DD_Bongodriver

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Her leather pants please me. A song I like.

I'm afraid due to high demand that's pay per view, it costs me a fortune in baby oil.

He he! OK, I've obviously got stick time in a fair bit but I am still jealous of some of you guys. My Story, as chronologically as I can. My Dad was Chief instructor at his gliding club in Africa and I got rides in a couple with him, mostly a Slingsby T.49 Capstan.(already a pic here) My own first hands on flying was a Gliding course when I was 16 at Kent gliding club, flew the lovely K13. Never solo'd because weather prevented course completion. Between that and the start of my own flying career I fairly regularly flew with my dad in his microlight. a Puma Sprint. Moving on to my commercial pilot course in the early 90's at Manston in Kent, bulk of the course was on the Piper PA28 warrior II and Archer with a section of the course for basic aerobatics in a Cessna 152 aerobat. To complete my training and gain the full Commercial pilot license with multi engine instrument rating I flew the lovely Piper Aztec. wonderful aeroplane. A lack of success securing a job in aviation inspired me to get my instructors rating which I completed at the same flight school, this was done on the Piper PA38 Tomahawk affectionately known as the Trauma chicken. absolutely fantastic spin trainer. Around this time my dad had decided to go back to fixed wing flying but remained in the microlight world and he bought a Murphy Renegade Spirit, an aircraft that is capable of being a full group A light aircraft or a microlight subject to minor modification, as a group A aircraft it is aerobatic but not if in the microlight category. In my fathers hands it was still aerobatic and I admit to being quite naughty too. A job in an airline or commercial operator eluded me for some years but I had some great instructing jobs seasonally to bide my time, first one being with the school I trained at but it ended when the company folded. Mostly the standard fare of flying club aircraft but I can include the Cessna 172 (Fenrir already included a picture of one). for one season I ended up flying the first of my genuine classic vintage types, the quirky but addictive Tiger Moth. and now I can include pictures of aircraft with me actually in them. I ended up back at Manston with TG aviation who also had a Boeing Stearman, an aircraft I will treasure for ever. and I still have access to her. About 8 years from getting my Instructor rating I finally secure my first job with a commercial operator and actually earn some money. Air Atlantique operated a Britten Norman Islander for Coastguard contracts involving surveillance and Search and rescue duty, I got to know the crews quite well as they were based out of the same flying school I was working for at Manston. they gave me a nod that the company were looking to hire...naturally I refused... I also got to fly a Cessna 310 when the Islander was away on maintenance. and did train on a Cessna 402 but never really flew it operationally. during this time I barely ever flew above 200 feet....quite honestly barely over 20 feet...lets put it this way, I nearly hit a dolphin once. Finally the world of Jets beckoned me into their illustrious realm, yes somebody was actually going to pay me quite handsomely to go to Dallas Texas to do a type rating on the fairly new Learjet 40/45 series and subsequently keep paying me to fly out of Biggin Hill and around Europe, North Africa, Iceland the Arctic circle and Russia. it got boring believe it or not and after 5 years me and the jets parted ways. the picture is actually of me hands on. I managed to find a picture on a Dutch spotters site with date stamp to confirm it was me, this is landing at Maastricht. I then got back into the vintage stuff, a Job at Duxford no less and back in the venerable Tiger Moth. this then lead on to her bigger sister the Dragon Rapide. I am in the silver Tiger in the first picture. They then started letting me loose on the AT-16 Harvard mark IIb....crazy fools. I'm closest in this pic in the RCAF scheme, the aircraft has an interesting history both in service and contemporary civilian times and once belonged to Norman Lees. This is not the complete list, other types I have some hours on include: Piper Cubs (do we need a picture?) Bellanca CITABRIA Slingsby T67 Firefly (in USAF service known as the T-3), a very capable aerobat and got an undeserved bad reputation from the Americans for spinning, if you use the correct technique it recovers with no issues. Zlin 526 a Trener master, a very pleasant machine to fly. aerobatics are so easy in this beastie. There are a few others in the log book, mainly one offs. Still no Spitfire....damn you Tom!!!!

Saddened to hear the news. I had to fly a missing man formation for real this season. Bongo