RIP John & Hapy Fishing
I enjoyed some amusing fishing trips with John in the boat he owned at Galeota Point. 3 of us went out in his boat one evening to fish near Poui (?) Alpha flare. We spent quite a few hours wandering around without any bites at all, then saw some dolphins splashing around, which probably explained the lack of fish for us. We all moved to the back of the boat and John opened up the throttle, aiming for the two lights at the bar where he moored his boat. We could see little else on the way back as it was so dark, but we did hear two loud thumps at the front of the boat while we motored in. On arrival at the mooring we found that two flying fish had jumped into the boat to make up for the lack of success we had earlier!
I'm sure that John is flying with the fish himself by now as it was one of his real passions.
John was also one of the few pilots that I base-checked who had to prove that he could fly with the AFCS on. From his time in NAM he preferred not to rely on stab systems as they invariably failed in combat arenas. He still flew with his seat fully down, his right arm out like a ramrod and the AFCS switched off. He could fly better than most with the stab in, so part of the test I gave him was to demonstrate that he could cope with a "reverse failure", ie, the unlikely happening that the AFCS would cut in! It was not a problem of course.
Happy fishing John.