Vet in a Spin Read online

forward.

  "Do you know `~hat he did when those people were driving the car

  away?"

  "No, tell me."

  "He barked, Mr Herriot! Joshua barked!"

  Chapter Ten '~ '~.1, :";; The food was so good at the Wink field flying

  school that it was said that those airmen whose homes were within

  visiting distance wouldn't take a day's leave because they might miss

  some culinary speciality. Difficult to believe, maybe, but I often

  think that few people in wartime Britain fared as well as the handful

  of young men in the scatter of wooden huts on that flat green stretch

  outside Windsor.

  It wasn't as though we had a French chef, either. The cooking was done

  by two grizzled old men civilians who wore cloth caps and smoked pipes

  and went about their business with unsmiling taciturnity.

  It was rumoured that they were two ex-army cooks from the First World

  War, but whatever their origins they were artists. In their hands,

  simple stews and pies assumed a new significance and it was possible to

  rhapsodise even over the perfect flouriness of their potatoes.

  So it was surprising when at lunch time my neighbour on the left drew

  down his spoon pushed away his plate and groaned. We ate on trestle

  tables, sit ting in rows on long forms, and I was right up against the

  young man.

  "What's wrong?" I asked.

  "This apple dumpling is terrific."

  "Ah, it's not the grub." He buried his face in his hands for a few

  seconds then looked at me with tortured eyes.

  "I've been doing circuits and bumps this morning with Rout ledge and

  he's torn the knackers off me all the time, it never stopped."

  Suddenly my own meal lost some of its flavour. I knew just what he

  meant.

  FO Wood ham did the same to me.

  He gave me another despairing glance then stared straight ahead.

  "I know one thing, Jim. I'll never make a bloody pilot."

  His words sent a chill through me. He was voicing the conviction which

  had been gradually growing in me. I never seemed to make any progress

  whatever I did was wrong, and I was losing heart. Like all the others

  I was hoping to be graded pilot, but after every session with FO Wood

  ham the idea of ever flying an aeroplane all on my own seemed more and

  more ludicrous. And I had another date with him at 2 pm.

  He was as quiet and charming as ever when I met him till we got up into

  the sky and the shouting started again.

  "Relax! For heavens sake, relax!" or 'watch your height! Where the

  hell d'you think you're going?" or

  "Didn't I tell you to centralise the stick? Are you bloody deaf or

  something?" And finally, after the first circuit when we juddered to a

  halt on the grass.

  "That was an absolutely bloody ropy landing! Take off again!"

  On the second circuit he fell strangely silent. And though I should

  have felt relieved I found something ominous in the unaccustomed peace.

  It could mean only one thing he had finally given me up as a bad job.

  When we landed he told me to switch off the engine and climbed out of

  the rear cockpit. I was about 752 Vet in a Sp~n to unbuckle my straps

  and follow him when he signalled me to remain in ny seat.

  "Stay where you are," he said.

  "You can take her up now."

  I stared down at him through my goggles.

  "What . . .?"

  "I said take her up."

  "You mean, on my own . . .? Go solo . . .?"

  "Yes, of course. Come and see me in the flight hut after you've landed

  an3 taxied in." He turned and walked away over the green. He didn't

  look back After a few minutes a fitter came over to where I sat

  trembling in my sea' He spat on the turf then looked at me with deep

  distaste.

  "Look, mate," he said.

  "That's a good aircraft you've got there."

  I nodded agreement.

  "Well I don't want it well smashed up, okay?"

  "Okay."

  He gave me a final disgusted glance then went round to the propeller.

  Panic-stricken though I was, I did not forget the cockpit drill which

  had dinned in to me so often. I never thought I'd have to use it in

  earnest but I automatically tested the controls rudder, ailerons and

  elevator. Fuel switch o~q." throttle closed, then switch on, throttle

  slightly open.

  i: ~1 ~ Vet in a Spin "Contact!" I cried. ' The fitter swung the

  propeller and the engine roared. I pushed the throttld full open and

  the Tiger Moth began to bump its way over the grass. As w gathered

  speed I eased the stick forward to lift the tail, then as I pulled it b

  again the bumping stopped and we climbed smoothly into the air with the

  1' dining hut at the end of the airfield fiashing away beneath.

  I was gripped by exhilaration and triumph. The impossible had hap pc I

  was up here on my own, flying, really flying at last. I had been so

  cert ai' failure that the feeling of relief was over-powering. In fact

  it intoxicated mt that for a long time I just sailed along, grinning

  foolishly to myself.

  When I finally came to rny senses I looked down happily over the

  side.

  must be time to turn now, but as I stared downwards cold reality began

  to raU over me in a gather ing flood. I couldn't recognise a thing in

  the great hazy tapestry beneath me. And every thing seemed smaller

  than usual. Dry-mouthq4 I looked at the altimeter. I was well over

  2,000 feet. ii And suddenly it came to me that FO ~loodham's shouts

  had not bee, meaningless; he had been talking sense, giving me good

  advice, and as soon 611 I got up in the air by myself I had ignored it

  all. I hadn't lined myself up on a cloud, I hadn't watched my

  artificial horizon, I hadn't kept an eye on the} altimeter. And I was

  lost.

  It was a terrible feeling, this sense of utter isolation as I

  desperately sc anne.

  the great cheque red landscape for a familiar object. What did you do

  in a cal.

  like this? Soar around southern England till I found some farmer's

  field b.

  enough to land in, then make my own abject way back to Wink field? But

  this way I was going to look the complete fool, and also I'd stand an

  excellent chaa.

  of smashing up that fitter's beloved aeroplane and maybe myself. i;~

  It seemed to me that one way or another I was going to make a name St

  myself. Funny things had happened to some of the other lads many had

  W~ air-sick and vomited in the cockpit, one had gone through a hedge,

  another his first solo had circled the airfield again and again seven

  times he had gd~ round trying to find the courage to land while his

  instructor sweated blood ;~ cursed on the ground. But nobody had

  really got lost like me. Nobody had flo~ q into the blue and returned

  on foot without his aeroplane. ~ ' v visions of my immediate fate were

  reaching horrific proportions and~ ~as hammering uncontrollably when

  far away on my left I spotted;!

  .:] dear familiar bulk of the big stand on Ascot racecourse. Almost

  weeping with joy, I turned towards it and within minutes I was banking