"The Heston Hilton" BA Training Centre - What Went On There?
A Runyonesque Character
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In the days of long lunch-hours (mid/late 70s) a few of us beancounters used to head up there occasionally from Hatton Cross. The food was excellent by BA canteen standards, the coffee lounge was nice and there were usually groups of trainee stewardesses to brighten up the scenery.
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I visited as a BCal customer for a bi-annual 1-11 sim check just once in about 1974. I seem to recall two 1-11 sims. The BEA 'Super' 1-11 version was equipped with Decca Omnitrac 2nd generation moving map display. ( I half expected to discover it had triple INS, Loran A, and a Polar Path sextant as a back up, since the taxpayer was covering ). I also remember as customers that we were allowed to use a rather smooth middle management type restaurant for lunch. I came away with the impression that it was all rather civilised, and remained somewhat envious of gentlemanly Corporation standards.
A while before that, I shared a flat in central London with someone who I once accompanied to an audition as a potential presenter of 'Blue Peter' at the BBC near Shepherd's Bush. ( me just being nosey, and I never asked for a badge ) What struck us was that the offices and general atmosphere at the BBC was identical to that when visiting BEA.....even the door notices seemed similar in look. My pal never took up the Blue Peter option, but he had flying background as well and joined BEA as a second officer on the Vanguard instead. Salary was about the same........
A while before that, I shared a flat in central London with someone who I once accompanied to an audition as a potential presenter of 'Blue Peter' at the BBC near Shepherd's Bush. ( me just being nosey, and I never asked for a badge ) What struck us was that the offices and general atmosphere at the BBC was identical to that when visiting BEA.....even the door notices seemed similar in look. My pal never took up the Blue Peter option, but he had flying background as well and joined BEA as a second officer on the Vanguard instead. Salary was about the same........
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Did my Vanguard , Trident Electrical /Instrument and Autopilot courses there in the 60s and we knew it as the Heston Training Centre, at that time there was also some parts of the Flt Attendants training course carried out there, pre inflateable escape chute and Emergency training etc plus of course the Sims .the old Nunnery was next door and was being used by International Air Radio [they did the airport charts books for the Aircrew ].
The Viking Centre was situated by the Green Man on the way to Feltham close to the airport and I may be wrong but I think it was just an Engineering school as I did my Viscount training there in the 50s [SO LONG AGO!!!] .
The Viking Centre was situated by the Green Man on the way to Feltham close to the airport and I may be wrong but I think it was just an Engineering school as I did my Viscount training there in the 50s [SO LONG AGO!!!] .
Last edited by avionic type; 6th Nov 2011 at 01:34. Reason: bit added
One of the more civilised aspects of Sim courses at Heston was that sessions were two hours long divided by a two hour break.
From a training point of view this was infinitely superior.
a) Much easier to brief for 2 hours rather than 4.
b) As the average span of useful human concentration is about 45 minutes, the crew generally got more out of each session.
c) The 2 hour break gave time for a more effective de-brief/re-brief as well as an opportunity to relax and take advantage of the above-average catering facilities mentioned in the thread. Particularly valuable if someone was having problems.
With the merger of BEA/BOAC, training effectiveness was sacrificed for the convenience of standardisation on the industry-wide 4 hour session.
From a training point of view this was infinitely superior.
a) Much easier to brief for 2 hours rather than 4.
b) As the average span of useful human concentration is about 45 minutes, the crew generally got more out of each session.
c) The 2 hour break gave time for a more effective de-brief/re-brief as well as an opportunity to relax and take advantage of the above-average catering facilities mentioned in the thread. Particularly valuable if someone was having problems.
With the merger of BEA/BOAC, training effectiveness was sacrificed for the convenience of standardisation on the industry-wide 4 hour session.
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I remember visiting the Viking Center in the mid '60's where BEA had a uniform store. The outfit I flew for had uniforms supplied from BEA
There was an Elizabethan fuselage laying there as well if my memory serves me right.
Speedbird48
There was an Elizabethan fuselage laying there as well if my memory serves me right.
Speedbird48
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The Viking Centre was also the home of BEA's Stationery & Printing department, which took care of all BEA in-house printing-headed notepaper, boarding cards etc, until it re-located to Douglas House in Ruislip, a brand new, purpose biult, state of the art building which within 4/5 years was surplus as the dept then moved to the old BOAC site at LHR, before being closed down altogether and the work out-sourced. I wonder how much that all cost. I have a photo of said Ambassador fuselage, which was used for cabin crew training, but for the life of me cannot figure out how to post photos on here.
