Back to the Swinging Sixties
In 1969 I took my non-radio Tiger Moth to Paris -- oh, happy days when we could make such journeys. We crossed the Irish Sea to refuel at Blackpool, thence Halfpenny Green and Denham to the historic airfield at Lympne which was due to close. On arrival at Lympne I refuelled and was told to leave the aircraft where it was while I cleared Customs.
There is only one thing more recalcitrant than a Gipsy Major which won't start, and that's a warm Gipsy Major which won't start. I explained this to the Customs officer but he was having none of it. His regulations required the aircraft to be presented (his words) in the designated Customs parking area even though he could see it from his window.
Having swung vainly for about 10 minutes on a sweltering day my wife and I spent 15 more pushing the Tiger to the great man's Designated Area, where he spent all of two minutes stamping his paperwork. It took about 15 minutes to start the aircraft, at the end of which I was blown out as thoroughly as Mr. de Havilland's accursed creation had been.
During one swing I felt something go click in my shoulder, but as I cooled down over the Channel and descended into Berck-sur-Mer I forgot about it. The French Customs officer regarded the TM with disbelief: "d'Irlande? avec le Tigre? Formidable ma fou" and sent us off for a superb holiday.
Two years later I began to have increasing pain in my right shoulder to the extent that I could not sleep or even lie on my side. Even I could see the calcium deposits around my shoulder joint in the X-ray. The specialist suggested it could be the result of a sporting injury but when I demonstrated the twisting, pulling action of the propellor swing he announced a new diagnosis which he would call Swinger's Shoulder. This would doubtless be a conversation piece provided Tiger Moth was not mentioned.
One steroid injection into the joint hurt like hell but provided instant remedy, for that night I had my first decent sleep for over a year. Thirty-four years later the joint is still fine ... it's the other bits that are the problem.