That's interesting I quite liked the old A model 402's. You didn't ever fly a 402A P2-GKF did you? I flew it in Australia as END and she creaked and rattled and always felt like she was just lots of parts in tight formation but I loved flying her. Agree completely about the Bongos.

My first solo machine, Cessna 150, Wycombe Air Centre G-AXDJ was fatally crashed on final to Coventry Airport not long after.

Almost….
 

As a newly minted PPL I bought a C150 from the other side of the country.

i had a really fun day doing a flight home in two legs (1st solo post qualification)save for the weather diversion and unscheduled overnight hotel

The next day flying home I had a full electrical failure whilst near to a large (and I’ll keep it nameless) airport. Mayday transmission after giving the battery a chance to recover light signals, flapless landing, all executed perfectly- I think the plane flew itself.

I thought it would be a little problem…

…for those who don’t know the engine in a C150 directly drives the alternator, the drive shaft had sheared, there was metal in the oil - full overhaul required

the ‘maintenance organisation’ persuaded me that as it was out the air I should have a full tear down inspection of the plane - it was ‘normal’ they said, remember I was inexperienced.

As a result of which it soon resembled a Meccano set - and was then told they didn’t have the skills to put it back together, plus some key parts had been lost/broken

The financially easiest option at this point was to scrap it. In fact it should have been the only option, as many friends said- forget it and go buy another one


it had flown its last flight.





….But I couldn’t bring myself to do that - the plane had seen 40 years of training students, goodness know how many dodgy landings, for it to end up scrapped in a workshop as a reward for landing me safely

in desperation I contacted the previous maintenance organisation, who agreed to collect it on a low loader and put it back together at cost. I could swear that one of the mechanics who collected her (who I later found had looked after her for 20 years) was in tears as he loaded one of the many boxes of parts into the van.

Eight weeks later I had a ‘new’ C150. It had cost four times as much to get back in the air as it did to buy.

the phoenix flew again….


To complete the story - eight years on, I’ve kept it maintained with the original maintainers, given the distance/weather I sometimes fly in at a weekend, leave the keys and train home. One Sunday afternoon a couple of years ago I’d landed and was tying it down in a deserted part of the aerodrome when a chap locking up a Cirrus came up to me, shook my hand and thanked me for what I’d done.

It turned out that he was a previous owner, and my plane was held in high affection by a great many pilots in the region who had trained in or hired her before my period of ownership began.

The story above had reached folklore and he said “on behalf of all of us I’d like to thank you for saving her”

And a wonderful story it is.

My first solo machine was a PA28-161 Warrior in 1983. Several years later, the aircraft was pranged on landing and the pilot tragically killed. Some years further on, the wreck was rebuilt by an operator and used for training again. 25 years to the day since my first solo, I hired the aircraft with a 24 year old instructor and had an hour of nostalgic fun in the training area. (My landing wasn't as good as my first solo!)

No landing is ever as good as your first, though, is it?

My last flight prior to retirement was on a particular A330-300, the same aircraft that I travelled on its maiden delivery flight fromToulouse 12 years earlier and watched on youtube it being sunk off a beach in Turkey as a dive site at just 23 years old.

I never had any emotion about the loss of the airframe, even though it was a sweet machine. The loss of a colleague and the passengers however…