We recently came across this short film of one individual’s training journey to become a pilot for BOAC on the Vickers VC10 in the early 1970s.
Training at the famous Hamble College of Air Training, established jointly by the British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC) and British European Airways (BEA), which later merged to form British Airways, the school was created in the late 1950s to combat a growing shortage of ex military pilots. The college operated up until the early 1980s, delivering an integrated flight training programme based loosely on the RAF’s officer training college at Cranwell.
Students would follow a two-year training programme (later reduced to 18 months), flying Chipmunk basic trainers and twin-engine Piper Apaches and Beech Barons before graduating and heading over to Shannon Airport in the west of Ireland to undergo their VC10 type rating.
Line training was certainly a different animal back then compared to today, with Hamble graduates undergoing an impressive 40-odd take-offs and landings before being cleared for operational duties, at a cost that airline accountants today would likely have a heart attack over.