Jim Davis - PLANE TALK

THE TYPE HOG

I have just taken off from Plett in my magic little Grob G109B and I’m turning out for a flight along the coast back to my base in George. There’s someone with a very scratchy radio who seems to be calling George from a jackhammer testing ground called ZS-AFA. Interestingly, this establishment claims to be passing Plett at 1,500’ on its way to George. The occasional words that I catch sound almost like Scully’s voice.

THEN IT ALL COMES TOGETHER – my longtime mate is taking a bunch of Germans around the country in a bloody Junkers JU52. Now, this is an excellent aeroplane for building hours – it’s slightly slower than a VW Combi going up a hill in a headwind. As far as I can guess Scully must have around 30,000 hours, so I don’t suppose he’s doing this to build command time. The bugger is just having fun. I tell George that I would like to chat to AFA and they give us a frequency. I ask Scully if he is happy for me to formate on him. He’s delighted and we both take photos of each other. But I am having to use almost full throttle to

keep station, so I ask him to slow down a tad. When you are flying in formation it’s polite for the leader to fly slow enough so the others have scope for a bit of throttle the aerial jockeying. Scully knows this as well as I do, but he pretends equivalent not to understand. “What’s the matter – can’t you keep up with of a piece of old Auntie Ju?” rolling-stock “Come on Scully, be nice man, or I won’t play with you.” “What is that thing anyway?” he asks, because my Grob is the first one in the country. Now I know I have bargaining power – Scully and I are both exceedingly conscientious Type Hogs. I must break off for a moment to explain this to newer pilots.