JW411, as we've established on PM, and for the wider audience, Dick Weldon it was who set off so bravely in G-AOPL, bound for South Africa.
My only Twin Pin story is that after a number of boring patrols/resupplies right down to the South, acting as guide for the pilot, Bimbo Ward, he asked if I would like to fly it back to Sharjah while he grabbed some sleep.
Well of course I would, so I settled into his seat and he went aft. I began chasing the pitch trim; I just could not get it right. Set it, hands off, steady for 30 seconds, then off we'd go again, nose down, nose up, like a switchback.
Eventually, I thought, I'll see if Bimbo's awake and ask him. So I turned round and saw him, propped up against the cabin side, sweat pouring off him, puffing like a walrus (he was always out of shape). "F**k me," he gasped, "I wish I'd never started that!"
(Bimbo Ward also showed me how to fly a Prentice; I had flown it from UK, but he had instructed in them years before. But even he was flummoxed when we took off from Sharjah towards the West one very hot day, and could neither retract the flap (which he had set) nor turn without risking an ... ummm... uncommanded ditching. He was thinking of going to Abu Dhabi or even Doha, when we went into some rising air, gained 50 ft, and could start milking the flaps in, very, very slowly while gaining some airspeed as well.)
Last edited by old,not bold; 20th Dec 2015 at 18:06.