Hi all,
I've thought long and hard about answering this, but have decided to do so since - although the comments are now mainly the funny times we have had - there is a serious side.
My pal in the states, Todd Huvard, ended up having to explain why Pan Am Flight Academy had trained 9/11 pilots. I once had to explain to the police why I had helped a burglar get away from the downstairs flat he had burgled!
I can tell you, from my experience, it is far less embarassing to have a quiet word with someone before the event than have to explain afterwards. The stupedest feeling you will ever have is when you say: I thought there was something strange, but.....
Now, to flying.
Special Branch did make a muck of things in Scotland with the new folks ideas on flights to the islands. But, the guys we deal with, as they explain, are just foot soldiers, not James Bond. They do what they are told by their bosses.
An example: I got asked if I had any students called: Mohammed 1, Mohammed 2, Mohammed 3 (you get the idea) and I replied: hang on, I have no arabic students or students with non-European names. No need to give me a list if that's the sort of names you are asking about.
Why do you want to know, I asked. Don't know, just been given a list of names to check out, was the reply.
Two weeks later - I don't know if it was linked - there was the hand-baggage scare at all the airports.
Another example. A white anglo saxon used our airfield quite a bit. We all wondered how he could afford it and why he chose us (apart from it being a fiver to land a twin!) And why the aircraft spent most of its life parked with us. It was the talk of the club. Could it be drugs?
Well, had a quiet word with the SB guy and never heard anything else. Never saw the chap again either. Maybe we p*****d him off if the plods had a word with him, but I'd hope he'd understand. Better safe than sorry.
And then there was the Sikh chap - with massive turban - who wanted to know if his turban would be a problem with headsets. Then revealed that the plods had called to his house at midnight after he popped into a local field to see what was there and how he could learn. He wasn't upset by the fact that the owner of the airfield had called the plods with his car reg, he was VERY upset that the plods waited until MIDNIGHT three days later!
So, yes, the police can be their own worst enemy. Fortunately, in the UK they are almost human! And that means human error too.
And they need our help. And aviation's image needs our help. How often have you been asked about people doing drug runs in aircraft? Now we have the terrorism threat. And the environment lobby.
We need to do our bit, and be seen to do our bit.
And we need to be allowed to get on with our lives, for that is the system we want to preserve.
But then that is the hard balance to strike. Sometimes we get it wrong.
Perhaps instead of being in a news frenzy about which of the london bombers MI6 knew about and didn't do enough, we should celebrate the fact that - even though under suspicion - the fact that they were left to get on with their (tragic) lives was evidence that we don't live in a completely police state. Now there's a controversial thought.
Best wishes and safe flying.