Terry Holloway (Air League Awards Chairman and Honourable Company Of Air Pilots liveryman ) was the catalyst for this thread and I guess ,just checking his Linked-in profile,not a man for sleeping under the wing of a Piper Cub.
I wonder how many of the members of the Air League, or indeed Honourable Company of Air Pilots, could manage a trip in an old aircraft like the Cub and sleep under the wing. No decent seat or indeed heater. Kirk can drop that Cub in anywhere and that was was what it was designed for.
I look at some of the Air League and Honourable Company of Air Pilots social gathering pictures and wonder if they have ever even had to get oil on their hands.
Have they ever had to fly a ropy old aircraft where the endurance was not the fuel but the oil burn?
Watched the T's and P's in an aircraft with a high houred engine on a late November evening flying night VFR over Wales or the English Channel? Looking back through my log books there were many winter evenings decades ago flying to Cardiff from Guernsey night VFR.
Flying an aircraft where you have seen the old engine dismantled in your garage and realised your life was dependant on those pieces holding together?
Risky? Yes
Worth a mention anywhere?
No
Look at Kirks aircraft pictures and see tricks like the instrument air filter in the cabin and jury rigged fuel system.He will also have a system to pump oil in to the engine. This is not a man with a cavalier attitude but a pilot keen on survival.
Kirk is missing again tonight in Africa but we know he has the tenacity to win this rally.
Last edited by Mike Flynn; 25th November 2016 at 16:57.