MPN11 (#62),
Totally irrelevant to Thread, but whenever did that stand in the way of a good story ?)
Your:
Not an aircraft incident, but one very foggy night at Strubby I set off in a Mini to turn off the Pundit on the north side of the airfield [I think it was left on for Many night-flying, if they could]. That achieved, it was now both dark and foggy. And, as a Strubby ATCO, it took me bloody ages to find my way back across to the south side.
You are in good company, Sir ! (it can happen to anybody) - Dum-Dum, 1943:
To cut a long story short, I turned off, missed the first (proper) track, which looked small and insignificant, and took the next. When that looped round, heading off the airfield, the penny dropped. I was on a contractor's access road. I stopped, stuck.
There was no room to turn round and the VV had no reverse gear. I shut down and sent (mutinously muttering) "Stew" back on foot to confess. He didn't have far to walk: my absence had been noted. "Where's Danny?" - "He landed behind me", said Number Five, "so he must be on the field somewhere". The Flight truck raced back up the taxiway and found us.
They had to fetch a tractor and towing dolly to haul me out, ignominiously, tail-first back down the track to the flight line. The Boss was not well pleased, time had been lost, the word "idiot" may have been used. Others chuckled that, as a rule, aircraft got lost in the air - not on the ground
!
Danny (ex-ATCO, Strubby)
and
megan (#67) - Marvellous ! D.