Ken Hayr was a rare bird...
....I'm sure I told this before - in the mid '70s? when he was Mr Flight Safety he came to St Mawgan to address the troops. Early in his presentation he mentioned "time off". There was a sotto voce rumble from the audience.
"That seems to have rattled a cage" he said. "Tell me". And he was told.
One of the big deals was doing crew training sim slots on Saturday nights until 0100 Sun. He was utterly flabbergasted.
He addressed one NCO with "What did you do last w/e?". He just happened to pick on one guy who seemed to have drawn several short straws. He went back 4 months before this guy had a Friday 1700 to Mon 0800 completely free. And he was not alone.
He then addressed the wheels "How come this happens?" And was told.
Operations/SAR/ Stn duties/but the sims were the biggy.
He then dispatched his PSO to SHQ to inspect the leave records of all the aircrew on the station.
Sat night sim slots stopped there and then. I was one of several told to put a leave pass in the next morning and I WAS to go on leave for two weeks.
I think most guys in that room would have followed him a very very long way, because he put his money where his mouth was. Sure, it probably caused a bit of admin chaos for a while but it certainly got the high powered attention.
The Ancient Mariner