Some exciting tales about Flying.

I was re-reading my ebook and thought some of you might enjoy hearing me talk about my Instructor, Tommy vd Woude. A better instructor one couldn’t wish for, even though he was slightly mad.

“One time he wanted me to fly a C172 somewhere while he and a young student flew the C401 twin. He said "Don't worry, I'll catch you up". After showing me the plane I was to fly, I set off in blissful ignorance. There I was flying along enjoying looking out at the countryside - I just about shat myself as Tommy' 401 shot vertically through the forward windscreen. I could hear the roar of the piston engines as the big Cessna soared above me in a big parabola. 

Another time, we were to fly the Cessna early one morning from Witbank to Rand airport, Johannesburg. As I climbed into the right seat he asked, "Don't you want to fly it Mac ? Jump in the other seat !". As we made our way across the grasslands, I made the mistake of casually asking "Can you see New Largo NDB from that seat?" Suddenly he says, "I have control !" and sweeps the control column like a play thing as we bank well over the vertical, descending as we do. The speed increases dramatically ! Tommy looks out the windscreen and says to me "Just shout out the speeds to me, Mac !" Looking at the 'speedo' I read out "Two ten....two twenty......two thirty...." We kept descending and as we got down to maybe fifty feet and going faster than greased weasel shit, he suddenly banked hard to the left and shouted "There it is Mac, d'ya see it ?" as the New Largo beacon flashed beneath us ! Quickly, everything seemed almost calm as he allowed me to fly thirty feet above the ground and resumed his usual, almost bored laissez-faire position.  

I couldn’t have wished for more - Tommy was brilliant.”

You might be interested in some of Richard Bach's books.  He wrote a lot about flying but also about his "spiritual" philosophy.  Illusions combines both subjects as does Bridge Across Forever.  It's good to read Illusions first because Bridge follows on from it.

http://realityzone-realityzone.blogspot....sions.html

You might be interested in some of Richard Bach's books.  He wrote a lot about flying but also about his "spiritual" philosophy.  Illusions combines both subjects as does Bridge Across Forever.  It's good to read Illusions first because Bridge follows on from it.

http://realityzone-realityzone.blogspot....sions.html

Thanks Brian. I’ve been aware of RB since I read Jonathan Livingstone Seagull many years ago. I read something more recently too, but can’t remember what it was. I really hope that everything we read is retained somewhere outside the brain, as I suspect! 

I was re-reading my ebook and thought some of you might enjoy hearing me talk about my Instructor, Tommy vd Woude. A better instructor one couldn’t wish for, even though he was slightly mad.

“One time he wanted me to fly a C172 somewhere while he and a young student flew the C401 twin. He said "Don't worry, I'll catch you up". After showing me the plane I was to fly, I set off in blissful ignorance. There I was flying along enjoying looking out at the countryside - I just about shat myself as Tommy' 401 shot vertically through the forward windscreen. I could hear the roar of the piston engines as the big Cessna soared above me in a big parabola. 

Another time, we were to fly the Cessna early one morning from Witbank to Rand airport, Johannesburg. As I climbed into the right seat he asked, "Don't you want to fly it Mac ? Jump in the other seat !". As we made our way across the grasslands, I made the mistake of casually asking "Can you see New Largo NDB from that seat?" Suddenly he says, "I have control !" and sweeps the control column like a play thing as we bank well over the vertical, descending as we do. The speed increases dramatically ! Tommy looks out the windscreen and says to me "Just shout out the speeds to me, Mac !" Looking at the 'speedo' I read out "Two ten....two twenty......two thirty...." We kept descending and as we got down to maybe fifty feet and going faster than greased weasel shit, he suddenly banked hard to the left and shouted "There it is Mac, d'ya see it ?" as the New Largo beacon flashed beneath us ! Quickly, everything seemed almost calm as he allowed me to fly thirty feet above the ground and resumed his usual, almost bored laissez-faire position.  

I couldn’t have wished for more - Tommy was brilliant.”

Thanks for that Stan. As a fan of aviation myself, it found it a good wee read!

Thanks for that Stan. As a fan of aviation myself, it found it a good wee read!

Thanks. 

I thought about whether or not to put it on the forum, as it doesn’t have any connection to psi. Then I remembered the thread about ‘The Good Place’ and thought “what the hell”.

Actually, I did put it up on an aviation group called Kiwi Pilots with the following introduction :

“Some gash tales from the past...Some of you may no doubt be horrified, but for me, they were some of the best times of my life.
Here’s to Tommy. ”

I had seven reactions in the form of various icons, mostly likes, and also one comment :

“Brilliant? He sounds like a complete dickhead who should never be allowed near an aeroplane.”

Haha. I can’t disagree... but still do. Tommy might have been reckless, but he can’t have been that reckless, as he survived many tens of thousands of hours of flying, including nursing a Piper Navaho twin hundreds of miles across a desert on one engine. There is a saying about light twins that have engine failures, they say the remaining live engine leads you to the scene of the accident ! Haha

Maybe God favours those who live life to the full?

Tommy lived life at full throttle in those days. As I said in my reply to the comment. If we had died while carrying out a somewhat daft manoeuvre, we’d have died doing what we both loved.

He’s a complicated man, as were/are many of my friends. We trusted in him, maybe foolishly, but the memories I have of that time are so brightly coloured, how could I do anything but love him.






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