You Can't Do This Anymore
In days gone by I was privileged to start my civil flying career as a crop duster based at a small country town in southern New South Wales Australia. The airfield was grass and the company’s hangar was a large (for those days) building with a flat corrugated tin roof. (Note flat and corrugated roof.) It was standard practice for the crop dusters to let the engineers and hangar staff know that they were back from a days work by doing a low run over the hangar prior to landing. One of my colleagues formed the opinion that things were a little too sedate in the hangar and the whole lot needed to be sharpened up. On this particular day he positioned so as to approach the hangar from the closed end. He climbed to around 4000’ and closed the throttle to glide silently towards the airfield. The idea being that no one would know he was there. Skillfully (no doubt about that) he placed the crop dusters wheels on the edge of the roof and pushing the stick forward he pinned the aeroplane firmly in place. At the same time he opened the throttle to the stops. The plane roared across the roof with its wheels bouncing in the corrugations and shook the hangar to its very foundations. The sudden noise and vibration virtually stunned every person inside. The engineers went into partial shock and the office girl was in hysterics. Words like “unreal, deafening, earthquake, hangar collapsing “ were used to describe the effect. However there were no hard feelings, the pilot laughed, the engineers laughed and after she had settled down the office girl laughed too. How different it all is today. The grass field is now a sealed runway, there are non-flying departmental bureaucrats everywhere, a bit of fun is frowned upon and heaven help the pilot that doesn’t stay in line. Sometimes I find myself wondering if the spirit of the unconventional men of yesteryear has passed to their sons and daughters or is it being suppressed by today’s “ conform or else “.
KIFIS