Oh dear! Then my Uncle Derek was rather dull then:
Apparently my uncle was a boisterous young man (bit like me really when I was young!). It was these high spirits that led to an almost unbelievable incident in Feb 1942. On a training flight in a two-seater Stearman bi-plane, the plane suffered negative G. Having forgotten to fasten his seat belt, this catapulted my uncle out of the plane and high into the sky, many hundreds of feet above the ground. He flailed in the air for a few horrifying seconds and then started to plunge towards Mother Earth.
But by some amazing chance, he landed on the aeroplane’s tail!
As he clung on for dear life, his horrified instructor signalled my uncle to jump off. Unfortunately our wretched student was not wearing a parachute and thus the instructor was forced to make an emergency landing with Derek Sharp Senior clinging to the rear of the aircraft for his dear life.
This is a true story!
Last edited by sharpend; 31st March 2013 at 17:52.