A Little Night Music

Jim Davis has a passion for instructing. He has been training civil and military pilots, in the air and on the ground for 50 years. His other passion is writing, which he studied at Curtin University in Perth. You can see, and buy, his two pilot text books PPL and Flight Tests at www.jimdavis.com.au

Had you been on the south-east coast of Africa hoping for ideal night flying conditions you would have noticed that the last day of April 1968 produced just what was needed. The gods smiled upon me and my tubby buddy, Bernie. This was particularly kind of them because they seemed to have diarised that week for throwing some pretty unpleasant stuff at aviation around the globe.

Just two days earlier a Beech Queen Air crashed and burned in Texas, killing all seven of the Lamar Tech track team and the pilot.

Then the next day a Pakistan Air Force Lockheed L-100 Hercules broke up in turbulence and crashed near Chaklala, killing all 22 people on board. And three days later a Braniff Lockheed Electra Flight 352 broke up in mid-air after flying into a thunderstorm. It crashed near Dawson, Texas, killing all 85 people on board.

So you might think is was not