the same level.
It did not seem to occur to either of these "professionals" to put the automatics into basic heading mode so that they were heading in roughly the right direction while they sorted their problem out.