Gaining an RAF pilots brevet in WW2
Two stories from the past.
In the 80, s an ex RCAF Spitfire pilot invited me to have dinner with another ex Spitfire pilot---a Pole.
Dinner was at the rotating restaurant at the top of the tower overlooking Niagara Falls. The Pole was I/c maintenance of the tower and his duties included photographing any who chose to commit suicide off the tower.
A few years later I got a newspaper account of a court case. The Pole had taken friends up in a Cessna, low flown over his garden and beheaded ,with his wing tip, his next door neighbour---an ex RCAF WW2 bomber pilot.
Convicted of manslaughter the Pole spent several years in jail
Next newspaper account--now out of jail -the Pole had helped a friend start his aircraft by swinging the prop. It kicked back, hit him on the head and he was killed.
On to the next.
An ex USN WW2 pilot dabbled in aviation reporting. He was invited to participate in a record breaking flight by two KC135, s.
The aircraft were to leave Westover base in Mass.Both were to overhead NYC and proceed to
London. The second aircraft would then return to NYC without landing in London.
It was a hot summer day and the flights were to leave in the early evening.
Paul was assigned to the round trip 135 and during an afternoon briefing it transpired that the gross weight on that aircraft was a record.
That aircraft never got airborne and all on board were killed.
The next issue of Time had a photo of the steps up to the ill fated aircraft. Paul was coming down with his luggage!