There must be records of some kind in Colin McAllister’s 21-year career with Orkney Islands-based Loganair. McAllister, 59, retired last week after 21 years of flying a Britten-Norman Islander from island to island in the Scottish archipelago, which includes the world’s shortest commercial route, the two-minute, 1.7-mile hop from Westray to Papa Westray. That’s about $35 a minute. The one-way fare is about $70. The alternative is a 25-minute ferry ride. There are more than a dozen islands in the group but most of the settlements are on the largest, called the Mainland, and three others. All are within minutes of one another by air.
McAllister did the math and figures he’s done 40,000 takeoffs and landings in his career with Loganair and only accumulated 9,000 hours. He was more than the pilot on all those flights, however, and his interactions with the passengers will be what he misses the most. “I get to share the emotions, I hear the laughter, I hear the sobs, it’s quite an immersive job,” he told the BBC. “I don’t just fly the aircraft. I do a bit of baggage handling, getting folk on and off the plane, I’m cabin crew as well as the first officer and the captain.” Beyond heading to the airport bar after his last flight, McAllister didn’t discuss any plans for his retirement.
” The flight costs. That’s about $35 a minute. The one-way fare is about $70.”
Maybe a bit of cut and paste here?
Nope. No cutting and pasting. Just changing thoughts mid sentence. Fixed now.
Oops, my comment was a bit sloppy. I meant that a bit of cut and paste would be useful here to rearrange the order of those three sentences. I did not mean to imply that the content was C&P.
I have a lot of respect for so many Air-Taxi industry pilots and Colin McAllister deserves that respect also. But, a record? Not even close. I have personally met several Canadian pilots with more years, hours and operations. North Country Air-Taxi pilots have accomplished so much more then any journalist has ever considered reporting. If Hollywood ever wanted to make movies of the greatest Aviators and their stories they would have so much material if they just looked to the Great White North.
Starting with Don Sheldon, the franchise would be as big as Star Wars. But, they would be true stories. Wouldn’t it be something if so many of these Pioneers biographies were reported on and had a special column on this news site. Even Pilots like Clyde Pangborn would captivate the world and fill the theaters everywhere. Some of us just love Aviation History and the Legendary Pilots that made it happen.
P.S. There’s plenty of airline Pilots alive today that started their career with topping oil tanks of round leaky engines and finished with pushing buttons on a flight director. What stories….. Get them before their gone.
+1, absolutely.
In those temps just getting a round engine to fire up is heroic!