Show Notes
With the influx of new Airbus airframes, Virgin needed more pilots and not just to occupy the right hand seat… there were opportunities for promotion to Captain much earlier than had been the norm. When I joined the time to command was about 8 years. Looking back I did my first sector with Virgin in July 1994 and it was now November 96, 2 years 4 months later and I was already starting my pre-command training.
A typical month of Tornado flying might accru 25 hours in 15 sorties. As an airline pilot I could easily do that in 2 sectors!
Who wouldn’t want an expenses paid trip to a tropical island?
We were headed to the fabled island home of the extinct Dodo
The result of a Flight Management computer issue was commonly the PLEASE WAIT message
When the Kai Tak IGS approach wasn’t available, we would usually get a VOR approach over Chung Chau and Stonecutters island
Roy and Curly certainly pulled my leg!
The pre command Sim was certainly a challenge
Images under Creative Commons licence with thanks to Jeppesen Charts.
More from Plane Tales
We last spoke to Basam when he was doing his Jet Upset Training but now that he has his dream job it was appropriate that we should chat again on one of his London layovers. In particular, he is flying around a war zone which presents additional challenges to a civil airline pilot.
A flock of seagulls had chosen that moment to break ground from the grass beside the runway and fly across our path. They disappeared under the nose as we climbed away and cleaned the aircraft up… no noise of an impact but then we noticed the No 2 engine’s N1 vibration number was pulsing and reading a bit high. So starts another Tale from my flying logbook.
The next tale from my RAF Logbook, albeit now being filled with civilian flights for Virgin Atlantic Airways…
The second part of an interview with Alan Munro, retired RAF pilot and Cold War warrior, where we talk about his book… Fast Jets on the Front Line.