To which aircraft does this cockpit belong?

[matspart3]

A Google search of the registration revealed this little snippet:-

Wfu 31/3/81 and moved to Teesside 16/9/81 for fire training. This aircraft, which made the world's first fully-automatic landing of a commercial airliner with fare-paying passengers on 10 June 1965, as Bealine 343 from Paris to London, should surely have been chosen for preservation.

[one11]

Matspart3

You are correct that RPR ended up at Teeside not Glasgow as in my post - I misread an old print reference.

[Props]

Trident Cockpit

Sorry I guess it was the Airbrake Lever, In BEA we had Decca Navigator on Viscounts and Comets but this Doppler driven Map on all 3 Marks of Trident.Apart from the Channel and the North Sea we did not go over Water much.

[Rainboe]

It's interesting looking back at how things have changed in the last 50 years. All the separate navigation systems competing against each other, Decca, Loran, ILS, VOR, Consol, Astro, ADF......all swept away or being swept away by INS, GPS. Even flight instrumentation affected by INS and GPS. These navigation systems had brief flowering moments and then passed into history. Meanwhile the art of navigation evaporates into a few lines of code! I was struck (and slightly alarmed) flying on airways across the Bay of Biscay far from anywhere that oncoming traffic passed on our exact track- not a few metres left or right, but directly overhead or underneath. Accuracy like this is of no benefit to aviation safety unless you have it on final approach on GPS procedures.

[pjac]

Whilst BEA didn't employ F/Es, Channel Airways did and they had Tridents, a few foreign operators had Tridents with F/Es-some operating in to the UK.

[Rainboe]

That picture was definitely a BEA (Back Every Afternoon) operation. We're trying to identify which Bravo stand at LHR it's on! Having a bit of trouble with the third pilot.

[Juliet Sierra Papa]

Trident operators.

I can recall Cyprus Airways and I think Sterling? Memory fade !!!

JSP

[COF&COE]

P3 has that old style metal-bound Tech Log on his knee. Weighed a ton.
Also certain G-ARPR was BEA (sister ship of the infamous PI) which means P3 definately a pilot.
Northeast's 1E's (the ones with F/Es) were all G-AVYsomething-or-other, if I remember.

[Doctor Teeth]

The curved lever to the left of the map display is indeed the airbrake lever.
The parking brake is the shorter lever with the button in the middle. It's to the right of the airbrake lever and below the map display.
Both of these levers were cable connected although I have a hazy memory of airbrake cables having a metal tubed section.

[Preppy]

Rainboe

I doubt whether this picture was taken at Heathrow. I think that the photo may well have been taken at the end of the flight.

The ADFs have been selected and displayed on the RMI, indicating a QDM of around 060/240 degrees. Thus an airport like EGAA/BFS or EGPF/GLA which have runways in that approximate direction might be more likely. The engines are still warmish, the APU is running and it appears that it had been the Captain's sector by the position of the autopilot selector.

If only the the doppler map display was a bit clearer and then the a/c position could be verified.

[Rainboe]

Did this thing have those funny BEA ADF dials where the other pilot could completely take over your display leaving you to sit there trying to work out WTH your needles were saying? I have to confess I never understood it when I went on the 748 and used to sit there in stunned horror because it was saying the wrong thing. Eventually plucking up courage to say something to the Captain, he'd laugh at me and explain he'd taken over my instrument. I just used to think 'why? Bloody leave it alone! It's mine! How the hell can I navigate if you switch it over to you?' We never did that sort of thing in BOAC. I could never understand WTH it was supposed to achieve.

[Flap40]

It could be what is currently stand 23 at GLA. The true heading of the stand is approx 075 and the variation in the late 1970's would give a mag' heading of approx 085 which is similar to the heading on the RMI. Other clues are the dark coloured brickwork visible behind the co-pilot and the lamp post which still stands.

I could be very wrong though!

[LAS1997]

If any of you want to see a 'live' Trident flight deck, visit the Farnborough Air Sciences Trust (FAST) museum at Farnborough airport.

They have a Trident three (G-AWZI) flight deck which has been fully restored with instrument, ceiling, floor lighting all working now along with some of her systems such as the stick shaker, engine stall warning horn and fire bell.

It has its own dedicated website WWW.G-AWZI.CO.UK

The FAST museum is open every weekend (1000-1600) and entrance is FREE. Located at Trenchard House, 85 Farnborough Road, Farnborough, Hampshire.

[COF&COE]

I could be very wrong though!

I don't think so Flap 40. I've been GLA based a few times over the years and that brickwork with what looks like the bottom of a door and the lamp post on that plinth look very familiar.

[COF&COE]

If only the the doppler map display was a bit clearer

Looking closely at the left side of the map display there could be a faint outline of the Firth of Clyde although I haven't a clue what scale these doppler maps used. Then again I might be trying to convince myself it is GLA and be barking completely up the wrong tree.

[COF&COE]

Just another thought!

Right Seat- C Clarkson, graduate of College of Air Training, Hamble 1974

I think a lot of the guys graduating cira 1974 were given ground jobs (Teatime House and such places) for a couple of years due to a pilot excess at that time, so if this happened to Mr Clarkson it could date the photograph from about 1976 on.

Also around the mid 70's, there weren't many SFO's in BEA. Most co-pilots were SO, AFO or FO with one or two stripes (this is in the days just before the long road to command) therefore the SFO in the P3 seat might be easier to identify.

Again I might be wildly out but I'm starting to find this quite intriguing.