Oh God ....
No, my last victim was his successor, the Brit who'd been a pub manager.
That other one, the American .... He used to walk around in his official CIA Undercover Agent uniform, medium-grey baseball cap, bush jacket and slacks. Shoes ... can't remember, but if I were making stuff up I would definitely have him wearing huaraches. He had this big, sort of old fashioned walkie-talkie clipped to his belt to complete the effect, but one of the locals, laughing, told me that there was no base station for him to talk to on it.
The first time I met him he told me that he was a "fast jet pilot." Then I told him that I was a "slow Twin Otter pilot," and it went downhill from there when I turned him into Fast Jet Phil. (Part of the problem was that I had been acting Deputy Chief Pilot just before him, when I had shown no interest in becoming CP, for very good reasons of my own, mainly fear of AIDS (Aviation Induced Divorce Syndrome). He seemed to think that I had to be mad with envy of his elevated position in life, towering over me. As if!)
He soon showed up at the BRC in the late afternoon to tell me of this new feature of the program, my evaluation flight with the Chief Pilot (him), just as I was about to get stuck into my usual at the time, a pint glass full of rum and Coca-Cola on ice. I discreetly tipped it down the sink in the bog, there in the lounge, just to keep the peace.
Out at the airport I ordered extra fuel, because we only had about an hour-and-half's worth. "What are you bothering with that for? We are only going to be up for a half-hour." I had to explain that Lagos ATC had this funny habit of closing the field for extended periods for VIP movements, when we then might have to head off to Ibadan, or perhaps just to Magbon if we were lucky, or else fly around in circles for an hour. This was news to him.
Fast Jet Phil mentioned that he'd been in Doha, flying for the Qatari defense force. He told me that the Mirage F1 was an "old friend."
Yeah, well, it's a small world. A few weeks later I bumped into a Schreiner manager I knew from when I was with Aero who told me he'd just returned from Doha. "What's up there?"
"We had a little operation going with the Qatari Air Force, a couple of Cherokee 140s for initial pilot candidate evaluation. The contract ended so I was there to shut it down."
"Did you know a guy named [Fast Jet Phil]?"
"Of course. He was our Chief Pilot."
"No Mirage F1s, then?"
"Huh? No, Cherokee 140s, that was all." It is so nice to have something to work with, instead of having to mostly make it up.
Last edited by chuks; 6th Feb 2018 at 21:40.