Hugh Dibley

Hugh Palliser Kingsley Dibley is a former commercial airline pilot and trainer who made contributions toward conserving fuel and controlling noise during aircraft operations.

He was also a successful racing car driver and race car constructor.

Dibley was born in Hong Kong.

His parents were Engineer Rear-Admiral Albert Kingsley Dibley and Penelope Dibley (née Frend, a descendant of Admiral Sir Hugh Palliser).

When Dibley was born his father was chief engineer at the Royal Navy's Hong Kong dockyard.

The family returned to England in 1939 just before the war, moving frequently.

His father's final naval posting was to the Devonport dockyard.

Upon his retirement, Dibley's father pursued his interest in farming and in 1948 bought a smallholding in the district of Lee-on-the-Solent, with a house just metres from the end of Runway 36 at the Air Fleet Arm's RNAS Lee-on-Solent (HMS Daedalus).

The sight of the planes taking off and landing there sparked Dibley's interest in aviation.

He attended school at Pinewood, and then at Marlborough College.

Dibley joined the Combined Cadet Force, initially enlisting in the Royal Navy section.

He later transferred to the Royal Air Force section to take the RAF pilot aptitude selection with the goal of obtaining a private pilot's licence (PPL).

He completed his required 30 hours in a De Havilland Tiger Moth from the Royal Naval Flying Club, Gosport, and received his PPL shortly after turning seventeen.

Dibley began as a Naval Airman Second Class I, then was appointed a Midshipman (A) Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve (RNVR) after a two month long officer training course.

This qualified him to start flying training in Piston Provosts at RAF Syerston near Grantham.

Deep defence cuts that arrived in 1957 put an end to all Volunteer Reserve flight training, so Dibley completed his two years of National Service aboard HMS Ark Royal.

As his military service was ending, Dibley was advised both by the future Admiral Sir Frank Hopkins, who was his Captain aboard the Ark Royal, and by his maternal uncle Captain Peter Frend, RN, to pursue a career in civil aviation.

He submitted an application to British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC), who recommended that he take a short course at Air Service Training, Hamble to upgrade his license to a Commercial Pilots Licence (CPL) and obtain his Instrument rating.

His CPL was granted in September 1958, and he was subsequently hired by BOAC as part of the Pilots’ Initial Navigation (PIN) Scheme."

Early in his career he flew on the Douglas DC-7C, then went on to crew the Bristol Britannia 312, the Bristol Britannia 102, and the De Havilland Comet 4.

When the Boeing 707 entered service at BOAC the flight crew was made up of two pilots and a navigator, but the British Airline Pilots' Association (BALPA) wanted crews of three pilots, so the decision was made to transfer all the PIN pilots to the 707 as pilot-navigators.

Dibley did his pilot's course after one year, and qualified as First Officer.

He started with routes in the North Atlantic, and later transferred to routes to Africa and the Far East.

In 1966 he joined the 707 Check Nav Office, where his duties included inspecting all navigators’ logs and charts for problems, performing annual checks to confirm their individual competence, and training new pilots to navigate in service.

"...like landing a block of flats from the second floor."

BOAC received its first Boeing 747 in April 1970, but did not put the aircraft into service for almost a year.

Due to concerns with the plane's new Inertial Navigation System (INS), Dibley was assigned to the first 747 course as a nav instructor in the event the INS failed and the third crew member was required to act as navigator.

As the INS proved to be very reliable, Dibley then became a First Officer Assistant Instructor on the 747 flight simulator.

He completed the UK Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) Flight Instrument Examiners Course, after which he conducted annual simulator checks on First Officers needing to renew their 747 Type and Instrument Ratings, and taught 747 transition courses and annual recurrent training to captains and First Officers.

The Civil Aviation Act of 1971 included the establishment of a British Airways Board with control over all activities of BOAC and British European Airways (BEA).

The British Airways Board was officially formed on 1 April 1972, with oversight of both BOAC and BEA, although the two companies continued to operate as separate entities.

In 1972 Dibley began working to find ways to improve the fuel efficiency of BOAC's Boeing 747 fleet.

BOAC and BEA were brought under the British Airways brand on 31 March 1974.

The old names were replaced by British Airways Overseas Division (BAOD) and British Airways European Division (BAED) respectively, but these continued to operate separately.

Early in 1975, at age 37, Dibley became the first of BA's First Officers to be given direct command of the 747.

Since he had already qualified as a Type Rating Examiner, the CAA permitted him to become a Training/Check Captain after logging two hundred hours of line flying.

After that, as the most junior captain in the company, he become a Training Captain on both the 747 aircraft and simulator.

Also in 1975, BA decided to return two Lockheed L-1011 TriStars to service on routes to the Persian Gulf and through to India.

A dozen of these aircraft had been ordered by BEA.

Dibley was asked to join the group of captains selected for the operation as Training Captain.