Robert Prest Book

[Exmil]

Familiarity breeds contempt

I had the fortune to be about 100 yards away from the F4 doing the wheels up roller at Leuchars. Allegedly, experienced front seater was going through evolution of the circuit chat to the back seater and suffered a cognitive failure, forgetting to put the wheels down. The Fletchers took the impact just as said QWI(P) applied the burners. Subsequently took the cable on the short runway and walked away from smoking jet. Should've been in an FG1 with audio AoA instead of FGR2 - would have given him a clue

[kluge]

I met Mr Prest once at an airshow, probably Finningley, in the early '80's.

I was a young 148Sqn ATC member and I remember him promoting his artwork.
A painting of his I remember was of a grey F4 at low level full chat.
I think that he had recently left the RAF.
He very kindly signed a copy of his book for me, which I still have.

I remember him as a very pleasant and polite gentleman who took the time to talk with a young ATC cadet about the RAF.

If he is on PPRUNE, Mr Prest you were a great inspiration. Thank you.

K

[seafuryfan]

I remember the bit about 'Granny' as well. IIRC, the point Mr Prest was trying to make was that he could get his Granny to fly a circuit, but if things started going pear-shaped, 'Granny's' capacity would quickly be found wanting.

A good book, I still have it (with a classic F4 burner take-off on the cover). I wonder what happened to Robert Prest?

[thunderbird7]

Check out 'Carrier Pilot' by Admiral Paul T Gilchrist. Similar vein but a bloody good read ... for a SPAM.