Abandoned British Airways Training Centre

[Farrell]

NIce video from an urban explorer's YouTube channel that goes inside BA's abandoned training centre.
They left a lot of stuff behind. A lot!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xxdfdIQgMKk

[davidjpowell]

it's an interesting video, although I did have a wry smile when they mentioned the asbestos, given they were wandering around without masks in a building of that condition where it was that bad!

[45989]

NIce video from an urban explorer's YouTube channel that goes inside BA's abandoned training centre.
They left a lot of stuff behind. A lot!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xxdfdIQgMKk
Classic PC Bull***t or is called WOKE nowadays?
How did we all survive without Helf & Safety...............Easy. Just got on with it.

[DaveReidUK]

Where asbestos is concerned, the answer is equally easy - some didn't.

[nomilk]

One of my first student jobs was sorting out x-rays of people with asbestos lungs. The workers all died in their 50s and their lungs were not pretty. It was a big archive, so many died way too young.
Actually, still thousands die each year due to the long-term nature of asbestos-related illness.

[skydiver69]

Quick someone tell Jason Unsworth about it as I'm sure that he'd be interested in buying it to give Atmosphere Airlines a kick start.

[SimonPaddo]

The thought of them flying their drone/UAV there (they say they can’t as it’s not working) is scary, even more so than them wandering around an asbestos filled building. The damage to the building suggests it may well have been disturbed.

Also, didn’t realise there was a B747 AND a Jumbo jet 🤐

[DaveReidUK]

Cranebank in better days:

yxcHWNvljWQ

[ETOPS]

Having spent the best part of 30 years there I’m speechless at that video…

A lot of memories - literally trashed:{

[DaveReidUK]

My abiding memory of Cranebank is having the buckled front wheel of my motorbike bashed out with the help of a couple of instructors from the BEA/BOAC Apprentice School (at that time adjacent to Flight Training Centre) after I'd hit a brick on Western Avenue.

That, and marvelling at the huge, wall-mounted diorama that provided the visuals for the VC-10 simulator next door. Oh, and ogling the trainee stewardesses, who of course wouldn't give us lads the time of day. :O

Hard to believe it's 50 years ago, almost to the day.

[ZFT]

52 years ago I was working on those VC10 Sims Sad to see Cranebank like this

[toolboxstickers]

I didn't know this place existed, near Heathrow apparently.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_pcozSmAcZE

[DaveReidUK]

You would have, if you'd read this thread: PPRuNe: Abandoned British Airways Training Centre (https://www.pprune.org/spectators-balcony-spotters-corner/642727-abandoned-british-airways-training-centre.html)

[wiggy]

I didn't know this place existed, near Heathrow apparently.

Be grateful you didn’t..I still have nightmares about the place having been a routine visitor for over twenty years for recurrent simulators, annual SEP and ground school/simulator courses associated with conversions to differing types.

It’s about a kilometer east of Hatton Cross Tube station, part of a small trading estate on the north side of the A30, strangely enough on the east bank of the River Crane.

(to answer the probable next question the training complex moved a few years back onto premises on BA east base, just adjacent to Hatton Cross.)

[TopBunk]

Ah yes, aka Braincrank.

Spent many weeks there with few good memories! I have watched the videos and many of the locations were familiar to me.

[eckhard]

Be grateful you didn’t..I still have nightmares about the place having been a routine visitor for over twenty years for recurrent simulators, annual SEP and ground school/simulator courses associated with conversions to differing types.

I’m sorry that you had such a negative experience there Wiggy. Personally, I always enjoyed my visits, whether initial training, conversion courses, SEP, or six-monthly check/refresher sessions.

I liked the quaint 60s vibe of the architecture and it was great to have the sim engineers within a few seconds walk if you had a tech issue.

I know some colleagues suffered from sim anxiety and I always tried to calm those fears during my brief stint as a trainer/checker on the -400.

I actually feel a bit sad seeing on that video how the place has been abandoned with all that equipment, which served us all so well.

Anyway, TBA is a much smarter set-up now, and has its own sense of history, actually dating back to the late 40s, I think.

[wiggy]

The “nightmares” comment was more than slightly TIC eckhard but I’ll be honest and say I never really enjoyed the experience,…

I’ll emphasize that’s not meant as a criticism of those that did the training (FWIW I was a trainer/examiner of sorts in my days before BA so I had a bit of insight), it’s just the way it worked with me…..

​​​​​​….I do agree it is sad to see the place reduced to it’s current state, and yes, the sim hall at TBA is quite something….

[Lantern10]

Used to love exploring abandoned factories, mines, railway sheds etc. around the North of England when I was a young lad. We thought we were being a bit naughty. Urban explorer, yes that sounds better.

[OwnNav]

Referred to as "Braincrank" by my Birdseed mates back in the day.