Come Fly With Me

Wed, Apr 24th 2019 at 12:50 pm - 2:00 pm

Douglas Jackson invited us to fly with him!

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Douglas Jackson was the Rotary Club of St Andrews lunchtime speaker on Wednesday. Talks can be instructive, some are appeals for funds but this one concerned a series of potential disasters, delivered with humour, one might even say sang-froid. The theme was “Come Fly with me.”

Misadventures included hitting unexpected turbulence, resulting in having coffee all over his suit.

Sometimes, “helpful “ comments from the pilot were themselves cause for concern. After one abortive take-off which at least proved that seatbelts really do work, the pilot quipped “ I’ll try again!”

On another occasion, attempting to land a small plane on a field at Colonsay, the pilot admitted he had never done it before. After a number of unsuccessful passes they returned to Prestwick Airport without landing. As they flew back through thick cloud, Douglas could not help recalling a scene from the film “Airport “ when a small plane collides with a 747.

Once, waiting for a flight from Gatwick to Edinburgh, one delay followed another. First, three passengers failed to show up so their luggage had to be unloaded.

In the course of carrying this out, a loose bolt was found on the tarmac. Engineers were called. A replacement plane was ordered. It didn’t come. Meanwhile, the engineers solved the problem and the original flight was allowed to proceed.

Douglas summarised hie experiences by remarking that, if you were a nervous passenger and he was on the same flight, there was no need to worry.

Angela Fowlis proposed the vote of thanks, saying “Come Fly with me” Not bl**** likely!