JW 411
I guess you were involved in what was in the days of the 1-11 euphemistically known as "the Spey Handling course", consisting of RAF crews doing a couple of base sessions a year and then coming out to Berlin to do a tour for route familiarisation - it was VC 10 crews in my day. We were very happy to know that in the event of a "dispute" with the eastern block the RAF would take over and we could retire to the Officers Club in Theodore Heuss Platz!
I too flew the Viscount for 3k hours in the mid 60s by which time the 806s had been given the Mk510 Dart, the same as the 802, thereafter being known as the 806x - ironically it was to provide the higher powered engines to the Argosys, these had the temperature in TGT and were the Mk520 which I came across in the HS748.
Ergonomics? Well, I don't think Vickers had heard of such a thing. I flew 7 different marks of Viscount both in the 700 and 800 series. The only thing common to them all was the position of the throttles and HP cocks. In some the switches were down for on, some up. In the 700D the fire switches were on the glareshield and the 800 as you describe. some had heated windscreens and some as the 800 a drip fed glycol windscreen deicer. The only good thing the BEA a/c had was a cockpit air conditioner mounted in the R/Os seat position during the summer which unfortunately wasn't included in the package when BEA handed them down to the company I was working for.
Whatever shortcomings the aircraft had it was still a magnificent plane to fly or travel in as a passenger.