A Sample Feature From Aviation News

The Last Concorde Captain

British Airways’ chief of Concorde Flight Operations, Captain Mike Bannister, talks exclusively to The Editor about his experiences flying the aircraft and the reasons behind its retirement.

Above: Capt Mike Bannister on Concorde’s flight-deck in happier times. (Photo, BA).

How does flying Concorde compare with subsonic airliners?

‘Concorde handles so beautifully she’s more like a thoroughbred race horse or a sports car rather than a truck. All the pilots that fly her take great delight in the physical part of flying the aeroplane – its better than managing the operation! Its very satisfying to carry many people that are doing a trip of a life time and to see the direct output of that in the smiles and the satisfaction on the faces of the individuals on board. People become commercial pilots for a number of reasons and probably one thing we all have in common is the love of flying aeroplanes, another is to see the world, another one is to be reasonably remunerated and another is to have an irregular lifestyle. We’ve all got those in different orders. If you want to see the world then clearly Concorde is not the aeroplane to use, but if you want to have a great satisfaction on flying an aeroplane then Concorde comes very high on the list and I’m of a view that many commercial pilots like the opportunity to fly the aeroplane, to have a go, and certainly over the years we have had many requests from people to come down and see what its like to fly. You can literally fly the aeroplane with your fingertips – the aeroplane is very well balanced.’

Its quite an old aeroplane now. What equipment have you had to install to conform with airways standards that probably wasn’t there before?

‘Very little, but clearly the aeroplane in chronological terms is fairly old having been flying in airline service since 1976 although the prototype first flew in 1969. In aircraft terms it’s still very young having done about as many take-offs and landings as a 4 to 5-year-old 737 and about the same number of hours as a similar-aged 747. Inside [the structure] she’s absolutely bone dry because every time we fly supersonically the structure heats up and any moisture that might be there evaporates away. Moisture is the enemy of anything mechanical so we’ve got an aeroplane that is a 4 to 5-year-old and is in great shape. In terms of the actual aircraft fit, I think the designers got it right first time. most people who see a Concorde flight deck say to us ‘Gosh, doesn’t this look old’ or ‘you’ve got all these dials but where are the CRTs, PVDs and FMCs. Sure, we could’ve taken out the flight engineers function or significantly changed all the systems and some of the pilots instrumentation, but its worked very reliably and very effectively for all these years. Because the Concorde programme was small in terms of aircraft, the manufacturers don’t have a spare airframe on which they can do the certification testing for significant new system changes. So they would have to take one out of revenue service, which would be more expensive. The only real change which you would notice on a current flight deck is a Tcas indicator on the pilots panel.’

How many hours training does a pilot have to go through to fly Concorde?

‘Because the aeroplane is so popular, whenever there’s been a vacancy there has always been far more applicants than positions, so the positions have tended to go to senior pilots and flight engineers. What effectively happens is that vacancies have gone to people that have exactly seven-and-a-half-years to go to retirement. First Officers have forgone a command on subsonic aeroplanes to enable them to become co-pilots on Concorde and indeed, some have been Captain’s on other aeroplanes and bid to be co-pilots on Concorde. So its a pretty senior fleet. typically, a Captain would have been with British Airways for 25 years, co-pilot probably for ten and a flight engineer for ten to 15 years. The conversion course on to Concorde from a conventional aeroplane is six months as opposed to two to three months for a subsonic type, made up of a technical course at the manufacturers for six weeks and 19 on our simulator, a further six weeks then some route briefing and some generic stuff that’s over about two weeks, then base training route flying, so it is a pretty intense six months. It demands a lot from the individual, their family and friends.’

What plans are there for the simulator?

‘The simulator is still down at Bristol. Its one of the things we are looking at and a whole programme of eventual resting places for our aircraft and all of the other bits and pieces.’

Is the simulator expensive to operate?

‘Not particularly because most of the capital cost was written off some time ago.’

How many hours do you have on the aircraft?

‘About 8,000. I’ve been flying Concorde since 1977, just over 6,000 supersonic.’

Above: Contrasting noses at Heathrow as BA moves back to a subsonic-only airline. (Photo, BA).

Solar radiation has been talked about with regard to the subsonic jets, what have been the thoughts among Concorde crew?

‘It was perceived to be a potential issue when the aircraft was being developed and so we do have cosmic ray detectors. As it has turned out the exposure that we get is less than the equivalent exposure on subsonic aircraft. From London to New York, which is typically 3hr and 20min compared with a subsonic aeroplane flying at least twice that and although we are effectively almost as twice as high, the density of the atmosphere doesn’t change in a linear fashion so although we’re getting more exposure we’re not getting twice as much exposure but we are in the air for half the time. So we are actual getting less exposure on the transatlantic crossings. As you can see my hair has not fallen out!’

What is your most pleasurable memory?

‘The first time I ever actually flew the aircraft, that was a fantastic memory because although the simulator is excellent, the first time you do a take-off in base training where you use full power but the aircraft is only about 60% of its maximum weight, the acceleration is quite spectacular. You can get from a standing start to airborne at 250mph in about 20sec, and to 3,000ft in about 35sec. For an airliner that is quite remarkable and even for our ex-RAF fighter fast jet pilots who came on to fly the aeroplane they found it as spectacular as the experiences that they’ve had in the Air Force.

Secondly, the flight we did for the Queen’s Golden Jubilee when we flew over London in formation with the Red Arrows was memorable for a number of reasons. Firstly, the actual fun of doing it and secondly the privilege of being able to do it with the Red Arrows and also being able to see Her Majesty as we were coming down the Mall. The thing that stuck with me most was the number of people, so to get an opportunity to see a million people cheering and waving flags was fantastic. Lastly, the people I’ve been very fortunate to meet both as customers and the whole BA team who have supported the aircraft for a long time. We’ve got people in BA that have been with Concorde from before the time it was delivered when it was being manufactured. Some have got a huge amount of experience. They are the three key things, the strongest and fondest memories.’

For the rest of this article please see the November 2003 issue.