Adverse yaw...if you had read my tome you will see that I had more chop flights than anyone else on my course and if Duff Mitchell is to be believed more than anyone else in the history of Hamble.
I see that you first flew the Vanguard so you would have little idea whatsoever what it was like to go straight from Hamble onto the Trident during a period of the worst industrial action in the history of BEA and a period where we crashed a lot of aircraft...three or four in my first year.
A straight wing turbo prop is a very different kettle of fish to an underpowered swept wing jet.
You will also realise the debt that I owed to people like Stan Romaine who took it upon himself to teach me how to land the Trident and regain my confidence..whilst others would not let me touch the controls.
Perhaps I was wrong to dare to pen a letter about what we had really been taught during our Trident conversion course for inclusion in the public inquiry...but I felt that I had a moral responsibility...as did George Childs who paid for it with his career...read his testimony...if you can be bothered to visit Waterside.
And while you are there read some of the other testimonies...they really opened my eyes.
I spent a lot of time researching my book and asking former colleagues about their opinions.
Mine are not unique and some of their stories shocked me.
But it is an autobiography and not a general history book.
You also have forgotten the "stall procedure amendment" or perhaps you weren't on the Trident in 1972.
No doubt training changed after the demise of 118 souls.
And you probably didn't witness the way Stan Key was treated.
I am also indebted to the guys in BOAC who helped me through the enormous leap going from BEA to part 1 on the VC 10 when my mates were still not allowed to fly manual throttle nor take the autopilot out without asking.
Lord King and the BOAC training/management guys changed the airline around to the great company it is today.
Perhaps you suffer from the BEA tribalism.
I was extremely fortunate to get the Swissair job and I have to thank the crews on the duck for their patience and help whilst I learnt what it was to be a professional and not just a bus driver.
In SR..I learnt how to throw a jet around with ease..no FD...manual throttle...final configuration at 400ft...speed stabilised later.
A proper salary and all the bits that went with the best airline in Europe.
And of course a first class modern quasi military training establishment.
You write nonsense about the Trident flap/droop system ...how do you think other aircraft operate...one lever...with the last stage changing the leading edge devices configuration.
And of course you are forgetting fundamentals ...one reaches an acceleration altitude and then accelerates to climb speed progressively ...it was the unique BEA noise proceedure more than anything else that caused the crash as Cats eyes Cunningham said in his testimony..and as Davies writes in his book.
Next you will be writing that BEA were the first airline in the world to use autoland....and the good old slick Trident operation....you have obviously never followed one in in a DC9 or BAC 111.
Standard proceedure if we couldn't over take one in descent was reduce to minimum clean..
Step back and remember it is always very easy to blame dead men and forget that they were put into an impossible position by those that run a flawed system which is not adequately policed. NCTT.
I guess you probably appreciate that what happened to Glen Stewart..Brian Abrahams has a very accurate post on PPrune...with only a couple of bits missing....and where many of us could have ended up.
A very sobering read of how someone can be hung out to dry whilst trying to do the best for his passengers and employer.
Ps as to the numbers who left..6 copilots and 3 captains from BEA that I knew on the Trident and around 10 from BA to SR..most ex Tridents and most ex Hamble or Oxford..And not forgetting the half dozen or so of my course who went to Man/Bhm and highlands as soon as they could.....
Last edited by blind pew; 22nd Nov 2013 at 18:23.