But as always, there are the exceptions.
I went off a slippery jet to my first command on DC3's. I preached checking the horizons against the T&S.
One night my FO seemed to be getting everything slightly skewed on an NDB into NWI. He asked me to take over. Something was wrong.
I elected to pop out of the clag into a star-lit night, only to find all three horizons were skwiffy. I looked at my wondrous tied giro only to find it was grinding to a halt with a bit of left turn on it while on a steady heading.
I gave one of those crinkled grins and let him fly the now true'd up aircraft to a nice landing. But this pales compared to something that happened to an horizon.
Briefly, take-off from NWI in heavy rain in a Heron. Stare in disbelief at my horizon. It had a tidemark inside the glass - and the tide was coming in. But that's not all. The aircraft had been washed - with detergent - and that soap was mixing with the air breathed in to drive the giro. Soon there were bubbles behind the glass and filling the instrument. It wasn't long before the big brass giro - with its little sculpted hooks - toppled, in a crescendo of froth.
I carried on with the (empty) RHS's instrument and of course, my T&S.
Kids today don't know they're born.
