7.30am Oh no! We have to be at Ardmore Airfield by 8!
I tumbled out of bed and grabbed some clothes and hurriedly stuffed laptop, cameras and countless leads into all the wrong cases and made for the front door.
I suggested to Mat I took the 2nd car as I could not stay in Hamilton all week end and to leave the car at the War Bird Museum might be very convenient, especially if I managed to hitch a flight back the same day.
The use of two cars was my first mistake of the day.
8.01am The second was finding, on arrival at the Catalina with crew almost ready for take off, I had left a camera lying on Mat’s front drive! “Mat don’t wait I’ve screwed this bit of fun”. Mat suggested I come back as the inspections were not yet completed.
8.12am A police car comes round the corner in my opposite direction. That was my third mistake. I was unaware they drove with radar detector almost continually in the ON position and pointing in any direction!
8.14am We are in deep conversation, the content of which is confidential.
8.17am I am driving away considering the calibration argument I had once used before in the UK. Too late now for the flight in the 1940s War Bird, made famous for finding Hitler’s pocket battleship, the Bismarck and safely returning to England after 23 hours of continuous flying. I am resigned to working on through the plethora of paper work that was mounting each day for the route to Hong Kong, via the Tasman Sea. At the same time I was trying to run a business and countless court cases, back home, so far away.
8.38am Matt calls to say they have an oil leak in the port engine that had to be fixed. The engine has a double bank of 7 cylinders, radially placed, pushing out around 1200 horse power. The same engine is installed in the DC3. It would take at least half an hour.
8.38.12am I was backing out of the drive leaving my remaining mobile on the kitchen table.......my fourth mistake and I still had not obtained my first cup of tea of the day. My local mobile had been left, the day before, in one of the many yacht chandlers I had visited looking for a suitable immersion suite and other emergency equipment.
10.16am After much engine testing and my being assured my Mae West was really not needed for an internal flight to Hamilton and no, the fact the two flight engineers were left with one small screw in their hand, after battening down the engine cowlings, the Catalina really did not need to be re-weighed.
What a great roar the engines made on magneto checks before take off!