PLANE TALK - JIM DAVIS
WING WALKING AND
SKY WRITING
Last month I was bitching that nothing interesting happened for a couple of years and then suddenly there was a string of engine failures. And immediately after that I had some really unusual flights – let me tell you about a couple of them. IT MAY COME AS A SURPRISE to the Gleitch that wonderful aeroplanes and interesting people were around long before the cell phone and words ‘like’, ‘awesome’ and ‘cool’ became part of modern communication. I’m going to be in much trouble for saying that. But toughies. Near the beginning of 1970 the tikkie-box in the Algoa Flying Club rang and an important British voice wanted to know if I could tow a banner. Although I had no idea how to do this I told him it was well within the scope of my capabilities.
He turned out to be one of politician Helen Suzman’s yes men. His job was to wave the October 2021
I should mention that the internet hadn’t been born yet. It was a sort of embryo thing that the military and some universities poked at while it was floundering in its first trimester. This meant that my ignorance on how to tow a banner would remain profound until I had spoken to people who knew what they were doing. And as I couldn’t find anyone who had info on such matters, I had to start from first principles.
I s hould me ntion t hat t he inte r net hadn’ t be e n bor n yet
“Thank you so much, old boy,” he said. “We’ll be in touch.”
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Progressive Party’s flag and make sure the voters flocked in to scrawl their crosses in her box. The Progs were the forerunners of today’s DA.
To this end I recruited my tubby mate, Bernie Marriner, to help me scratch the turnip. Bernie worked for the Ford Motor Company as a rally driver and builder of rally cars. He was good
