Why I became a FID (continued)
In those times , flying jobs were hard to come by, and I was wary about jeopardising my current one but thought nothing to lose, do the interview! I drove my battered old Ford Consul Mk 1 from Goodwood to Gillingham street on a beautiful July morning, and that was the start.
On my interview day, there must have been at least 20 of us hanging around all day. There were unemployed airline pilots, ex RAF, and an Australian bush pilot. I felt least qualified out of the lot. Not only that, I was the last interviewee at 5:00 in the afternoon, having arrived with the rest at nine in the morning. The interview board were Bunny Fuchs, Derek Gipps, Paul Whiteman and Bill Sloman, and it lasted about half an hour. Their eyes lit up when I told them that I learnt to fly in Singapore in the fifties, and used to fly into unmanned jungle airstrips in Malaya to deliver the monthly payroll to remote pineapple plantations, in order to build up my flying hours toward my commercial pilots licence. That must have come as a surprise to them, because it wasn’t in my CV .
It does not embarrass me to say, that when offered the job, I turned it down. Twice. After Bill Sloman’s letter saying that the job was mine, with less than a months notice to give to my employers at Goodwood School Of Flying, with forfeit of that month’s salary. It came as a “bolt out of the blue”, and I was convinced that I had bitten off more than I could chew. My speciality as an advanced flying instructor was teaching aerobatics, which I thought I was going to miss with all the associated social life!
I rang Bill to say that I had changed my mind, having just become engaged, which was true, but Bill wouldn’t have any of it. We talked for half an hour, and I said that I would think it over. My prospective wife wasn’t happy, but I convinced her that it was only a one-year probational contract, which made her soften a bit. My fellow instructors thought it was crazy.
Bill phoned me the next day. Again we talked for best part of an hour and he gently talked me round, putting on the pressure by saying that my airline tickets to Toronto were there in HQ. I learnt later that was a con. I rang him the next day to say not for me, and again, he talked me round.
The following month saw me on the induction course in Cambridge with Bert Conchie , Dave Brown and Ron Ward. We bonded instantly , having been in the RAF myself as an airframe fitter and Bert starting off as an instrument fitter.
Anyway , I went to DHC Toronto full of doubt and trepidation tasked with liaising between DHC and HQ with taking VP-FAP out of mothballs, and the handover of VP-FAM and completing the Twotter/Turbo Beaver conversion courses. At the end of that two weeks in Toronto, all my doubts and uncertainties evaporated and the rest is history. I feel incredibly privileged to have worked with you blokes and the brilliant army engineers, and to have experienced the most rewarding flying in the world, plus of course the gash runs! After FIDS, I had 23 years of mind numbing airline flying before retirement, with only the occasional engine disintegration, depressurisation or landing in 150 metres of freezing fog, to break the monotony.
Dave Rowley – Pilot – BAS Air Unit – 1969 to 1974