Sunday, March 24, 2013

Never give a pilot a challenge he'll accept, from October 1964



We were 590 hr pilots at the time and the whole thing was illegal, stupid and needless to say, dangerous.

 The low flying limit was 200ft (or above, not below). I would have been court-martialled if the SAAF knew.

 I was the pilot. The 'Pongos' were on a route march from Langebaan by the sea to Saldanha. The previous night in the pub one of them had said: "Julle dink julle kan laag vlieg maar julle sal my nooit laat lê nie" ("You think you can fly low, but you'll never make me lie down").

 Hullo!!! I went to look for them on the beach in the morning and was alone for the one picture.

 I was pulling up to avoid them.

 In the afternoon I had a formation with me and you can see the other a/c behind me. (piloted by van Zyl, Kempen and Perold) A friend by the name of Leon Schnetler (one of the pongos) took the pics.

 The guy that said "Jy sal my nie laat lê nie" ("You won't make me lie down") said afterwards that he was saying to himself as I approached: "Ek sal nie lê nie, ek sal nie lê nie" ("I won't lie down, I won't lie down") and when I had passed he found himself flat on the ground.

Found on http://yuripasholok.livejournal.com/1715104.html

1 comment:

  1. Honestly, it looks like a scene from the movie "Catch 22" Checked the web site it came from but I don't read Russian. Or is it Greece. If indeed these photos were shot in '64 the color is well preserved.

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