It was last November when their meet up took place, when Ric and James were the crew for a British Airways Boeing 777 flight to Abuja. It was James’ first flight on the 777 aircraft after moving over from the Airbus fleet.

While chatting during the flight, the pilots realised that they had both attended Princethorpe College (Ric left back in 1984 while James was from the Class of 2013).

James has been a pilot for seven years now, having started with easyJet before joining British Airways in 2018 on their short haul aircraft the A320. He had always hoped to fly long haul and had just completed two months of intensive training. The last stage being flying alongside a Training Captain, in this case Training Captain Ric Hill.

It was a remarkable coincidence and the pilots very much enjoyed swapping stories and anecdotes while on their trip, as both had fond memories of their time at the school.

James said, “It was a hugely enjoyable first trip. Having being part of Fisher House and with Ric an ex-House Captain for Benet, it’s fair to say the rivalry lived on but it didn’t manage to affect the operation.” With Ric adding, “James did a wonderful job.”

And how fantastic was it for us to find out that Princethorpe was a hot topic of conversation at 35,000 feet. We always love hearing news of our alumni so do get in touch if you have your own OP reunion story to share.