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While I appreciate that this is a pretty old thread I hope I can be forgiven.

I regret to inform those interested in AST and its past pupils that Peter Harrison of course 30 passed away early this morning after a long battle with Parkinsons disease. He was until recently working on the rebuild of an Auster J/1-N which provided him many hours of pleasure in the work, an aviation enthusiast to the very end.

Very sorry to hear this sad news a couple of weeks ago, but have only just seen this post from Crashmonster. Pete was a true enthusiast, and dealt with his illness with great courage and tenacity over many years with never a complaint. Very helpful as my LAA Inspector for several years, and between us, we were trustees of the whole surviving fleet of AVM 'Pathfinder' Bennett's foray into aircraft manufacturing; the Fairtravel Linnet!
When he managed to get airborne, the Parkinson's wobbles seemed to go away, and he was back in his element. I'll never forget a wonderful flight with Pete in his Tiger Moth one summer's evening . . low n slow along the South Downs, with the shadows lengthening over the village green etc etc, rounded off by him greasing it on in a lovely three pointer back at the strip. Heaven really was the English countryside framed in the Tiger's struts and wires that evening. Thank you Peter!

Peter Harrison - RIP

Hello Crashmonster and BobH, you are both most welcome - albeit with sad news of Peter Harrison. IIRC, he was a Cambrian cadet, and probably ended up in BA. If so, he was presumably on long-haul, as I never met him after AST. I had no idea he was such an active aviator in retirement.

Thank you both for your nice anecdotes, and I only wish that you and Pete had stumbled upon this under-used thread years earlier. The ranks of Course 30 sadly lost Bob Thursby just under two years ago, as reported at the time by his good friend Terry Morgan (alias CSman, who was active on this thread). Terry was another Cambrian cadet, (Course 35) that ended up in BA. He only outlived Bob, I'm sorry to say, by a couple of months.

EDIT
bean has corrected my first paragraph: Peter was a BUA-sponsored cadet (see post below).

Chris, i never new Peter Harrison personally bit i can tell you he was a BUA sponsored cadet. After the closure of BU(ci) A in 1968 he worked for Jersey Aeroclub for a while and joined the BEA Jersey base on Viscounts in 1970

Thanks bean, I stand corrected. Evidently, more BUA cadets were seconded to BUA(CI) at Jersey on the Dart Herald than I had remembered. Those of us who were sent to fly more pedestrian types like the Bristol 170 ("Frightner") at Lydd or, in my case, Herons and Dakotas at Gatwick were envious of their good fortune. But Alan Bristow's closure of BUA(CI) after the strike in 1968 resulted in their being ejected from the BUA group. That was very unfair, considering they had only been sent there on secondment. They were not the only ex-cadets to strike against Bristow's attempt to exclude BALPA from negotiations of pay and conditions, and must have been under much pressure from their seniors, who had much more to lose from Bristow's reorganisation of the unprofitable BUA group.

So it seems that Course 30 represented a mixture of British airline cadets, in addition to J P Singh. Looking again at that course photo, and realising the gaps in my memory, I'm starting to think that Tony Hanson was also a BUA cadet (as I was, on Course 32). We BUA cadets were scattered far and wide after leaving Scone, and rarely came into contact.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chris Scott (Post 10875834)

Thanks bean, I stand corrected. Evidently, more BUA cadets were seconded to BUA(CI) at Jersey on the Dart Herald than I had remembered. Those of us who were sent to fly more pedestrian types like the Bristol 170 ("Frightner") at Lydd or, in my case, Herons and Dakotas at Gatwick were envious of their good fortune. But Alan Bristow's closure of BUA(CI) after the strike in 1968 resulted in their being ejected from the BUA group. That was very unfair, considering they had only been sent there on secondment. They were not the only ex-cadets to strike against Bristow's attempt to exclude BALPA from negotiations of pay and conditions, and must have been under much pressure from their seniors, who had much more to lose from Bristow's reorganisation of the unprofitable BUA group.

So it seems that Course 30 represented a mixture of British airline cadets, in addition to J P Singh. Looking again at that course photo and realising the gaps in my memory, I'm starting to think that Tony Hanson was also a BUA cadet (as I was, on Course 32). We BUA cadets were scattered far and wide after leaving Scone, and rarely came into contact.

Apologies for being so late (three years to the day since your last message on this thread!), but just to confirm that Tony Hanson was a Cambrian student. Ex Merchant Navy (like several others in those days as the fleet contracted), and ended up as a BA 747 skipper. I have the occasional beer with him. He reminds me he not only won the Principal's Award for 30 Course, but also the gong as Ace-of-the-Base for the whole year!! (Don't know what happened to all that talent in the years since . . )

I also have to pass on the sad news that another student on this, the first Cambrian course, Roger Whitlam, passed away a few days ago after a short battle with a particularly aggressive cancer.

A>S>T>Perth (Scone) 1966

I'm sure I waded through all of this before. Fearsome read. Brings back very fond memories.

With all the photos and name dropping, forgive me Chris, I think I emailed a Question and "Offchocks", just PM'd you. My interest was in the DanAir cadet. Was that Hassan ?

Long lost contact but at our last meeting, "Hoss" revealed that he was sponsored to AST by DanAir. Jaw dropped as I thought I knew everything about sponsored pilot training and while being aware of the occasional one-odd deal, had no idea Dan did that. Hass failed to expand the conversation but giggled an awful lot.

Sadly, we lost contact.

Sponsored pilot training and names popped up again in the local, co-incident with AST thread rising up again. I was able to determine that Dan DID sponsor one bloke and whiles unable to verify the story, even knew the rotter.

Blimey, had I known DA was sponsoring, I would have joined as a Loader, worked my way into Ops, got my big Sis(Ops Sec) to to do unheard of things to secure my sponsorship. Gosh, might have even joined the Withdean Lodge..............oh ok, i'll stop there....................

A.S.T Perth (Scone) 1966

OFFCHOCKS : Thanks V much for the PM reply. The Dan debate continues in the Taverna and the "one" Dan sponsored Cadet I thought I knew wasn't ! Maybe there were two ?