I first arrived in Nigeria in 1978 to numerically replace the Shell CP whose wife had been murdered in their house.
It was my first time in Africa and I soon realised that Lagos was different after being met by the"Bristow representative" who, when I failed to cough up some foreign currency to pay for his services after picking up my bags, was about to take me around a dark corner and relieve me of some, when the actual Bristow representative arrived (late, as ever!) and chased him away.
When I went to sit my Air Law exam for the issue of my Nigerian ATPL, the roneo-ed exam paper had been rendered unreadable because water had leaked onto it and the ink was smudged. The invigilator at first got angry and accused me of defacing the paper, then relented and said that he would give me an oral exam. The only question was to ask what I would do in my VFR Whirlwind if I inadvertently entered a snow storm (highly relevant to Nigeria with the dry season due ina couple of months!). He was satisfied with my answer and my licence was issued a couple of days later.
When I arrived at the Bristow hangar to catch the Islander to Warri, it was standing on the dirt to the side of the ramp (which was very small then) and the pilot (an ex-RN Buccaneer pilot) asked if any of his passengers had any flying experience. On admitting that I did, he told me that I would be his co-pilot and to sit in the right seat. Soon after take off as we were flying down the coast he asked if I'd like to pole it for a bit, to which I readily agreed, though explaining that my only plank experience was about 100 hours in Tiger Moths and Phantmunks more than 10 years previously). As we arrived near the Warri strip, which I found difficult to see and rather small for a plank, I went to hand him the controls. "Oh no" he said, you've been doing okay until now, so lets' see how you get on with the landing! He did talk me through it and his hands were hovering close to the controls, but he was remarkably relaxed and thus my arrival in Warri coincided with my first landing in a FW twin. I was wellicome to Nigeria
