Many years ago I spent a delightful day at Coningsby with the, then, CO of BBMF. He was shortly to leave the service and needed to renew his civilian FI rating. I was then an CAA appointed FIE and agreed to do it in the Flights Chipmunk. All the ground element and pre-flight briefings were done in the BBMF facility and we had an enjoyable trip in the Chipmunk. I was happy to renew his rating and we repaired to the Mess for an excellent lunch.
As an individual who could not meet the service medical requirements for aircrew due to monaural hearing back in 1954 I have always retained my disappointment at being unable to follow my original chosen profession. Now with over 13,000 hours in my many logbooks that regret is still there but I have thoroughly enjoyed my flying in the civilian world.
Nevertheless it gave me a lot of pleasure to play for an hour or so with an item from "Betty's toybox". Happy memories.
Cheers,
Trapper 69
