GV
Gilles was one of the few allowed to use Walter's machine and during my flight from UK to Milan I stopped off for fuel at Genoa only to find a disappointed refuel-crew who were used to topping up 'YP' with Gilles aboard. The bowser driver had a motor racing mag and held up the page with photos of all the drivers competing in the Italian GP and asked me which one was I. They should have known that a 6' 4" guy like me could be a lot of things but would never fit in a Ferrari - or anything else like it.
I did have to collect 'YP' from Cannes airport not long after (need to check the logbook) and positioned it to a location near Lichtenstein (again need to check the logbook), it's possible that this flight had a GV connection because GV lived in Monaco or at least close by.
After the race (which was further delayed by our driver Jody Scheckter crashing into and severely damaging an Armco barrier) there was no time to remove all of WW's hangers-on before sunset and chaos descended on our operation. We waited at the GAT at Linate for WW to appear which he did at 4 am and before boarding his King Air came over and told me that he had promised James Hunt (who he just agreed to sign for the '79 season) that I would pick him up at 10 in the morning at Cannes Airport and take him to his home in Barcelona.
He really dropped me in it because I had only a sketchy idea of what that would mean in terms of fuel and had no maps of Spain with me (actually Nick Cook, WW' regular pilot) was used to this manifestation of wealth and kept a box of maps for everywhere in a briefcase in the boot so in the end all seemed OK.
Then the fog descended on Linate as it regularly did at that time of year and put an end to any hope of getting down to Cannes. This was fortunate for I had brought wife Lesley with me and we were not sure if James would have his girlfriend '(called 'Hottie') or any other passengers for Barcelona.
By late afternoon it became apparent that the weather was good enough to head north so Lesley and I set off for Geneva and had an amazing flight over a snow enveloped Simplon Pass and down the Sion valley.
It was an amazing trip for there is not enough space here to tell all but believe me it was a real adventure.
G.