How I went flying - on my own terms! Thanks for visiting.
This website contains some reminiscences of my own flying over 30+ years as a licenced PPL - hopefully some of the interesting bits! As you may know flying is not all drama and excitement, but there are times....
Also some reflections, mostly just my personal opinions, on aircraft flown and some exciting aircraft, old and new, civilian and military, which I have not flown but would love to!
"There are old pilots and there are bold pilots - but there are no old, bold pilots!"
Usual Disclaimer Goes Here: Whatever I may write here should not and must not be taken as advice or recommendation, and indeed may even be a pack of lies (for the purposes of this disclaimer) - so anyone acting on anything said here does so at his own risk etc,etc,etc,yadda,yadda and so on!
Read on - have fun!
The EAA, Air-Rallying and Formation Flying
Having joined the EAA in 1981 I of course began attending monthly meetings which were held at the Library Hall in Halfway House (Midrand). These often boasted speakers who were known aviation personalities and very entertaining and informative they often were.
Amongst the very memorable evenings was the talk by Georg Peter Eder who served in the Luftwaffe throughout WW2 as a fighter pilot. Eder flew an extraordinary number of 572 combat missions claiming 78 enemy aircraft shot down in total. He was born in 1921 and died in 1986 aged 65. more...
The talk he gave was attended by about 150 members packed into the small hall and was a fascinating account of his time fighting in the air for his country. As he pointed out, Luftwaffe pilots served continuously throughout, without an end to any "tour of duty" or set number of missions to be completed!
Another popular and well-attended talk was given by a fighter pilot on the other side - Urban "Ben" Drew (1924 - 2013) who flew with the USAAF in WW2. He was the first and the only Allied pilot to shoot down two Luftwaffe jet-powered Me 262 aircraft in a single mission while flying a propeller-driven North American P-51 Mustang. more...
At that time, he was based part of each year in SA and ran a charter flight service using DC3 aircraft from Grand Central. I met him several times at the airport and often chatted to him. All I knew at the time, before his talk to EAA Chapter 322 was that he was American and he owned a DC3 parked at the airport and ran charters using it.
Noteworthy about these men with their illustrious WW2 records, was the fact that there was no boastfulness or arrogant self-regard to them at all. Whilst I did not have the opportunity to know Georg Peter Eder well enough other than from one evening attending his talk, Ben Drew in particular had a great sense of humour and was an easy guy to get along with.
From - http://www.airportjournals.com/fighting-the-jet-menace
"Maj. Urban L. Drew in his P-51 Detroit Miss of the 375th FS, 361st FG was the first and only Eighth Air Force pilot to down two Me 262s in one day.
On Oct. 7, 1944, he spotted two jets taxiing out for takeoff from Achmer Aerodrome. He waited until they had lifted off before rolling over and diving. When he came up on the second jet, he scored hits on the wings and fuselage, and noted flames coming out of it as he passed it. He saw it turn into a huge fireball when it crashed, then turned his attention on the first jet to take off.
The first plane, about 500 yards ahead of him, started a fast climbing left turn. Drew cut inside for a deflection shot. After scoring hits on the tail, he pulled back on the control stick to concentrate on the fuselage. The canopy came off and the plane rolled over into an inverted flat spin. He watched it crash into the ground.
Drew said it was over in 30 seconds. When the flak opened up, he got down on the deck, where he had a better chance. His gun camera had jammed, and it was a long time before he got credit for those two jets. Most mystifying to him was how the United States let the Germans get that far ahead of them in aircraft development."
