Never a Dull Moment

I exchanged the Air India ticket for one on TWA, with a stop in Kansas City, in order to see something of the airline, I had already informed them of my availability, Val had kept in touch and I was able to proceed directly to KC, arriving the day before the two days of examinations. A number of likely lads stood outside 10, Richards Road at KC Municipal Airport at seven thirty am. I was impressed with the professional handling during the next two days' proceedings. There was a quiet confidence in the air, without any bragging, that here is a first class airline. We commenced at once with a number of thirty minute exams, timed exactly, basic intelligence, aeronautical knowledge and mathematics tests. We then paused for a break, while seated in the lounge a well dressed young man sauntered over and sat down next to me. He was curious about my insect and chemical stained helmet, which I had been unable to store anywhere. After I explained a few things to him, he offered the advice that probably TWA would not be interested, they needed people like himself, experienced in the KC 135, the air force version of the B707. I responded that may be so, but I would stay anyway, to which he said "try Frontier Airlines. " At noon a small number of us were ushered into another room, I thought that was it, however it was the majority that had failed. Later in the afternoon I saw my new friend, who was one of them, and could not stop myself from saying " try Frontier." We had more tests in the afternoon, then returned to the New Yorker Hotel. The day following we endured a very thorough medical exam, the only comment was that my teeth needed some work and they gave me the x-rays. Not really surprising, under the circumstances. The last thing was an interview with a line captain, we got on famously as he had done some crop dusting himself. As I was about to leave the room he asked casually if I had ever been in prison, I told him about the Palm Beach incident, he laughed, said that did not count. Back at Taylor Street I related all my adventures to Val and spent most of my time at the seaplane base, trying to look perfectly calm. I did pop in to say hello to Skip and the team, reminding him that I had given his name to TWA as a referee. He told me they had already contacted him and spent no less than forty five minutes on the phone, delving deeply into my murky character. Happily Scott, his son, had been accepted by the US Navy in the flight training programme. My nerves were indeed ragged, my heart was set on this opportunity, finally the telegramme came, report for duty on the eighth of February 1965. Oh dark thirty, in my best bib and tucker, I was standing outside 1307 Baltimore Avenue, with fifteen fellow pilots, this was to be my introduction to the American way of doing things. We were shown into a conference room, seated in a semi-circle at desks, complete with microphones. Some top brass were seated in the centre, we received a rousing speech of welcome, then were shown a film on the history of TWA, each in turn was exhorted to give a encapsulated story of his background and flying experience. This came as a bolt out of the blue, Americans are prepared for this, they are encouraged to do so at school, they like to talk about themselves, in fact go into any bar and there they are, all talking about themselves. If I ever talked about myself at home or in school, I was told to shut up. Therefore, my little speech was pretty dreary. We were then lectured on what to expect during the coming months, the airline was expanding rapidly with the advent of the jet age, large numbers of the B707 were on order, also the brand new B727. TWA intended to be the first all jet airline with the best routes throughout the USA and the major capitals of western Europe. Then they dropped the bombshell. We were to be flight engineers on the aging but beautiful Lockheed Constellation. The silence was stark, followed by an audible groan. The airline was stuck between a rock and a hard place, they were hiring a class a month, sometimes more, alternately pilot and engineer, but everyone went on the seniority list as of date of hire. There were two unions ALPA (Airline Pilots Association ) and FEIA ( Flight Engineers International Association ), who could see the writing on the wall, the B727 was to be the last aircraft designed with an engineers' station, after that they were out of a job and they were fighting for their lives. The company was hoping against hope that the lawyers would find a compromise, in the meantime we were permanent F/E's, what was more to the point, the FEIA stated categorically that taking pilots off the street and making them Connie F/E's could not be done. The aeroplane was far too complicated, it was designed around the F/E panel and he was virtually in control of all the systems, the exception only being the physical flying. In addition we learned that we would be on a basic salary of $500 a month until the end of training, after that a further one year on probation while line training and working the line, until we finally received increment pay. This was alright for jet engineers, as the training was short, for us they thought it would take six months, but they were not absolutely sure because it had never been done before and we were one of the first classes. By the way, they said, the FAA are monitoring this class very closely and would be sitting in every session, because they were not sure either. They ended by saying, please do not worry, we have the best training in the world and everything will be OK.