I too would like to thank Danny for his stories...along with many others including Cliff and Regie ---they have answered (and posed) why the 1970s were how they were for me.
My apologies for the belated thanks but I've been throwing myself off a mountain in Bassano del Grappa.
I was employed by BEA which had a terrible accident rate and I managed to escape the fold to the VC10 as BA was formed. BOAC had made several deliberate changes in the late sixties to stem their horrific accident rate...it worked.
I initially flew at Hamble with ex fighter and ground attack pilots whose instructing abilities were, by and large, excellent BUT...there was always the keep stumm mentality.
We had some real bomber command Gents including Prince Georges grandfather but more than our fair share of pilots who understood little about training and safety....which I gleaned from the thread was fairly common.
Fareastdriver;
It was at Hamble that I found myself upside down (involuntary) for the first time. In a twin engined D55 Baron during a straight and level clean stall.....obviously someone had overstressed it - probably trying a barrel roll. I reported it to my instructor who looked at it, shrugged his shoulders and walked off.
We also had a practically new bent PA28 Cherokee ....the college in it's wisdom had decided that spin training was reserved for later in the course and only on the Chipmunk....bloggs on my course got into a spiral dive which he thought was a spin and applied full power. Naturally he didn't report it.
The second occasion the sky moved for me was in a Grob twin Astir flying out of the Cape gliding club at Worcester...when a particularly violent thermal rolled us inverted at 200ft AGL....interesting when you hear a "bang" and see your pupil's camelback sitting above your head.
Cockneysteve;
I worked on the building of Chartwell Square after they destroyed the Victorian Arcade at Southend....the council and their mates had a "master plan" of getting rid of the tourists - mainly East Enders - for the good of Southend - a cynical person might say their aim was to line their pockets. The open corruption was incredible and eventually the chief constable was sentenced to two years and the police force was disbanded.
I had dealings with the VAT people who were very pleasant and a school chum's father was something big having been posted down from Liverpool.
Last time I was down in Sarfend it appears as Stobart has reversed the decline...good luck to him.
I was paragliding last week with a guy whose father in law is involved with the Arnold scheme society...but best of all was the instructor...half my age, 1/5 of my hours and a real "geezer" from Romford...he was refreshing and destroyed the old adage that "you can't teach an old dog new tricks"...but interestingly enough he said that he had never met a pilot who said "I messed up" or words to that effect - he obviously hasn't been on this thread
