RAF Form 414, Vol 35

Delving into my log book yet again I recall thatI had flown a couple of supernumerary trips to John F Kennedy airport in New York, sitting in the back of the cockpit watching how it was done but now it was my turn to clamber into the hot seat to start my line training with Virgin Atlantic. I was also flying with the Chief Pilot so absolutely no pressure! Compared with the Airbus A340, the old Boeings were beginning to look a bit like dinosaurs! The confusion of aircraft flying over the Atlantic only really became apparent when they were all leaving contrails! With the early MCDUs it was possible to outpace the processor that was trying to keep pace with your key presses. Despite the plethora of satellites whizzing around the world, the world of aviation still often relied on old fashioned HF radios for communication. The data we used to plot our position on maps came from the same source as that that guided the aircraft! I was surprised to see that this famous airport still regularly used approach aids common in much less developed countries. Images used under a creative commons licence with thanks to Nick Anderson, NATS, Airbus and the UK Gov.