OPINION ROCKING CHAIR: On giants shoulders Our resident Old Git, Ian Frow, laments the passing of an old colleague, and applauds the changing face of The Log A lthough it was sad to note the death of Laurie Taylor, it was also good to see him properly remembered by his daughter and by Mike Clarke in the last edition of The Log. Old Git was privileged to fly with him several times, and he always exuded an air of calm, quiet authority. On one occasion, we flew back from the Indian subcontinent overnight with multi sectors. Back in the UK, OG went home to bed for the day, woke up, turned on the Six oClock News and there was Laurie, calmly and clearly explaining in that unique voice of his the latest BALPA industrial problem. He cannot have spent many hours in bed. As Mike Clarke relates, Laurie, while holding high office in both BALPA and IFALPA, helped set the tone for the future of both organisations. In BALPA, together with other far-sighted colleagues, he laid the foundations of the highly professional organisation that is BALPA today. A giant indeed. They had their problems, too Laurie Taylors daughters tribute briefly mentioned his return to the UK at the end of 1943 as a qualified RAF bomber pilot, but added no more details. When OG joined Civil Aviation, there were many sitting in the left-hand seat who had seen wartime service. Laurie was eminently sane, but there were others who might today be assessed as having Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Sometimes it was just minor eccentricities. One notable captain always inspected the aircraft toilets before flight, insisting that those on the port side should have pink loo paper, while the starboard loos should sport green paper; another long-haul captain sometimes donned green silk pyjamas at the top of climb and spent much of the rest of the sector in the bunk. Others were more seriously damaged, but we were a relatively small group, monitored and controlled by a company medical unit dedicated to maintaining the health of all aircrew. No airline could afford that luxury today. Would you do it? Sitting in the Rocking Chair, mulling on Apollo 11, is quite stressful. Those guys started their trip atop a main rocket containing 318,000 gallons of liquid oxygen and 203,000 gallons of kerosene, mixed together to get them into orbit. They navigated sometimes using astro sights, had less computing power than OGs elderly Nokia mobile phone, and arrived at their destination with less than 60 seconds of fuel remaining. It was all so basic and risky. According to Neil Armstrongs son, his father had believed they had only a 5050 chance of completing the mission. Even the worlds most gung-ho airlines might hesitate to launch such a trip. The Log it is a-changing Back in the 70s, The Log was produced laboriously using cut and paste, together with much cursing and a modest consumption of claret (courtesy of the late Peter Ford). Reading those editions now can be an uncomfortable exercise. The journal was non-PC (we were even criticised in The Guardian). It was lively, maybe funnier, but a less professional magazine, and provided a valued place for members to express the opinions they now can air on social media. One big complaint was that it was almost entirely produced by BA pilots all male, of course. Over the decades, The Log has evolved. First in black and white (rather like Private Eye), then four pages of colour, becoming all colour, and now handed to the professionals to produce. Many airlines are now represented on the Log Board. Two editions ago, The Log went digital, and last edition scored another first when two of the three duty editors were female. Great.