The Epic Adventures of ATWC003, an Obsessed FS Addict - ATWC V Flight Leg 7

[Andrew Godden 945]

It's funny how life takes so many twists and turns, my own life was a case in point, and I was soon to be reminded of this.  After a few days break exploring Lanzarote, I started to get itchy feet again and my eyes where once again turning skywards.  At GCRR, they have a pilot's club, "The Ready Room" - oh, how cliche and twee, I thought .  Other than being a place to relax and have a drink, it was a good place to pick up contract work.  The unfortunate thing with these places is, you had to put up with the odd buffoon.  Anyway, I decided it was time to see what work might be going.

 

As it turned out, I was in luck.  SATA needed a relief Dash 8 Q400 pilot for a scheduled service from Gran Canaria (GCLP) to Madeira (LPMA) tomorrow afternoon, as the rostered pilot had fallen ill whilst "slipping" in Las Palmas.  A quick phone call and that was sorted.  Now, all I had to do was get to Gran Canaria.  For the moment though, I decided to relax with a scotch and observe my surroundings.  If nothing else, it's often great for a laugh and besides, could provide some additional material for my book.

 

Settling into a quiet corner where I could survey the room and the bar, I reflected briefly on my life and pondered how lucky and fortunate I was.  Having started my professional life in a completely different sphere, it all now seemed a world away - actually, it was, about 10,000 miles away, back down In Australia.  Anyway, you see, I studied medicine and went into psychiatry, basically because I thought I could help people.  Now, I am thankful for the two things it really gave me, the financial backing to pursue my real dream, flying, and an insight into the human mind, a very useful tool, particularly when dealing with idiots.  As they say, "Never argue with an idiot. They will only bring you down to their level and beat you for experience every time."  Funny thing is though, they never teach you that when studying psychiatry.

 

Suddenly, my attention was snapped back to my immediate surroundings, yes, every village has it's idiot and some village had lost theirs because he was here.  This one really stood out though, pompous, arrogant, and totally self absorbed, as he banged on about how good he was, punctuated profusely with "when I did this..." and "when I flew that..." and "when I met him...".  This was looking like excellent material for my book, because whilst he droned on, everyone around him just rolled their eyes - I have never seen so many supercilious grins, and he was completely oblivious to what everyone clearly thought of him.  This could nearly be a chapter on it's own.

 

Anyway, I was distracted from my thoughts when someone approached me and said they heard I might need a lift to Gran Canaria before tomorrow afternoon.  As it was, this guy was a Frenchman who owned a North American T-28D "Trojan" and operated joyrides around the Canary Islands during the summer.  He was heading back to Gran Canaria before packing up and heading home for the winter.  It had been a while since I had been in an old warbird, so after sharing a drink, we decided it was time to leave.  Besides, my French friend said he'd had enough of listening to a guy "...whose head is stuck so far up his own...".  I know what you mean I said, cutting him short.  As we got up to go, I heard the court jester talking about some Australian who had clearly told him a few home truths that he didn't like to hear and as the door closed, the words "...they are a load of Aussie tossers..." faded into the distance.  With a wry smile on my face, I remembered why I left psychiatry behind, some people, fundamentally, just cannot be helped and, therefore, you are wasting your time.  This was a perfect case in point, the sociopath, with strong narcissistic patterns and severe egocentrism, the classic meglomaniac, but today we pamper them by using softer, more politically correct terms, antisocial personality disorder - oh spare me.

 

Well, enough of the long introduction and psychiatry lesson.  The next morning I met François at his beautifully restored T-28D - and canary yellow too.  Rather apt I thought, for where we were.

 

 

François obliged me the front seat ride and after some cockpit familiarisation and checks, we finally turned over the magnificent Wright R-1820 "Cyclone" radial.  After the droning I heard yesterday afternoon, the next hour or so of this kind was going to be a dream.

 

 

 

After settling in and getting the feel of this baby, it was time for some fun.  Oxygen masks on, François told me to take it for a spin - well a roll actually.

 

 

 

 

Anyway, before too long it was all over and I bid François adieu - oh. it's oh so cliche.  That afternoon on board the Q400, we waited for our final passengers to board.

 

 

With doors closed and our clearances received, we were soon taxiing past AirEuropa and Binter on the ramp, to Rwy 03L, while a Spanair A320 landed on 03R.  Finally cleared for take-off, we lined up with the final checks complete.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sometimes, even the ATWC can be mundane and this was just a standard commercial flight with some snapshots for the album.

 

 

 

 

 

But then it was time to begin the descent and deploy the spoilers to keep our speed under control.

 

 

Even after a "go around" for the Air Portugal A320 that was slow to depart, we still disembarked on schedule and on time performance statistics get another boost.

 

 

 

 

 

Cheers

Andrew

[J G 927]

Great story, and well told. Thanks Andrew, I really enjoyed the read.

[allardjd 1,853]

Love that T-28. Keep up the good work, Andrew.

John

[mutley 4,498]

I will have to be careful to watch my P's & Q's around you Oznog, it reminds me of the psychiatrist episode in Fawlty Towers!

 

Really enjoying your adventures