How it used to be done!!
 

Who says you need 1500 hours GA flying to be in the RHS of an airliner? These guys had a couple of hundred hours in Cherokee/Chipmunks and an IR and twin Rating in a Baron or Apache. All these cadet pilots are now retired after many years as BA Capts.

Idiocy
 

What a foolish comment. The low-hours pilots graduating from Hamble, Oxford and Perth had not simply completed 200 hours GA flying. How inaccurate. Au contraire, one can complete 5000 hours of GA flying and remain a liability in the cockpit of a multi-crew airliner.

The Hamble instructor went on to star in George and Mildred.

Cessna Pete ; Guilty. I went RHS Viscount with 400 hrs. So did many of my fellow sponsored cadets. Not all Hamble. The latter did a while as Navs in BOAC or third pilot (Systems Panel Ops) with BEA before going RHS. Aer Limgus cadets also went straight into the RHS after cadet training. Most of us repaid the Industry with 40+ years of service and now retired. But rather than George & Mildred, we were Magnificent Men in our Flying Machines !

Yeah, how it used to be done..without a single female trainee pilot. How prehistorical!

I they only had 200 plus hours of instruction before joining BOAC/ BEA. No other “ GA” flying.

And as to the comment about no female candidates, yes correct, but that was the scenario in those distant times. Female cabin crew maximum age on joining was 26 with a 10 year contract, and retirement at 35. Seems archaic now, but the World changes fortunately.

I can think of a few Mildreds from your generation!

Thank you for the video! I was one of the boys who were just applying for the cadetship when the BBC Started the Sunday morning news with the statement that BOAC had told 200 cadets that they would not have jobs for them at the end of their training due to the reduction of pilot demand because of the new Jumbos. I got on the next plane back to Canada, where I had been for the last three years of high school, to join the RCAF. It was fun to see what I would have experienced.

Here was the promotional literature for the Hamble cadets:

Fly with BOAC

I was on that first Hamble course in 1960. When we graduated in 1962, we were told that BOAC did not need us but that BEA did. That was the start of my education in the fickleness of airline planning. I decided to stick with BOAC even though that meant two years of straight navigation on Britannias. After a while, unlike many pilots, I found that I loved navigation and did both on VC10s until INS came along. I have never regretted my decision.

Hi Bergerie. I've sent you a PM.

The brochure that they sent me was called 'Flight Plan' and had a map for my whole life, including getting married, having children and teaching them to fly, maybe :-)

I remember five ex National Service student pilots who received their wings on our course in 1957 and then left the RAF immediately to join BOAC and BEA. They would have had about 250 hours on Piston Provost and Vampires.

https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....31582d7de.jpeg
This was the Ad that sold it to me; I got the car, the hostess who turned down a BEA photo shoot for me (who has stayed the course) and got to fly the iconic 70s Brit kit of both corporations. A lucky bunny…and I even got to fly clean aircraft whose tech logs weren’t full of carry forwards nor departing on magical mystery tours as you never knew when you were getting home.
Next week we have our 50th course reunion in Piccadilly.

ve3id ; Thread creeping a bit but still an enjoyable read. I ask, only, about Canadians trying to get into Hamble (!) In my search for sponsored cadet training (still at school) I wrote to TCA and asked if they would like to sponsor my training and I was even prepared to emigrate ! I did receive one of the nicer reject letters. I also asked Max Ward the same question and offered him, in return, a lifetime of service on his B727's and, again, declared a willingness to live in Vancouver. Rotter didn't even reply.

Gosh, next we will hear of Ozzies, NZ's and even Yanks going to Hamble.

Another way into the RHS was to emigrate to Oz, join the RAAF, do three years (yep, they only wanted three) and return to blighty for RHS BOAC VC10 ! Risky as they wanted Residential status at the time of applying. I had just flunked all GCE subjects in the mock and looked at other routes.

Discorde, I have sent you a PM reply

Interesting view of the civilian route to the rhs of a large company passenger fleet. Presumably, a similar path was trodden by the BEA hopefuls. Their fleet included the venerable Viking, which was employed in a similar, but generally more demanding role by the RAF Valetta. The interesting bit is that our route to the rhs was " Right - you're it !" The Signaller (Radio Operator)_was designated right seat for Take-off, Landing and en-route pilot breaks. Depending on the Skipper, you may have been given some 'one-off' handling time, but, otherwise it was 'watch and learn'. Since the designation included potential aircraft recovery in the event of pilot incapacitation, there was considerable impetus to 'upskill' !
I've often wondered if the results of the (in those days) Hornchurch 3 day testing was the decider as to who went to Transport Command and who to Coastal ? The process was a fertile 'breeding ground' for 'crossovers'.