On a flight from Mel to Bne in the 60s, delivering live eels, grinding along in a DC3, night ops, the skipper sound asleep, me, wondering any chance of meeting a loose woman in BNE, on a eight hour stopover, when out of nowhere a smack in the head that knocked the headset off. Swiftly turning around expecting a stowaway, nothing, checked the skipper, still snoring, I sat there frozen, thinking this bloody thing is haunted, when out of the skippers mouth, (who appeared still asleep) can't you hear those F%$king engines are out of fu#$ing sync, fix the fu$k#ing things, and with that started snoring again, needless to say I sat bolt upright for the rest of the trip(trying not to dry retch from the smell of the eels) which obviously didn't bother him, he woke about top of descent, and went of after landing, bright as a button, all I wanted to do is throw up and then sleep. Not one of my better trips. Imagine a Skipper smacking you in the head now if he wasn't happy. Straight to your local lawyer. I was a very new F/O and just excepted that perhaps that was normal, but felt a little shat off to say the least, but did what all new F/Os do, say as little as possible, and try to look like I knew what I was doing, and as he was a former bomber command pilot, who the hell was going to argue with him? not me.
