Easyjet.inside The Cockpit

[Smowball]

Who's just watched this?? Good god - I've got fridges older than those pilots!! (Ok not literally!) . Bit of an eye opener though!!

[murraymints]

remind me never to fly orange !

[237SJ]

What's that about? I havent watched it

[goodgoalie]

Exactly what I thought, Smow. I think I'd rather be flown by someone with a bit of life experience, rather than a 20-year-old fresh out of training. And why does it cost £100,000 to get through the training? Where do all the applicants find that kind of money - they can't all have (seemingly) rich parents like Cornelius

[237SJ]

You don't need life experience to fly a plane

[Zacs-Master]

Can someone remind me what the average age of a Lancaster or Halifax bomber pilot was in WWII?

[mazie]

Wiki

"The majority of RAF Bomber Command aircrew were aged 19 through to their mid-twenties although younger and considerably older airmen have been identified. The average age is stated to have been 21.[85]"

[Zacs-Master]

It was a rhetorical question mazie, but thanks anyway.

[douglas9401]

Some of us just want to go to the Costas though, ZM, not a tour of 1940s German industrial infrastructure. :)

[goodgoalie]

But they weren't flying a cabin full of 200 people many of whom are fuelled-up on duty-free and on their way to a stag do

[mazie]

I know Zac but I was curious. The woman we bought this house from had a son who was a pilot with BA. His first flying job was based in Glasgow. He went to hire a van to move his stuff and was refused as he wasn't 21.

[Zacs-Master]

There is no public access to the cockpit. Just makes me laugh that some think it was OK for a young man to risk / sacrifice his and his crew's lives in the defence of our country but not to take the controls of a much easier to fly machine to take you on your holiday to torremelinos.

[goodgoalie]

Zacs, did you see this programme? The point I was making was that the 20-year-old featured did not exactly fill me with confidence, particularly as we saw him botch a trial landing, when his instructor had to take over the controls. Nothing to do with pilots in World War 2

[RobNorth]

One notable bomber pilot in WW2 named Dobney was flying missions over Germany at the ripe old age of 15! To his great disappointment he was sent back to his mother and presumably school when his father found out. He made the Guinness book of records as the youngest ever combat pilot anywhere. He was later chief photographer on the Daily Express and they did an article about him in the mid seventies.

[Zacs-Master]

I'm sure every trainee pilot bodges a landing or two, you were watching a TV programme. Jeopardy and sensationalism are what they thrive on.

The OP is ALL about the age of the pilot. I was merely pointing out the rather facile and hippocratic nature of the premise.

[Mamyalynne]

I didn't see tonight's programme, however if his instructor took over he wasn't fully trained - was he?

[naomi24]

I didn't see it but if the pilot is qualified I can't really see what age has to do with it. Perhaps someone will explain?

[Zacs-Master]

TRIAL landing mamya.

[Zacs-Master]

Me neither Naomi. I'd rather have an alert young person fresh out of pilot school at the controls than a complacent older pilot.

[Mamyalynne]

Right Zacs, missed that word,sorry.

[RobNorth]

You can fly an aeroplane solo at 16 and at any age while being trained but you must be 17 before you can drive a motor car....apparently the majority of WW2 pilots did not have driving licences, as most of them were from the lower orders.