Pitts upside down in the grass
We had a number of engine failures! Those engines worked very hard. The incident in question (Paul Zebedee above) happened in 1979 I think, but it wasn't an engine failure! We had flown all the way back from the Canaries after a short tour over there. The same tour that George Smith crashed and died. It took a number of days to fly home and we had some exciting moments. Going into Rennes in France the cloud base was too low, so we followed the Islander in close (Very Close) formation and followed it down the ILS. when the runway came into view the Islander did a go-around and we all landed on the runway at the same time. The Air traffic controller wasn't expecting that and went ballistic! Screeming down the radio that we were not allowed to do that, Bob Thomson simply pressed the TX and said casually "well we're not taking off again".
We arrived in England at Lydd and cleared customs, well sort of. The customs chaps had a baby over the amount of Rothmans Cigarettes we had on board the Islander. "We're the Rothmans team, for gods sakes, what did you expect!" They told us we would have to pay duty on them so we said they could keep them. They couldn't do that so in the end they just told us to take our fags and piss off. Marcus, meanwhile, was giggling hysterically over a stupid joke I had told him about an Irish man who went to the drive-in cinema, didn't like the film so he slashed the seats. Anyway...
Approaching Teeside the weather was once again appalling, we were having real trouble getting even close. the Islander had gone off on some errand or other, so we were on our own, following Bob in a Bad Weather Battle formation. The whole thing was becoming impossible. I was number 2 behined Bob and Marcus was behined me, then Mike Finlay. Bob Thomson had to hop over some Pylons, I did the same and went into cloud. When I came back out Bob had dissapeared from sight and suddenly I was in the lead. Marcus came along side pointing in some direction but I gestured back that I was going down and landing. Field landings was something I knew I could do, I had been a Glider Tug pilot for a year or two. I found my field and was just about to land when I saw Mike Fin approching the same field from another direction. He hadn't seen me so I let him land and watched carefully! I followed him in. We were safe and having some kind of chat when Bob Thomson flew over, turned back and landed as well. Three Pitts in one field but where the hell was Marcus? Did you Guess? Yes that's it, he was upside down in another field! Apparently it was some kind of crop that looked like beautiful grass from the air but it was about two foot high. He hit the stuff and went clean over. He was very lucky. So remember, Tufts and turds! that's short grass anything else might overturn you!!
Bob Lee