LONG ago -- better make that LONG long ago when I was still young and lusty -- I was enjoying the finale of an air display from the side of my Tiger Moth when I found myself gazing into two huge blue eyes. Under them was a shapely fuselage beneath a T-shirt bearing a picture of a biplane, above a tight-fitting garment which in those faroff days were known as Hot Pants, from which emerged a long and elegant undercarriage.
She wanted to be a pilot, her only flight had been to Majorca and back for package holidays. Her smile would melt the hardest of hearts. Well, I suppose she could sit in the Tiger Moth to have her photo taken. Yes indeed aerobatics were great fun… the display had short time to run, but perhaps after the airfield reopened… I borrowed a helmet and a pair of coveralls.
My briefing was even more longwinded than usual, as was the careful strapping into the front seat (Oh, those big blue eyes). There was no intercom so we agreed that one dainty thumb up would mean good, thumb down meant take me smoothly back to the airfield, please.
For those who have yet to enjoy it, an aerobatic introduction should not even need a seat belt as positive G should be maintained throughout, though of course the harness is always tightly fastened. A first loop should keep you gently pressed into your seat, like a bucket of water being swung over your head so it doesn’t spill. You might even enjoy a few moments of weightlessness at the top, before you see the horizon slowly descend from above your head.
I avoided negative-G manoeuvres such as the slow roll, when the crew hang in their straps as we go through the inverted position. I wanted novices to enjoy their first aerobatic flight so they would come back for more and best of all learn to fly themselves.
We began very gently with chandelles, then loops, then a barrel roll which produced both thumbs held high and a dazzling smile over her shoulder. The 90-deg stall turn and general tumblings went equally well, indeed so well that I decided she would enjoy a slow roll. Big mistake.
Turning upside down and falling into the straps was too much for my pretty passenger, who grabbed the handle which Mr. de Havilland had conveniently situated in the centre of the cockpit, pulled it back and held it tight. My first reaction was that something had broken, as the Tiger Moth fell out of the roll into a half-loop and started up the other side before the beautiful one remembered her briefing and released the stick just in time for me to avoid a tailslide.
In fairness she was very apologetic once back on the ground and gave me a big hug as I helped her down from the wing, thereby raising my heartbeat for the second time that day. Later my grizzled, fierce old CFI, who had 2000+ hours on wartime Tiger Moth instruction, said he had known one or two pupils freeze on the controls, and told me: “Be ready for the passenger or student who does something unexpected when they encounter something they don’t expect.” Then with a chuckle: “Never mind, lad, it’s the only time you want a girl to keep her hands to herself.”
And no, I never saw her again.