A LIFE ON THE ROAD, Part 3.

By Dave Hughes.Airframes.



Pergamon Press:

During my final years with 71MU and Abingdon, I developed a liking for the management of documentation. It had seemed ludicrous to me that each week a team went out, did a job and returned, but without any formal documentation of any sort save for a "sign here for it" sheet. Then the following week, another team would go out to do a similar job and possibly have to start from scratch yet again in determining equipment required, vehicles necessary, appropriate procedures, etc, when, if this were to be available in the form of worksheets, considerable time savings could be achieved.

It was not unnatural therefore that I should look for something similar "outside" and PTSI (Pergamon Technical Services International) fulfilled the bill. During the next few years I became involved in projects providing a variety of documentation for use on North Sea Oil Rigs, ocean and coastal tanker fleets, underground pipeline systems, under and over-ground rail systems, and for other sides of industry. My love of travel was rewarded with a stay of two months in Washington DC while working on WMATA, the underground rail system, and I also managed a week in Dubai whilst waiting for a super tanker to come up from Durban. There, I joined the ship by helicopter as it entered the Straits of Hormuz and gave a one-hour lecture to the ship's Officers at midnight (the only time when most were free to attend) prior to being lifted off again the following morning and returned to Dubai. First class travel to and from Dubai and a helicopter transfer from Gatwick to Heathrow on return just iced the cake a little!

UK travel from Aberdeen to the southwest also saw me visiting public utilities of various sorts, emergency organisations and other bodies involved with the national infrastructure. But then, as these things do, PTSI came to an abrupt end as a "rationalisation" of offices took place. I was offered a post at Derby and travelled daily for two months but I could see it was unlikely to work so I opted out.

I then received a call offering me a post with the Book Production department of Pergamon Press and very quickly found myself back in Oxford. What a change! This was Dante's Inferno prior to coal being put on the fire and when that too started to burn, heavens it was hot. As you will read later, I finished my formal working career in an iron foundry but that was never as intense in any sense as I found this. Pressure was huge and constant; there was not a minute in the day when we did not have to make instant decisions and these had to be correct on pain of instant dismissal. The nature of the place is illustrated by the fact that my first task was to recover £6m from creditors; in doing so I felt quite chuffed until I found out that my predecessor had recovered £10m.

I stayed just under a year. I could have stayed longer but one day spotted an advertisement for a Tech Author and as this was something I enjoyed doing, there really was no choice to be made. Ultimately, you will know that Mr Pergamon Press, i.e. Mr Robert Maxwell, came to some sort of an end off his luxury yacht while in the Med, taking 10 years of my pension and in some cases up to 50 years of others' pensions with him. I count myself very fortunate, as many received nothing for their life's labours.

Royal Ordnance and BAe Rocket Motors Division:

Those of you who had an involvement will know that the former became the latter as did the other associated divisions of RO/BAe. Having been involved with Pergamon, my first impressions of RO was that its employees believed money grew on trees and if they popped outside, they could pluck another few million quid and do some other, non-cost-effective project. When this unending supply of cash suddenly stopped soon after I joined, ashen faces littered corridors and offices. Up to the point of change, I couldn't quite believe what I was seeing, so when it did come, and it came literally overnight, it did not impact upon me or my role. For many though, what had once existed remained an integral part of their being and even at the end, namely closure of the site, there were still those who had not come to terms with change.

Unlike PTSI, work was very much of a routine. I fulfilled rather a specialist role, most others not knowing or understanding that role or how, if allowed, I could help them. Consequently, in general, their documentation tended towards the shambolic, often illogically presented, having unrepresentative diagrams and poor quality text. Only on one or two occasions was my advice sought but one major victory, frustratingly just prior to site closure, was that I won over the senior quality assurance personnel. With their help, followed by the insistence of the MD, terms of reference, accountabilities and procedural activities were introduced. Again, an outcry ensued, but the project was followed through and was successful with the award of the relevant ISO. BAe RMD was less successful for the defence industry was suddenly the subject of many harsh cutbacks and for me, it was time to move on again.

Harwell:

Oh dear! More Trees coming down! More cash being plucked by this overweight government-funded establishment! In the end I wasn't allowed to stay too long as my job moved north to Sellafield (well, that's what was said!!). However, and having cleared my desk, the escort to the gate was wonderful. I felt like a VIP departing AND I had a cheque in my pocket to go with me. That was particularly rewarding as I had planned to resign and could have gone for nowt!!

Health & Safety in an Iron Foundry:

Now there's a contradiction for you. My last real job and though I enjoyed the challenge, the order book, or in real terms, cash flow, determined the level of success in very challenging times (and they've generally got worse since). Again, I successfully negotiated the company's way to full ISO accreditation and maintained that status whilst I was there. But it was hard work and the constant battle with senior personnel alongside the inability of both these and many of the workforce to understand why health and their safety mattered eventually got the better of me. At age 58, I found I no longer needed to work!

Winding Down:

So I looked for something to do around the village in which I lived and soon began to help a friend with her picture framing business. For a short while, I enjoyed assisting with framing work, visiting flower shows and the like, driving a hired van for her, and helping to set up her stall, all so very relaxed from earlier endeavours. I helped another friend with a little book-keeping - I didn't have any experience other than managing crew-room tea-bar monies way back but that didnt seem to matter. As long as the books were in order, that was all that mattered, and as I am straight as a die (well I have to be, I'm ex 81st) there was no chance that would alter.

In Retirement?:

Well firstly, I am an avid aviation fanatic - always have been, always will be. As some have recently found out, I am also a bit of an aviation historian though in my case it is not that I know but that I have access to wide-ranging sources of information. I also sing in various local choirs and choral and operatic societies, once having lead the local village choir. Not having performed, as such, for many years, in Spring 2010, I decided to audition for a solo spot in a performance of the Mozart "Requiem" and was successful. Thoroughly enjoyed it! And if you don't see me at Halton Triennials, please accept my apologies, I will be singing in somewhere, always assuming the arrangements currently being made come to fruition.