While researching this I found a very interesting obituary to the late David Davies who was the chief test pilot of the ARB/CAA flight department for 33 years until his retirement in 1982. He was directly responsible for checking the handling of all new aircraft types on the British civil register, from the first jet airliner, the Comet, to the supersonic Concorde & including the VC10. In fact he wrote the book
Handling the Big Jets which is still regarded as the jet pilot's bible.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/newspaper/0,,173-948284,00.htmlI rather like a couple of quotes in the obituary.
Quote:He had his share of hairy moments, especially when evaluating stalls. During a Britannia stalling test in the 1950s, the big four-engined transport suddenly flick-rolled and went into a spin. He recalled: “It recovered beautifully — which Bristol claimed was grounds for not complaining!” On the way home, “wondering why we’d ever joined in the first place", his flight observer Roy Burdett lit a cigarette for him and said: “How about a loop as an encore?”
Quote:Of the superpilot status popularly accorded to Concorde captains, he said: “Anybody who can ride a bike and has passed a few O levels can fly Concorde.” One of his favourite aeroplanes was the Boeing 747, which, “for the big fat thing that it is, flies like a dream”.
I don't know about the old BCARs but I checked the current EASA/FAA civil certification regulations & the "normal" "utility" and "special" categories apply to FAR/JAR/CS-23 (Normal, Utility, Aerobatic, and Commuter Category Aeroplanes)
(1) Aeroplanes in the normal, utility and aerobatic categories that have a seating configuration, excluding the pilot seat(s), of nine or fewer and a maximum certificated take-off weight of 5670 kg (12 500 lb) or less; and
(2) Propeller-driven twin-engined aeroplanes in the commuter category that have a seating configuration, excluding the pilot seat(s), of nineteen or fewer and a maximum certificated take-off weight of 8618 kg (19 000 lb) or less.Heavy airliners are covered by FAR/JAR/CS-25 (Large aeroplanes) which is not split into these separate categories.
http://www.easa.eu.int/doc/Agency_Mesures/Certification_Spec/easa_cs25_amendment...
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