UK Cockpit builders day out "A Great Success"

[John Davis]

MyCockpit UK Cockpit builders day out "A Great Success"
(orignal post with all pics. http://www.mycockpit.org/forums/showthread.php?t=12583 )

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