B.A. Or my Life?!... The first Chapter - In the Beginning.

Chapter One.      In the Beginning.....

As promised so many times now, at last! some might say; this is the the first chapter of my (sort of) autobiography or musings about aviation, and my time in involved in this 'curious' airline world.

Okay, okay, I know "In the Beginning...." is not the most original title, but it's good enough for my purposes, and we have to start somewhere?! in the 'tangled' and meandering, digressive memories of my mind.

From a very young age, I had always wanted to be a pilot. Not just some typical short term fad or fantasy, but a long term deep fascination with aeronautical things. First I wanted to be a military pilot, enthralled by past designs and high speed performance of the latest fighter jets.
By the mid. 1970's, I had 'matured' enough to realize that due to serious defence spending cuts, and harsh economic times (sounds a bit like today again?!) that being in the military wouldn't quite be the experience that was promised by the slick recruitment adverts! Plus I was starting to get the typical rebellious young teenage feelings about 'authority', and the thought of having to do lots of 'square bashing' military training, parades, and all the other nonsense involved with flight officer training; with the delights of also having to polish everything that didn't move, for good measure for inspection! helped put me off. That all had to be endured, before I would even get near an aeroplane!
Also the minor fact that my eyesight wouldn't be good enough, to pass the strict medical tests required for fighter pilots, would be just a slight problem!
A brief spell of almost a year attending the Air Training Corps, in my spare time in the weekday evenings, also confirmed my view about the Royal Air Force!

So I gradually got more and more interested in civil aviation and passenger jets, and would spend large parts of my spare time hanging around the local airport, and other airports and airfields around the south east of England, soaking up the atmosphere, and seeing airliners from all over the world arrive and depart. I wanted desperately to be part of it all!
By 1978, I had made the decision to become an airline pilot, or at least do something else interesting in the airline industry; and surprise, surprise, the careers officer at school was absolutely useless, and didn't have a clue! The careers office advice was that I should consider being a teacher! Really great advice eh?, since I hated secondary school, and did my best to do the bare minimum of work whilst I was there! And couldn't wait to escape school and it's daily dull routine. The aviation life seemed so exciting by comparison! Little did I know what to really expect!
I was also told that I had good artistic talent by the art teacher, and should consider going to art college. I pondered with this idea for a while, but decided that I would make better money working in the airline industry; especially with the current economic crisis at the time.

With the background of the 'Winter of Discontent', sudden strikes, and the final throes of a Jim Callaghan (Sunny Jim) Labour government collapse; things sounded grim in those days, but I remember that they were also sometimes exciting times of great change. In youth culture terms, it was the end of Punk, and the birth of New Wave, and a whole lot of new sounds and groups on the scene, such as Blondie, Roxy Music, The Boomtown Rats, Squeeze, XTC, X-Ray Specs and electronic pop, The Buggles . These were to be the background sountracks, of my life and memories of this period of the 1970's.
Back to the school stuff unfortunately! First I had to make an effort, and pass my O'Level exams; since those unemployment queues were getting ever longer, and my prospect of getting a good job were getting slimmer. I finally got down to doing several years of study, which I should have been doing, compressed into about six months of intensive work, in preparation for the forthcoming examinations. I had been 'optimistically' been entered for ten O' Level exams!

At the same time, I also got some information about aircraft engineering apprenticeships both at British Airways (B.A.) and British Caledonian (BCAL). But because my father had fairly recently got a job at British Airways, it would be my preferred choice; since I had some idea of what to expect. And if I got accepted by British Caledonian, it would mean that I would have to find some where to live near Gatwick Airport, and Heathrow was almost 'just down the road' for me! 
My first enquiry though, was for B.A. airline pilot training at Hamble. After a chat about requirements to get accepted, I was told that I would most probably meet the academic standards, but I would have to wear glasses to meet the eyesight standards; which was not too much of a problem, but they had a queue of applicants to chose from, with A1 or close to perfect eyesight, so there's not much point in applying!
Feeling a bit fed up afterwards, I decided that, 'If I couldn't fly them, at least I could fix them!"
And this then spurred me on to apply to B.A. first, for an engineering apprenticeship.
Just as well I didn't get accepted for pilot training, since I found out by 1982, the Hamble flight training centre had closed down due to serious cost cutting, and the airline pilot students on the course found themselves without a job. The economic crisis was biting, and B.A. found that they had too many pilots, so why train any more? It looked like I had a lucky escape, and was extremely fortunate this time!

