AST, 1966
AST 1966
There were 21 students on Course 33 when it began on 6th March 1966. Fifteen were Aer Lingus Cadets, five (including myself) sponsored by Cambrian and one, Mike King, a private student as far as CPL who had his I/R sponsored by Cambrian.
No previous course had this many students. This may have been the reason Pooch initiated the requirement that all students wear name-badges. This did not go down well with the Aer Lingus chaps who complied...but with their names in Irish!
The Aer Lingus cadets were on a different deal to the rest of us. Once they had passed their CPL they returned to Dublin to be type-rated on the Viscount and on which they completed their I/R.
Later in the year saw the arrival of the BEA/BOAC trainees on Course 37. They had a mixed reception - being perceived by some as being rather 'superior' (or words to that effect). That was not my experience - I struck up one or two passing friendships with Course 37 students.
As mentioned earlier, Dave Blair was my instructor on singles. I remember him as a soft-spoken quintessential Scottish country gentleman. On Cessna 3I0s I had Footy (Ray Foote?). I remember Lew Hurrell's pre-flight briefings though not actually flying with him. Jamie Hunter and Jack Robertson were two of the ground instructors whose names I recall (Jamie did Met and Jack taught us Nav Plot and Flight Planning, if I remember correctly).
It was, by its nature, intense but the weekends gave us time to catch our breath. At one point three of us from Course 33 were dating three sisters who lived locally.
Six months into the course, Aer Lingus chopped three of their Course 33 trainees. There was an industry downturn. What happened was that Aer Lingus appears to have leaned on AST and the students' progress reports were used as the excuse. Three others were warned that they might not be kept on unless their performances improved.
In the event two of the three were taken back on by Aer Lingus after their families took legal advice. One of these, Brian Murphy later developed motor neuron disease which permanently grounded him and his death followed not long afterwards. Brian and I kept in touch for a while after we left Perth. One day in June 1967, he phoned me to tell me about the crash of a Viscount (EI-AOF) near Ashbourne, County Meath. It was on an early morning training flight and all three on board, the instructor and two cadets were killed. One of the cadets was our fellow Course 33 student Rory Power (Ruarí de Paor). RIP.
Manoir (John McGurk).
Last edited by Manoir; 2nd Feb 2016 at 12:34.
Reason: Add detail