The Wind Beneath My Wings by Ottaway Susan

Author:Ottaway, Susan [Ottaway, Susan]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Thistle Publishing
Published: 2013-12-02T16:00:00+00:00

…a tricky aeroplane to fly. It didn’t have absolutely benign handling characteristics. It was very prone to a thing called Dutch rolling – a sort of roll-yaw coupling – and it was a difficult aeroplane to land very smoothly. It was quite a demanding aeroplane so it was rewarding in a sense. But it was the first aeroplane I went on to in BOAC so it was an important stage in my transition from a military pilot to my commercial airline career.

It came as a great shock to do this navigation stuff. I can’t say I enjoyed it. My attempts at navigating and plotting on a plotting chart were something akin to a spider crawling around all over the place, having first dipped its feet into red ink. But I never got lost.

Then I went onto the 747 and – hallelujah, praise be! – it had inertial navigation. That’s when I first came across INS and suddenly navigation became redundant and there were no more requirements for flight navigators.

John was posted to the Boeing 747 fleet in March 1971 and was sent on one of the first courses that the airline held for this aircraft. His particular course was conducted in Shannon and Sue went with him. He enjoyed it enormously: ‘We had a very good time over there. It was fascinating. Being on a brand new aeroplane with new navigation systems and new avionics was really very interesting.’

In March 1974, while John was still a first officer on the Boeing 747, BOAC and BEA merged and the new company became British Airways. For John the time he spent on the 747 fleet was enjoyable and he thought the 747 to be:

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