UK Cockpit builders day out "A Great Success"

[John Davis]

The UK Cockpit builders meeting at Manchester Airport was a great success
approx 9 of us from all over the UK met at the Concorde Attraction and had nearly 3 hours on a guided tour of 4 different Aircraft

First was a small briefing in a nose section of a DC10-30 ex Monarch Airlines culminating with a short visit to the flightdeck.
We then moved onto a Trident 3b G-AWZK which is fully preserved inside and out we were allowed onboard to view a video look around the inside which included a section in the tail full of trident memorabilia, logbooks, photos and technical drawing, the visit finished with a visit to the flightdeck where the guide explained the Autoland system (The Trident was the first aircraft to have autoland capability)

Next up was a BAE RJX, this aircraft was in testing as a replacement for the BAE 146 at the time of September 11 and as all confidence in flying dropped off the project was scrapped. The aircraft viewed had flown approx 23hrs only and was still bare inside with Water tanks fitted and all wiring and flying control cabelling exposed. We were able to take photos of the flightdeck from behind a half perspex door.

Our final and FANTASTIC last aircraft was Concorde G-BOAC this was Britis Airways flagship concorde and we were treated to a 45 minute close up walk around and very informative talk on the aircraft, it was nice to get "up close and personal" following this talk we were allowed to board the aircraft for a viewing of the interior with us all relaxing in the Leather Seats, we were taken ONTO the flightdeck in pairs for a 5 minute visit where the informativ guide explained the flightdeck very fully, we were also allowed to sit in the Captains seat throughout and take photos and videos, for me this was the hilight of the day, especially whn I checked some photos at home when I got back to find this was the sam aicraft I took pics of in the 80's at Coventrys Airshow.

In the next few days I will post a link to pics of the visit, and so will some of the guys and Steve Everson will edit together a video for the new vidseo section. Untill then you can all be jealous of this photo of me in the Captains seat of G-BOAC

[AndyT]

Please post the video on the MyCockpit Video site.

[John Davis]

We will do Andy, Steve has gone home to start work on it straight away

Please excuse the spelling in my post folks ... been a long day and im not getting any younger

Cheers John

[Matt Olieman]

Excellent Post and News. I felt the necessity to copy the post and put it on the front page.

Thank you John for your report. I look forward toward seeing the video at www.mycockpitvideos.com

Matt Olieman

[John Davis]

Wow ... Thanks Matt, its nice as we have all met through this forum, and its our second meeting. All thanks to Mike (MPL330) for organising this one, Hoping the next one will be a BBQ at my sim.

here are a couple more pics to wet your appetite

Best wishes John

[John Davis]

More pictures

Note the Offset Noeswheel on the Trident

[RalphW]

Yes, a great day and here we all are on the steps of Concorde. I'll post more as soon as I can.

Ralph

[John Davis]

Last pics for now. Tired but still excited, it was a great day

[Matt Olieman]

Again, John and Ralph, thanks for the wonderful news and pics. John I've used up all of your allowances of pics for the day.... OOPS.. I put them on the front page, but only one shows unless you open the news thread.

Wish I was there... next best thing is what you guys did, and that's to share it with the rest of us.

Thanks again,
Matt Olieman

[John Davis]

That's ok Matt, its much appreiated, tomorrow I will post the pics on my own website, annotate them and put a link on here as it will be easier for the moment.

Cheers John

Steve took some great video both on and off the aircraft, cant wait to see it edited ... and of course we had all the action at the airpoer to watch also.

For those of you outside the UK the experience is sited at Manchester Airport EGCC http://www.manchesterairport.co.uk/m...rdeInformation