An excerpt from his memoirs:-

“By the end of May the Hornet had arrived and Andy and I drove to Northolt to do our first trips. As we turned the corner of the hangar, there was a sleek and beautiful aircraft awaiting us. Andy made a typical remark – “I don’t know about you, Froggie, but I think we should go straight back to London!” We both made our first solos on the type and I was certainly delighted with it. My next trip on it was some weeks later when I went on a visit to Boscombe Down to discuss some Mustang accident problems.”