I filled out the apprenticeship application forms, sent them off, and then waited expectantly for some time. Then I think it was at the beginning of 1979, I got a letter back asking me to attend aptitude tests at the Trident Club near Northolt. It has long since gone, being a B.A. social club at the time with a wonderful view of the runway, and a few of the aircraft parked on the aprons at R.A.F Northolt aerodrome. So a little bit of time was taken looking at the airfield view!
Being really surprised, how many hundreds of other youngsters had also turned up there, I realized that I would have a lot of competition in store! I also found that the aptitude tests were far more difficult than I expected, and about half a day was spent in the large examination venue. I think we were given some refreshments whilst we were there, and I also remember meeting someone else from my school in the same year, nicknamed "Gibbles" who also wanted a job in the airline game. Afterwards, we both went to Heathrow, and ended up in the viewing terrace cafeteria, swapping our experiences of the tests, over a can or two of shandy, and what we thought some of the answers could have been to the more difficult questions; whilst B.A. Tridents and the occasional Lockheed Tristar went past in front of us, seen through the panoramic glass windows.

Months went by, and I was now more concerned with final studying in May at home, for the O' Level exams in the summer. I got a bit concerned after the exams had finished, that there was no news regarding my job application, so I contacted B.A. again. Their response was that my application had somehow got lost in the system (most probably fallen behind a filing cabinet in an office, knowing B.A.!)
I couldn't apply for the BCAL apprenticeship scheme now, since they only had only a small number of apprentice jobs available, and they were filled by now. I had also missed my chance to join the 1979 B.A. intake of apprentices; but after telling them that I had passed nine O' Levels in the end, I was told to re-apply for the Spring 1980 intake, and it would be a formality. The only problem was that by 1980, I was at the upper age limit of 17 and three quarter years old eligibility, and I would just about be young enough to start training under the rules of the apprenticeship! I also only had twice the number of qualifications required for the job as well.  
I should have known that this was a preview of how chaotic things were going to be, regarding my career with British Airways!
At last I got my letter from B.A. in the summer of 1979, informing me that I had been accepted for an interview for the prospective apprenticeship job. 

The distinctive odours of burnt kerosene ( jet aviation fuel) and the slight whiff of burnt rubber from landing aircraft tyres, were some of the first sensory 'experiences', as the 'aviation mad' youngster was getting close to London Heathrow airport.
Then followed up by the steady warm breeze felt on the face - it's almost always windy at the airport! and the mechanical, sometimes ghostly whine of aircraft turboprop engines, and early turbojet and turbofans ; the sounds drifting back and forth in the distance, with the wind blowing.
On that memorable August day in 1979, I arrived by train at Hatton Cross underground station, carrying a black holdall with supporting information required for the job interview, about myself and my achievements. Still feeling and looking new, the station had that relatively fresh smell, of a building only opened about a year before. I remember on that morning, that it was quite a sunny day, with white broken clouds in the blue expansive sky.
Feeling a bit apprehensive prior to the interview at the British Airways Engineering East base, I still had plenty of spare time before the interview appointment. So I crossed over the main road and walked to the right of the Dunlop Aviation Tyres building; instinctively towards Barclays Bank, passed the Hatton Cross roundabout, and along the perimeter to the West Base Technical Block D hangars apron area.
There wasn't much road traffic about, since it was long after the morning rush hour.

What attracted me that morning, was the sight of a gleaming immaculate looking executive jet conversion, of an early Boeing B.707-100 series, resplendent in dark green and white paint, parked up amongst the British built Trident jets, outside the hangars. It was Cayman Islands registered (VR-CAN), and I thought that "I wouldn't mind flying in one of those!"
'Lugging' the black holdall bag along by the local landmark of a row of small conifer trees, whilst walking past several B.A. Tridents, waiting 'patiently' for their eventual next flights, parked along by the perimeter road fence; I realised that it was time to make my way to the interview venue, and just about had enough time to do it.

Striding along the quite wide pavement to the East Base main entrance, I noticed the large red brick office block of Comet House on my right, seeing office staff looking busy at their desks through the ground floor windows; and it almost felt intimidating, the vast size of this organisation that I might be joining!

With the interview invitation letter in one hand, I approached the security gate box, at the main entrance to the East Base, and was met by a friendly elderly B.A. security man, dressed in an official looking black uniform, and wearing a military style white peaked cap. He must have seen it so many times before - a nervous looking job applicant, waiting to be interviewed! He directed me to the entrance of Comet House, just opposite the security gate and I then walked along a narrow path, following the sign to the interview rooms.

That's all for the moment! The next part will be "The Interview.....", which will be published eventually!
I'm sure that you all 'bloggers' out there can hardly wait?! Or maybe not!!!