Hi Bob, Norman et al,
Great thread! I considered joining last year but thought interest had waned. Thanks JW411 for putting me in touch with Bob - why people chose me as a best man, or even godfather, heaven knows.
Thanks Jabberwok for the nice pic of me in G-BADY attacking the tower at, I believe, Ronaldsway - did you take it?
It was interesting to read the different versions of the 'Threadneedle'. Tim Mills (9th Feb 2004) describes the version we did with Marcus as leader although we pulled up to about 70 degrees before bunting to the same angle of climb and reversing back to a second opposition with No4. The trim change was horrific in the bunt from about 90 to 190mph at the bottom and the trim lever was far too far away in my state of terror. The first time Marcus and I practiced this as a pair with me in the 2 slot, he was so surprised and mesmerised to see me still in close at the end of the bunt he forgot to pull until we'd passed through the vertical. There followed a distinct lack of airspeed and ideas and we both auto-rotated, him to the right and me to the left. The image of his Hartzell and spinner head-on and about 6ft from mine is permanently etched in my memory bank. By the time either of us had regained sufficient composure to speak on the radio we were 20 miles distant and diverging! Would love to see more pics - my last ex-wife destroyed most of mine.