With the influx of new Airbus airframes, Virgin needed more pilots and not just to occupy the right hand seat… there were opportunities for promotion to Captain much earlier than had been the norm. When I joined the time to command was about 8 years. Looking back I did my first sector with Virgin in July 1994 and it was now November 96, 2 years 4 months later and I was already starting my pre-command training.

A typical month of Tornado flying might accru 25 hours in 15 sorties. As an airline pilot I could easily do that in 2 sectors!

Who wouldn’t want an expenses paid trip to a tropical island?

We were headed to the fabled island home of the extinct Dodo

The result of a Flight Management computer issue was commonly the PLEASE WAIT message

When the Kai Tak IGS approach wasn’t available, we would usually get a VOR approach over Chung Chau and Stonecutters island

Roy and Curly certainly pulled my leg!

The pre command Sim was certainly a challenge

Images under Creative Commons licence with thanks to Jeppesen Charts.