Sir Dicky Branson...pilot or not?

[BoeingMEL]

Sir RB has widely delared in the media that he is the "standby pilot" for the forthcoming solo around the world record attempt. My approaches to his media/PR people asking for details of his relevant flying experiences and licence(s) continue to be unanswered. Surely not another PR puff for the ignorant masses? Anyone got any ideas? bm

[Say again s l o w l y]

Read somewhere that he doesn't have a licence, but if he had to fly this new machine he would undergo "intensive training" to get a licence....... Yeah right! :yuk:

[Whiskery]

My gut feeling tells me this is another one of RB's media stunts - but I may be wrong!:ok:

[Aerohack]

Virgin's PR people are indeed being coy about Sir Richard's pilot experience/qualifications. They do emphasise that he is strictly the reserve pilot for Virgin Atlantic GlobalFlyer, and that in the event of Steve Fossett being unable to make the flight, he will fly the aircraft "providing he has time to gain all the necessary qualifications". At the time of GlobalFlyer's roll-out three weeks ago he was still named as reserve pilot, but it was also stated that he "will follow the flight in the support aircraft".

[WHBM]

Hope he gets the hang of it a bit quicker than when he was doing AFF skydiving training, when on his first jump he pulled his reserve instead of his main. Instructors said he was the only person they had ever known to do this .....

[DanAir1-11]

Flyboy not pilot methinks.

But hey, it works for the man, so who am i to judge him? He's got plenty of balls and plenty of go in him so good luck to him. Self promotion seems to agree with him.

[HotDog]

He definitely holds at least a Balloon Pilot's licence. Don't knock him, he has a lot of guts, certainly more than some of his detractors and a lot more money , I might add. It's that last bit that hurts a lot of people, I imagine.:rolleyes:

[av8boy]

on his first jump he pulled his reserve instead of his main
Then that's the new standard, I'd expect. :O

Dave

[Sensible]

Why learn to bark yourself when dogs are so cheap to buy? :E