Thanks,
India Four Two. At least the rear-view windows were a safety feature, and the circuit at Scone was very busy.
Time to introduce CPL/IR Course 31, with help from a friend and colleague who was one of its students. The course-proper started early in November 1965 (the handful of foreign students may have come earlier for induction). There was some attrition. By the end of 1966, two students had completed their Instrument Ratings. The remainder were hampered by the bad weather, including strong winds, in the first four months of 1967.
Back row, L to R: O.S. Tan (?), Alan Tyler, Pat Preston, Nick Davis, Brett Langevad, S. Verghese (?), M.C. Cheong, Peter Pereira, M. Saffien bin Desa.
Front row, L to R: Grenville Ess, Julian Birkbeck, Ted Chatfield, Dave Cordery, Roger Hoyle, Mark Carpenter, Geoff Nicholson, Nigel Flack.
Brett Langevad was privately-sponsored, but seemed to have connections with a small East African charter company. Peter Pereira was also private, but seemed to have an understanding with BWIA. Funding may have been a problem, and they both slipped to Course 32. Brett was the previously-mentioned, solo pilot of the Chipmunk (G-AOSA) that crashed near Coupar Angus on 4/12/66. He suffered only minor injuries, and later resumed his training elsewhere.
Roger Hoyle had studied law and also been a management trainee in his sponsor airline, BUA. He was one of the first on Course 31 to graduate from AST. Like most of the BUA cadets of the period, he was seconded to BUAF (car ferry) at Lydd on the Bristol 170. Later, he flew the One-Eleven in BUA and BCAL, gaining his command and then progressing to the B707 and DC-10. Meanwhile, his literary skills were exploited as editor of BALPA's journal,
The Log, for many years; and his abilities of hard work, organisation, leadership and debating skill - plus a lifetime vocation to help those less talented to fight their own corners - took him to a much-admired chairmanship of the BCAL (BALPA) PLC.
After the takeover of BCAL by BA, Roger fought hard to promote the cause of a minority of other pilots whose pensions had fallen foul of the merger. Feeling let down by the organisation for whom he had served so loyally, he eventually resigned from BALPA. By that time he was a training captain on the A320, on which fleet he stayed until retirement in 1998. Unready to be grounded, he joined British Mediterranean and flew their A320s for just under a year before feeling ill on return from an unexpected Christmas layover. He died of cancer about three weeks later. R.I.P., Roger...