Drop by the forum in between trips and keep meaning to throw my hat in.

Started flying at Skeggie several thousand flying hours ago (1st Sept 1962)and solo’d in G-APKN on 13th Sept after 6hr 15min. Rex Larsen was my mentor and hopefully role model. One of my ‘marks’ left at the airfield was writing the large ‘Pleasure Flights’ sign on the blister hangars facing Butlins.

That was done on a few summer evenings with Dave Guilbert, Ken Harness, a few others and several crates of beer. Scratched out of the corrugated asbestos roof sheets – years before H & S rules! (Anyone have a pic of that still around by the way?)

Was there when the ‘Magnificent Men’ crew were there and did the continuity photography of the aircraft wingtips bolted on to the Gazelle chopper for the ‘air-to-air’ pix, as well as other photo jobs. (Started Eastern Airviews at that time as well).

After Skeg I worked my way up through survey aircraft such as DH Doves, Rapides, Twin Pins, DC 3s, Avro Ansons, Partenavia P68, Lockheed Lodestar, Piper Aztec/Chieftain, Cessna 172/185/310/402/404, Aero Commanders, Pilatus PC6, Beech Travel Air/QueenAir and KingAirs, and finished up in a Citation II before hanging up my (professional) headset. Lost count of the number of countries though.

Those were’t days!