The Men in the White Coats.
Chugalug,
Once again a timely and pertinent analysis of a fear which must lie at the back of the minds of all military and civil pilots - if their health should be impaired for any reason, their career is finished. All too truly spoke your Air Marshal; I would only add that once the medics get their claws into you, they never let go (as Private Frazer was always saying: "We're Doomed !"). You at least escaped their clutches - well done !
A brief possibility of escape was dangled in front of me in the early months of my via dolorosa. The small section of lung which had developed bronchiectasis could be surgically removed to enable me to return to A1G1. But as the RAF had little occasion for thoracic surgery, they bought-in a civilian consultant for such jobs, and the one they used was going to cost an arm and a leg.
Nothing but the best for the RAF (and in general I would go along with that). Their man had been the Royal surgeon who had operated on the late King George VI ("The King's Speech" King), in a vain attempt to repair the ravages of a lifetime's cigarettes. The King had died (I imply no causal relationship), but even so, it was maybe just as well that the RAF decided that they weren't that short of pilots as to warrant the outlay. "As you were" ! as far as I was concerned.
For the next two years they pursued a policy of masterly inactivity, but now I'm danger of shooting my own foxes, so I'll call it a day.
It occurs to me that I should have said something more about "Positioning Flights". I have no more than a layman's knowledge of commercial operations, but, as it was explained to me, there are times when you want your aircraft somewhere for the first flight in the morning; it's somewhere else the night before, and you have to fly an uneconomic trip to get it to where it's wanted the next day. So you slash the fares to fill as many seats as you can.
Having said that, I did wonder why they could not arrange matters so that the Air France aircraft could "position" at Orly, and the BEA one at Heathrow, but I suppose that would have been too easy.
Cheers, Danny.