Capt Bill McCash was born in Edinburgh in late 1923. He attended Tynecastle School until he was 15, after which he worked as an office boy for the Scotsman newspaper, until he was able to join the military.



When the government set up the Air Training Corps (ATC), Bill joined as a Founder Cadet – 286 Founder Squadron 1941-43 (3rd Edinburgh– now disbanded) where he was the first to gain his Air Proficiency qualification and to become a Flight Sergeant.



He was accepted for pilot training in the RAF and sent to 4BFTS Falcon Field, Mesa Arizona to learn to fly, qualifying 3rd in his course in 1944 (20 Course.) He was graduated as a Sgt; the RAF did not tend to commission someone who had been brought up in an Edinburgh tenement, despite his obvious abilities.



On his return to the UK he was sent to Flying Instructor School at Woodley, completing his course in May 1945, and then to No 11 EFTS in Perth, Scotland, his first instructional base. After instructing for a year he was sent to No.92 Central Flying School, Little Rissington, for his Advanced Flying Instructor course; ultimately he obtained the rarely awarded RAF A1 Excpetional category flying instructor rating and a peacetime Air Force Medal.



Following his CFS course he was posted to No 3 SFTS Feltwell where he met and married his wife Joyce. He went on to instruct mainly at No. 23 RFS Usworth (Sunderland), and No 11 RFS Perth. Whilst instructing in Perth he also carried out private study and passed the examinations for his Civil Air Line Transport Pilots Licence (ATPL.) completing his full time RAF service in May 1953. He had flown and taught on the DH82A (Tiger Moth); PT17 (Stearman); AT6 (Texan), Master II; Magister; Harvard; Spitfire; Prentice; Oxford; Anson: Chipmunk: Auster; Rapide and Proctor. He continued to serve in the RAF reserve until 1962 for which he was awarded an AE.



In June 1953 he commenced work as a first officer with AirWorks Ltd for the Air Transport Division based at Blackbushe, flying the Consul and the Viking. He was often troop carrying to locations in the Middle East and Africa such as Entebbe, Basra, Khartoum and Baghdad. He also trained for and obtained his Flight Navigators Licence and flew in that capacity on a number of occasions.



In May 1955 he undertook his first commercial flights as a captain on the Consul, but moved into the captain’s chair permanently on the Viking and Bristol 170 with his move to Eagle Aviation at Blackbushe in April 1956. He converted on to the DC6 in Oct 1958. In May 1961 he transferred onto the Britannia and ultimately became Deputy Fleet and training captain for their fleet of 26 Britannias, following a stint as their BALPA Shop Steward.



On 20 Feb 1967 he undertook the Longest Commercial flight in a Britannia see

http://www.britisheagle.net/Historic-Flights-Ascension-Island.htm

from Ascension Island to Heathrow. (Later he also held the record for the fastest transatlantic crossing between New York and Heathrow, when he picked up a jet stream and arrived ~ 2 hours early. This record was later beaten by Concorde.)



At the start of the following year he converted on to his first jet, the Boeing 707 – one of the very first British pilots to do so; he transferred directly as a Captain (and Fleet Captain) as the aircraft were new to service and the only pilots around were the Boeing test pilots with whom he trained. He was responsible for writing the manuals and documentation that were instrumental in getting the 707 on to the British register.



Following the demise of British Eagle in late 1968, he became an aviation management/training pilot/consultant, setting up operations in Switzerland, Germany and the Netherlands amongst others and held flying licences in numerous countries. As Chief Pilot he set up the B 707 operation for British Midland Airways; and the B 737 operation for Britannia Airways where he was also Chief pilot. He was known as “the silent giant”, because his management style was to listen to all views before determining the best course of action. He also worked for Transavia, in Holland on their B737 fleet as a training captain.



When he retired from flying in 1995, he had flown over 26000 hours with an additional 450 hours as a flight navigator, on 66 different aircraft types, and had held Instrument, Type and Instructor Examiners authorities. He served on the Board of Directors of the British Light Aviation Centre (BLAC) the holding company of the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association (AOPA) (representing the interests of private pilots) and was on their Instructor Committee for many years. He had clocked up thousands of hours as an instructor and he had taught his own daughter Elaine up to Flying Instructor standard. His Grandson Matt McCash continues in the family business and is now a professional pilot.



Bill and Joyce had three children, Linda who died shortly after birth, Glenda and Elaine and two grandchildren, Helen and Matthew. Joyce died in 2001 and Bill died in March 2016; Glenda died three weeks later.



At his Eulogy, Stan Whalley (Course 24), the former Treasurer of the Falcon Field Association (FFA) thanked Bill for setting up the association that had brought the cadets back together, which he did in 1979, and for Chairing it until the remaining cadets decided to close it in the early 2000s.