Ian Pavey was a Flight Test Engineer at Westland and remembers what the department was like to work in

The Chief Flight Test Engineer had his own office, as did the Deputy. Then we had a couple of secretaries and there were 20 odd of us in a large open-plan office. People now seem to build themselves little enclaves with filing cabinets and screens and things, we didn’t. We had a very much open-plan office, very much your own desk. It was not a job where you would have a cluttered desk because, by and large, you had one project at a time and it had its own demarcation so you had the bits and pieces for that. Although you had your own project you were qualified and cleared that you fly in any of our helicopters and we enjoyed flying pay, which was a very good thing, other people were a bit jealous of that but, as we pointed out, the fact you got flying pay was that the Company brings a helicopter out onto the pad and you go and fly in it, regardless of whether you think this is a good idea or bad.

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