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Next Lecture

25th April 2024 - 18:30

Journey to Becoming a Boeing 777 Captain
and How You Can Become One Too!


Captain Suzanne Morgan will share her journey to becoming a Captain with British Airways.
She will also talk about the new Speedbird Academy and how to progress through the application process!

Image © Andrew E. Cohen Licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 Deed

Suzanne Morgan, long haul Captain on the Boeing 777 with British Airways

Suzanne had her love of flying ignited by her first flight sitting on her father’s knee at the age of four in a vintage glider called Bluebell.

With a father who was a former RAF pilot and flew gliders and light aircraft when not being the City of Cambridge’s Chief Highways engineer, a mother who edited a gliding magazine and an older brother who also shared the family passion and is currently a training Captain for EasyJet, she grew up surrounded by aviation minded people.

Having learnt to fly the aerobatic Bulldog trainer with the University Air Squadron while studying Physiology at UCL, Suzanne declined selection by the RAF as a pilot as, at that time, woman were only offered careers as transport pilots.  Instead, she joined British Midland in 1990 on their partially sponsored Air Transport Pilot Licence course.

Suzanne then flew short haul European routes for six years, before joining BA in 1998 to fly long haul.  After two years flying the Boeing 747-436 and seventeen flying the Boeing 777, she achieved long haul command on the 777 at the first opportunity to do so.

As a mother to two teenage boys Suzanne went part time in 2001, the flexibility of bidding and swapping work in British Airways allowing her to manage childcare and fly on average three times a month, sometimes with her husband, also a 777 Captain.  She is also a member of the BA recruitment team, interviews candidate pilots, is a mentor to students on BA platform Speedbird Z, a Menopause Champion at BA and has just finished two years as a Department of Transport Aviation Ambassador.

One of Suzanne’s proudest moments in aviation was landing a 747 into San Francisco with her father on the flight deck jump seat (when such things were permissible). Another was seeing her sons, at a young age, fly in the glider Bluebell, where for her it had all began.

Lecture Theatre Access and Location

The theatre is fully accessible and this guide may be helpful as may this description.

The building can be entered from either side, and the following three links locate the east and west entrances and the building respectively:

https://w3w.co/spoke.bike.dairy
https://w3w.co/horns.both.racing


https://www.google.com/maps/search/Building+46,+SO17+1PS/@50.9346425,-1.4019437,17z/data=!3m1!4b1?entry=ttu

The post code for the University of Southampton, SO17 1BJ, is notionally 1/4 mile from the theatre.

A better post code for SATNAV purposes is SO17 1PS with parking off Chamberlain Road.

18:00 - “Doors open”

18:30 - Lecture starts

ADMISSION FREE

ALL WELCOME

Physics Building

Lecture Theatre C

Room 46/2005

University of Southampton

SO17 1PS

Following Lecture

8th May 2024 - 19:15

One Hundred Years of Air Navigation

Wing Commander John Coote MBE RAF (Retired)

18:30 - “Doors open”

19:00 - AGM

19:15 - Lecture starts

ADMISSION FREE

ALL WELCOME

Solent Sky Museum

Albert Road South

Southampton

SO14 3FR

https://w3w.co/relay.lamps.melon

John will highlight the major developments in the field of Air Navigation from the earliest days of aviation to the present day as viewed from his perspective as an RAF Navigator on Vulcan B2s and Nimrod maritime patrol aircraft, and a graduate of the RAF General Duties Aerosystems Course.

In an RAF career spanning 37 years, John served as a frontline navigator, worked in research and development, and was an MOD staff officer.  Subsequently he spent almost seven years with the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory as a programme manager and analyst working in the field of reconnaissance.

Upcoming Lecture:

Transforming Test and Evaluation Training

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Simon Tate – Director Operations, Air and Space, Qinetiq

Paul Shakespeare - Head of Flight Operations & Chief Test Pilot, Qinetiq

Customers require the most efficient and cost effective Test & Evaluation training on modern, relevant air systems.  In order to address these challenges ETPS underwent a major transformation to ensure it stayed at the forefront of Test and Evaluation training.  Simon and Paul will explain the transformation programme, detail how new aircraft were selected and how they have been integrated into new EASA compliant courses.  They will explain how the new courses were created and the innovations that have been introduced before concluding with the main challenges, risks, issues and lessons learnt so far.

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