KARFA

As you know I help organise the annual FT outing to the BA simulators at LHR every year.

After the sim evenings at the end of 2018 I received an email from Andy telling me his department had announced a reorganisation and his current role would no longer exist. He was in discussions with another department within BA hopefully for a move across in which case he would be able to continue the sim evenings.

Anyway I have now heard this week that BA are stopping all corporate and private sims. Unfortunately Andy is being made redundant and he hasn't got a job elsewhere in BA. This is obviously quite depressing news, not just because of sim visits but because Andy has been extremely helpful in organising our sim sessions and he is a really nice guy. Regardless of what happened with our sim outings, I was hoping for a better outcome for Andy. I mention this as those of you who have come along in previous years, especially the regulars, may want to get in touch with him before he leaves just to thank him - I know everyone has always been very complimentary about him.

Andy has also passed on the following which I wanted to share as well:

"I always looked forward to the FlyerTalk evenings, all the guys and girls that came along were always very enthusiastic and inquisitive! It was always fun! Thanks for all your hard work in making them successful."

In terms of the sim evenings themselves, I am looking at some other options. I have kept in touch with one of the instructors from a previous year and we are meeting up soon to see if we can work something out with BA. However, it may not be something that is possible sadly. Andy did say if we needed qualified instructors he was willing to come in and take a group.

Also I know there are often questions on the board from people who are looking to book one off sessions on their own via the BA Flight Training site. The changes will affect that too and I understand BA are stopping selling access to the public for flight sim experiences. I have been told that public access ends this weekend.

Anyway, sorry for the bad news. We had five years of sim evenings and we have had 78 people come along. I do hope I can work something out with BA to carry them on in some form and I will update with the outcome of this.