The World's Greatest Refueller has passed away

[Rallye Driver]

Sad news today. John Walter. aka John The Refueller at North Weald, passed away last night after a debilitating illness. As someone who flew from North Weald for many years before moving onto the Ops Team, I had John's help on many occasions, not just fuelling the Pups and Bulldogs, and puling through the prop on the Yak 52, but also helping with the pushbacks and starts in cold weather.

He was also the Airfield oracle, and you only had to ask to get all the latest news and gossip. Our Airfield Facebook page already has many tributes to this true gentleman. Aviation has many 'characters' and John is up there on the top table. Our flags were flying at half mast today in his memory.

There must be a great many pilots on this forum who have benefited from his cheery welcome at North Weald. Apparently there is a beer shortage due to a lack of CO2, but buy a bottle of Newky Brown and raise a toast to a friend who has moved on to higher things.

Blue skies, John

RD

[Heliplane]

So sorry to hear this news. I've been visiting North Weald for 20+ years and John was always there, often even after he became ill. North Weald was a huge part of John's life, and John was a huge part of North Weald.

RIP John.

[Jan Olieslagers]

Yes, there used to be refuellers like that. Aviation started for me with spotting at EBAW Antwerp - in an era when the place was almost dormant - and the local refueller was legendary, riding his push bike across the apron slower than anybody else could. I always remember him in a dirty red cover-all. He was there and active fifty years ago and passed away only few years ago - in spite of having handled (the equivalent of) thousands and thousands of barrels of AvGas with all that harmful lead in it. His name was Piet, more or less our equivalent for "Pete". They don't make'em like that, today, more's the pity.