HS 748
Sad I agree , but what a history , the Avroe 748 blazed a trail in the aviation history and provided many pilots with their first introduction in the real world of commercial aviation,lessons learned the hard way,without the benefit of flight simulators .
It is without doubt an aircraft that provided an ideal experience for many pilots who eventuallly went on to greater things and the airmanship and grounding of the HS748 were to give them the confidence to tackle the most demanding of situations on more modern aircraft.
There will be many former HS748 pilots who will look back on their early days conversion training and the effort and concentration that was demanded by their Training Captains,it was not easy and their mentors had to work them hard in order to prepare each new recruit to the exacting demands of what essentially was a night freight operation,when things went bang in the dark they took on a deeper dimension than on daylight operations.
This may well be the end of an era for the venerable "Budgie" however their are many of us who will say that it served us well,we relied on it through all weathers as we recognised that it was built of sterner stuff than many of its contemporaries and got us back to terra firma at the end of the night, sometimes more terra than firma !!
The HS748 will live on in the history of aviation for both former crews and all those involved. with the operation