In praise of BALPA and debutants
I have always been a member of a flying union and after I emigrated I became an associate Balpa member for a number of years.
Before anyone whinges about Balpa read a little bit of history starting at Jarrow.
In BEA most of us were either in the union or “invited” to join the other lot. It was a necessity. I worked on the technical committee which was designed to advance aviation safety in a way that the “authorities” didn’t. What we don’t read about is the behind the scenes negotiations – often carried out for non Balpa members by members in their spare time. It’s not a perfect system but it helps.
One of my mates had a total strike called which lead to his reinstatement after he upset “the other lot”.
Like Dan Air and BMI, BEA hamsters were sold out when BA was formed...it took many of my mates 20 years to get a command...but it gave us continuing employment (BEA would have eventually folded especially with our safety record) and moi the chance to see how the big boys flew and lived.
I never regretted it and sometimes the grass IS greener.
I don't agree with the apparent stance on Aerotoxic syndrome but one only has to look at some of the last few years newspaper articles (those which haven't "disappeared") to realise that there is a lot more going on behind the scenes which we can only guess at.
Now to debutants.
The pay for both cabin crew and Hamsters was abysmal such that the girls lasted less than a year flying and had to subsidize their salaries. Either you had a rich boyfriend or parents, fiddled the bars or “went out” with first class passengers.
We had a few luxury trips which were worth a week’s wages in allowances...Med nightstops. The best was a three day Nicosia where we stayed in the best hotel..raided the first class bar before we disembarked and started off with a room party in a 5 star suite. We generally ended up skinny dipping in the hotel pool – around 2 AM.
Unfortunately the “training fleet” took most of the cream trips – a great BA tradition - so I only got one every few months.
Did one to Tel Aviv which was so naughty that we called Athens Station on the way back to inform LHR that we were going crew fatigue.
Anyway I was part of the great experiment to put two second officers – one half trained – straight onto the Trident...as we know it miserably failed leading to Britain’s worst aviation disaster unless of course you believe the recent TV stitch up.
This put me on the Trident 2 fleet – long range machine – where we flew with the same cabin crews who were dual qualified – first with the Vanguard fleet – then the T3s. I was accepted by most of them because I spoke wiv an Essex accent, wasn’t up my a@se and many took me to be “gay” – which I wasn’t but played along with (including snogging another co-pilot at a party - really upsetting the apple cart.)
I had two friends who were stopping at the Apollo Palace on the beach in Athens the day after the T3 mid air over Zagreb. The hostie was an ex ballerina whose husband had died in a car crash. She had lost friends in the Ghent Vanguard mid air break up, Papa India and now the latest prang.
Possessed an amazing body as she still danced and exercised it regularly (trust me on this).
Following a very heavy session they went skinny dipping in the sea. Kevin nipped out first, grabbed all of their clothes and ran back to the hotel. After dressing he went to reception and told the staff, who got all their mates out to see what she would do. True to form she walked in without a stitch on, asked for her key and then took the lift (with operator) up to her room whilst being ogled by half the hotel’s staff.
Sadly she died in the Victoria Falls crash a couple of years later.
That’s the classiest story...there are many others as you would expect.