ROCKING CHAIR: Changing times Our resident Old Git, Ian Frow, offers sympathy to Ithose on strike, and ponders passenger evacuation t is never fun being on strike, especially for pilots; inevitably the press is less than sympathetic. Mark Young, the battle-hardened former BALPA General Secretary, used to say that the press depicts almost all strikes as being about money; journalists fail to grasp that more complex management/staff issues are usually involved. Just 51 years ago, BOAC pilots started industrial action that culminated in a strike lasting not days, but weeks. The issue was the entry into service of the Boeing 747, which could carry three times more passengers than a 707, plus a 707’s worth of freight. It was about more money for flying ‘Fat Albert’ but, as ever, it was also about a changing style of pilot and management dialogue. For long-haul pilots, relations were especially tricky with crew hotels at the far end of the line. The hotels had been told to withdraw all pilots’ accommodation, but this was interpreted in various ways. The still-elegant – but then slightly run-down – Raffles in Singapore was magnificent. The manager called all the pilot crew members together, disdainfully held up a fax from BOAC management and said: “Your employer has told me to throw you all out. That is not Raffles’ style – you will all continue to stay as guests of this hotel until this nastiness is all over.” As money pressures increased, many strikers took jobs as white van men, gardeners, painters and decorators, and even, it was rumoured, assistant zookeepers – which included muck shovelling – and undertakers’ helpers. When it was all over, stories were swapped about offers of permanent employment, apocryphally at more than some junior flying salaries. But nothing in BOAC was quite the same again. A strike and two rejects The North Sea helicopter article in the last edition of The Log stirred memories. OG had organised a jump seat ride from Aberdeen to a North Sea rig one blustery February day. On the way home, skirting a lively cumulus, there was an all too familiar flash and bang, while OG muttered: “Just like the tropics.” A snow shower delayed landing at Aberdeen. Later investigation showed damage to one blade, making that 15-minute hold significant. The eventful day continued on the ride back to London, when the Trident conducted two rejected take-offs before a more serviceable ‘ground gripper’ was found for a third attempt. Were the gods sending a message that day? Locking the lockers Videos of recent aircraft evacuations show passengers using the slides while clutching hand baggage. In a recent accident, passengers in the rear seats died, their escape delayed by those further forwards retrieving their cabin bags. The current debate is about when – or if – the overhead lockers should be locked. But society has also changed. Back then, passengers respected crew members’ instructions. There is a fascinating, wobbly, historic 80s film of the evacuation of a 747 in a very windy Lajes in the Azores; all passengers’ hands are empty. That event raised other issues, which are still relevant. The wind was so strong that several slides ‘flew’ before some courageous individuals went down to act as ballast. All aircraft have certified handling and crosswind limits, but it seems that nowhere are any wind limits listed for slide use. Is it just a case of hoping the odds against an evacuation in a high wind are too great to bother with? OPINION OPINION OPINION ROCKING CHAIR: OPINION ROCKING CHAIR: Changing times OPINION