I can not remember the year!
The IRA were still around, and as we aimed to hire this airplane on a Friday and return it on a Monday this gave us a large headache, one of my friends was/is called Dougan - due to his surname when we turned up at Coventry airport to collect our plane, so did M15 or MI6, not sure which it was, they just flashed a badge and interviewed each of us, they wanted to make sure Mr Dougan was not a terrorist trying to get back in Ireland via the isle of man. By the time these assholes finished we had missed our flight slot, as the pilot although he had a private pilots license, he had not completed the night time flight part, so we were grounded for the day!
We returned Saturday and took our seats, I was in the front with the pilot Vanden, my two besties were in the back, both V and myself had headphones with a mic to be able to speak to each other, the two in the back just had engine noise.
This whole flying thing only cost us £115 each as you only pay for the time the plane is flying, not whilst it is parked.
That is V the pilot, my friend of now 30 years.
I am the vertically challenged one in the middle, on the left is John and the right is Mr Dougan the not so terrorist.
So we were ready for take off, V wound up the single prop engine and headed down the runway, I honestly thought this thing was never going to take off as we were going so slow, then up she went, and us with it.
As we headed for waters or sea, V noticed a few things not working in this jalopy, one being the transponder that sort of determines where you are, the other being 1 fuel gauge, there was 1 tank in each wing, he had noted all this before take off. He mentioned we would use the tank with the working gauge first, and so it was.
As we headed out over the ocean, V asked me if I wanted to fly this thing, of course I said yes, so he let me take control after pointing out the artificial horizon instrumentation and told me to keep the plane in the middle of the dial level with the two marks either side.
It was easier than driving a car or riding a motorbike (note I did not land it). After around 20 minutes or so V took back control, telling me I had gone around 20 miles off line, no worries he said, we have plenty of fuel.
Now I have no idea how long we had been flying by now, though the fuel gauge was reading very low, so V decided to switch tanks, this gave me a great idea!
The plan!
Now these two guys in the back really are and were my best friends, we had been through way too much to mention on here together, and all came out alive. So I knew they could take a joke, and almost anything life threw at them.
With this in mind, and safe in the knowledge they could not hear my conversation with V, I asked V to throttle off and put the plane into a dive, head first towards the sea, only though after I had pointed out to the guys in the rear, that both fuel gauges were reading empty!
And so it was, it all went quiet and we went free fall nose first down, it was quite amazing to feel this old plane actually pulling some negative G's, I had to fight it a little to turn around and look at my friends, John the big guy had turned a sort of purple colour, Dave though shouted last one to swim to the island buys the beer, and that in a nutshell was/is Dave Dougan, always the joker, even in the face of death!
After we throttled back on and pulled up, I burst out laughing whilst looking behind, I nearly got knocked out as a punch from John glanced on by, before he regained composure and burst out laughing also. Here is Johns ugly mug right after.
We landed safely at Douglass airport and took in the TT races for free, it was the best road race event I have ever had the pleasure to visit.
I still meet up with Dave in various places around the world.
Dave is very much like me, he even sold a house just to come and live in Thailand for a few years when he found out I was over there, we hired the fastest motorbikes we could find, and would get drunk and have a race around Pattaya on some of the most lethal roads you could imagine, that's my Dave. (note he never won) as he is a lot heavier than me, not to mention his riding skills are not the best, he won't mind me saying that, he is honest and admits it, so the drinks were always on Dave in Thailand, that's my boy, drinks being free!
Just another memory down on the block, have a superb day ahead.
Image CC0 pixabay.